To switch things up, you can swap this cut of pork for boneless chicken breasts and follow the steps below.
How to Make It
Ready to cook? Here’s how to make Seven Sons’ golden pork schnitzel step by step:
- Tenderize your pork chops: Pound the pork chops with a meat tenderizer until they’re about 1/4 inch thick. Then, season each cutlet with garlic salt, paprika, and pepper.
- Prepare your coating: Take out three separate bowls. Fill one with flour, cayenne, and nutmeg, another with the beaten eggs, and the last with the breadcrumbs. Season each dish with a bit of salt and pepper.
- Coat the cutlets: Dredge each cutlet in flour, on both sides, followed by the eggs and breadcrumbs. Place on a baking tray until you’ve prepared every cutlet.
- Fry the pork chops: Fill your skillet with enough oil so that your pork cutlets float without touching the bottom of the pan. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Once it’s sizzling, add two to three cutlets (depending on the size of your pan) and cook for three minutes on each side or until golden, then put on a plate to rest.
- Serve: Serve your cutlets with sliced lemon wedges, thyme, and your chosen side dishes.
What’s a Good Side Dish for Schnitzel?
Pork and chicken schnitzel are traditionally served alongside potatoes and vegetables for a hearty meal or a zingy summer salad for a lighter one.
Almost any type of potato works with pork schnitzel, but our favorites are red-skinned potato salad or buttery mashed potatoes. The creamy, soft texture of these sides wonderfully complements the crunch of the pork schnitzel.
You can use whatever you have in the fridge or freezer for vegetables! Steamed green beans, oven-roasted broccoli, glazed carrots, or coleslaw all pair fantastically with pork schnitzel.
While we’ve suggested a squeeze of lemon as the finishing touch in this recipe, you can also try a range of sauces. In Germany, for example, they often serve pork schnitzel with a rich mushroom gravy. This dish is known as hunter’s schnitzel. Creamy mustard sauce or tartar sauce are also delicious options!
Schnitzel: Is Pork or Veal Better?
If you’re a schnitzel fan, you’ll know that this dish comes in many different forms, including chicken schnitzel (hänchen-schnitzel) and, more traditionally, veal schnitzel (wiener-schnitzel).
While veal could be considered the more ‘authentic’ meat cut to go for, it’s also far less ethical and sustainable.
Veal, after all, is meat produced from young calves. Consumers who value ethically sourced meat tend to avoid veal altogether. To produce this meat at scale and speed, industrial farming operators take calves away from their mothers far too young, and then house them in small crates with little room to move.
As a result, the calves don’t get the opportunity to exercise, which is crucial for normal bone and muscle development.
The poor hygiene within the crates, combined with the lack of social interaction, makes their short lives very distressing, and they’re typically pumped with antibiotics to prevent the spread of disease.
For the consumer, this means the quality of meat is terrible: dry, bland, and low in essential nutrients.
By contrast, when you purchase pasture-raised heritage pork, you know you’re making an ethical and sustainable choice. Our hogs are raised on open green pastures using regenerative grazing practices, giving them plenty of room to roam and play.
Because our hogs' lives are low-stress and sustainable, we never have to use GMOs, antibiotics, or growth promotants, which harm the nutritional profile of the meat.
The result is a difference you can instantly see and taste. Our sustainable pork is rich in flavor, marbling, and tenderness, making it the perfect meat for a pork schnitzel.
Expert Tips & Tricks
Here are some must-know tips to help you make the tastiest, crispiest pork schnitzel possible:
- No meat mallet? No problem. You can use a rolling pin or the bottom of a skillet pan to tenderize your pork chops.
- You want your oil piping hot before you put the pork chops in–otherwise, they could go soggy. Test your oil by dropping a tiny piece of panko into the skillet. The coating will immediately sizzle and rise to the top if it's hot enough.
- While you may want to cook all your pork chops at once, slow and steady wins the race. Overcrowding the pan will compromise the crispiness of your cutlets, so aim for two to three cutlets per batch.
- You can bake pork schnitzel in the oven for 15 minutes on a lightly greased baking tray for a lighter option.
Let’s Get Cooking!
Ready to put our delicious pork schnitzel recipe to the test? Then, order your heritage pork chops today!
As always, we love to hear your feedback. So, once you’ve made this recipe, let us know what you think in the comments below!
