How to Make Scott’s Pork Schnitzel

Have you EVER seen a pork schnitzel this big? 😲 Scott Conant showed us his take on the classic recipe he learned in Germany!

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Pork Schnitzel
Recipe courtesy of Scott Conant
Level: Intermediate
Total: 40 min
Active: 40 min
Yield: 6 servings

In 1992, I left the States for an internship not in Italy, but in Germany, at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. I knew nothing about Germany or German cooking, but the internship paid, and I figured it was closer to Italy than New York was. It was a challenging—and fascinating—time to be in Germany (the Berlin Wall had come down just two years before), and the restaurant kitchen was a microcosm of the era, a real melting pot of tensions and grievances and the uneasiness of change. (Not that there weren’t moments of levity—like the time Michael Jackson came in to eat and we had to figure out what to cook for his pet monkey.) It was an eye-opening experience, both culturally and culinarily, for me—the food I was introduced to there wasn’t the food I had dreamed of cooking, but it had soul and lacked pretention, which appealed to me. Plus, there was schnitzel. I’m a big fan of meat cutlets of any kind, and schnitzel is no exception. Personally, I like the texture of cornstarch more than flour, so that’s what I dredge my schnitzel in. This recipe also works with chicken; when I do that, I use the meat of skinless, boneless chicken thighs, which I think have so much more flavor than chicken breasts.

Ingredients
3 cups (240 grams) panko
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus 10 whole leaves
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano
1/4 cup (25 grams) finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
6 (7-ounce/200-gram) pork loins
4 large eggs
1 to 2 teaspoons finely chopped Calabrian chile
1 cup (130 grams) cornstarch
Kosher salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 to 120 milliliters) extra-virgin olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
6 sprigs rosemary
6 slices lemon, plus lemon wedges for serving
12 fresh basil leaves, torn
Spaetzle, or grain of your choice, for serving was schnitzel

Directions

Combine the panko, chopped parsley, chopped oregano, and cheese in a bowl and set aside. If your pork loins are on the bone, remove the loins from the bones. Then remove and discard the silver skin.

Place each loin between two pieces of plastic wrap and, using the spiky side of a meat mallet, pound out the meat firmly but gently, on both sides, rotating the meat as you go, until each loin is about 3/8 inch (1 centimeter) thick.

Put the eggs and the Calabrian chile in a bowl that will be large enough to dip each loin into and mix well with a fork. Spread the cornstarch on a baking sheet and spread the panko mixture on a second baking sheet.

Sprinkle salt on both sides of each pork loin, then place one piece of meat in the cornstarch, coating both sides. Shake off the excess starch.

Dip the loin into the egg mixture, making sure all the cornstarch is covered by the beaten egg, then shake off the excess liquid. Place the loin on the breadcrumb mix and cover the top with more crumbs, then, using the palm of your hands, push the panko mixture deeper into the loin with a fair amount of force. (If you place the breadcrumbs too lightly, they will fall off during frying.) Repeat with the remaining 5 loins.

Line a cookie sheet with paper towels and set near the stove. In a pan, add enough of the oil to go about halfway up the pounded meat and heat over medium. Place two of the breaded pork loins into the pan. Fry for 4 to 6 minutes, then flip to cook the schnitzel on the other side. (The cooked side should be golden brown when you turn it over.) Add about 1 tablespoon butter and some of the smashed garlic, parsley leaves, rosemary sprigs, lemon slices, and basil leaves and sauté. Once the schnitzel is golden brown on both sides, another 2 minutes, remove from the pan and place on the paper towel–lined cookie sheet, and place the aromatics on top of the schnitzel. Discard the cooked oil and herbs then repeat until all the schnitzels have been fried.

Serve immediately with spaetzle and lemon wedges.

Adapted from Peace, Love, and Pasta by Scott Contant, published by Abrams. Text copyright © 2021 by Scott Conant. Photo copyright © 2021 by Ken Goodman.

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