This chicken cutlet recipe is so tasty and simple, a quick and easy meal that tastes like more than the sum of its parts! Make lightly breaded chops with a simple mix of flour and spices, then pan fry them until golden.
Funnily enough, even though we’re cookbook authors, we’re also often confused about what to make for dinner. Here are our latest favorite answers to “What’s for dinner?” – this easy recipe for chicken cutlets!
It takes no time at all to whip up and is beyond tasty, coat the thin chicken cutlets in a light breading with salty spices. Throw it in a frying pan and fry it until golden, and there’s something both nostalgic and sophisticated about this simple meal. We took one bite and immediately knew this recipe was a keeper in the top easy dinner side file (aka note on our phones!).
Ingredients for this chicken cutlet recipe
Chicken cutlets are our favorite way to roast chicken. Cutting a chicken breast in half (or “summer floating” the breast) does two things: It results in a beautifully browned cutlet with tender, juicy interior, and it allows for a faster cooking time! With the light breading in this recipe, it comes together for restaurant-quality flavor in minutes. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Chicken cutlets (or chicken breast): Look for chicken cutlets or boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and buy organic chicken if at all possible. If you’ve made our other chicken recipes, you’ll know that you can butterfly the chicken first if you buy breasts.
- Olive oil: Olive oil is our favorite cooking oil for chicken, but you can use any neutral oil or even melted butter.
- Spices: A custom blend of garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika and dried oregano gives chicken breast a big, tasty flavor.
- Flour: Just a little flour helps to coat the outside and make it slightly crispy. (Don’t expect it to be extremely crispy: it’s not deep-fried!) Substitute gluten-free flour if desired.
How to make chicken cutlets (aka butterfly)
If you start with a chicken breast for this recipe, you can make chicken cutlets by butterflying the chicken yourself. It’s quick and easy and makes a huge difference when it comes to cooking chicken. Here’s what you need to do to butterfly a chicken breast:
Step 1: Place your hand over the top of the chicken breast. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the breast horizontally, leaving the edge intact so it can open like a book.
Step 2: Unfold the chicken breast, then cut along the fold to separate the two halves (each half is a cutlet).
Step 3: The chicken is ready to use in the recipe! If desired, you can tap it with a hammer to make it more tender, but we think that step is unnecessary here.
Side dish ideas to make it a meal
This chicken cutlet recipe comes together so quickly that we like to serve it with light side dishes for a quick dinner. Here are a few of our best ideas:
- Broccoli: Make it with sautéed broccoli, boiled broccoli (we make this all the time!) or roasted broccoli. It’s even more sophisticated with roasted broccolini,
- Peas: Try this 5-minute recipe for peas.
- Whole grains: Pair these chicken cutlets with lemon rice, orzo, couscous, farro or quinoa.
- Grain salad: Get more advanced and add something like quinoa salad, orzo salad or lentil salad.
- Green salad: Mix simple arugula salad or kale slaw, or pair with apple fennel salad, chopped salad or endive salad.
A few sauce ideas
Last thing: these chicken cutlets are great with a sauce! Try tangy mustard sauce, creamy yogurt sauce, hummus dressing or white BBQ sauce.
Diet notes
This chicken cutlet recipe is a Mediterranean diet recipe that is dairy free. It is also gluten-free with gluten-free flour.
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Easy Chicken Cutlets
This chicken cutlet recipe is so tasty and simple, a quick and easy meal that tastes like more than the sum of its parts! Make lightly breaded chops with a simple mix of flour and spices, then pan fry them until golden.
- Preparation time: 10 minutes
- Rest time: 5 minutes
- Preparation time: 6 minutes
- Total time: 21 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main course
- Method: Stove
- Kitchen: Chicken
- ½ cup all-purpose flour (or gluten-free flour)
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 pound of chicken cutlets (or 2 chicken breast, the butterfly to make 4 cutlets; see notes)
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- In a shallow bowl, stir flour, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and oregano together. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and sprinkle both sides with kosher salt. Dip both sides of the chicken cutlets in the flour mixture.
- In a medium-sized frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, turning with tongs, until browned and the internal temperature reaches 165°F [75°C] measured at the thickest point. Remove the chops to a plate. Rest 5 minutes, then serve. Leftovers are stored for up to 3 days in the fridge.
A few more of our best chicken dinner recipes
If you liked this chicken cutlet recipe, try more of our favorite chicken dinner ideas! This Instant Pot Shredded Chicken and Chicken Thighs are lifesavers for everyday meals. These Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs are full of bold flavors and French Onion Chicken is fun as a dinner party idea.
