- What up you guys?
Chef Billy Parisi here
from BillyParisi.com,
and I've got the absolute,
most perfect weeknight meal
for friends, family, whoever,
and it's called Chicken Milanese.
If you've been following
me for a little bit,
you know that I'm on this journey
to sort of find the authenticity
of a lot of these original recipes
that were created 200, 300 years ago
and this Chicken Milanese is no different.
Milanese or a la Milanese
obviously comes from
the northern part of Italy, in Milan,
and sort of just means
in the style of Milan.
So what we have here is a Chicken Milanese
and there are several
different ways to do this
or should I say proteins
to use to make this.
I've seen veal, I actually
have a recipe for pork
that I've done before, you can use steak.
In this instance, we're gonna use chicken.
And guess what, it's way easier
than maybe you even thought.
Of course, that's the way it's always been
for all these recipes that
I've been researching.
Things are way more simple,
way simpler, more simple,
I don't know what it is,
but it's just easier.
So what we're gonna do first
is get our hands dirty.
I'm always about knocking
out the hardest prep first,
and then getting to everything else
and kind of make it easier
so the cooking process
is incredibly simple.
First thing we need to do is
pound out some chicken cutlets.
A chicken cutlet is
essentially a chicken breast
that is cut in half
and it's nice and thin,
but we are gonna pound
it out a little bit more.
On a cutting board that has
a ton of plastic wrap on it,
what we're gonna do is
set a chicken cutlet
right into the center.
We next wanna fold over the plastic wrap,
or you can lay another piece on it,
and using a mallet we
want to pound it down
until it's about a
quarter of an inch thick.
It is extremely thin,
but it will cook fast.
This is just the best way
to do it, so pound it out.
And because I've got a few different
chicken breast cutlets here,
I'm gonna sort of lay them out
on sheet pans that have parchment paper,
and we'll sort of just
layer them up as they go.
I don't wanna overcrowd it because,
well, I'll show you in a little bit.
Once the chicken is
completely pounded out,
let's go ahead and set it to the side.
Now, we're getting towards Spring,
so I'm thinking Chicken Milanese,
we're gonna serve a nice light salad.
Arugula, it's in season, it's
gonna be absolutely delicious.
The little prep that we need to do for it
is slice up some cherry tomatoes.
I got some assorted
tomatoes here for colors,
orange, yellow, red.
And then next we're gonna thinly slice up
a peeled red onion.
Go ahead and set both
of those to the side.
And now to make a vinaigrette.
This is super easy,
three ingredients here.
We are going to squeeze in a fresh lemon,
get all that wonderful juice out of there.
Next, we're gonna add in some honey
for just a touch of sweetness.
We simply finish it off by whisking in
some extra virgin olive oil.
That's it, three ingredients.
It is so light, so refreshing,
you are gonna love this
vinaigrette, I promise you.
Now, what we wanna do is go back
and bread up our Chicken Milanese.
So when doing my research
for Chicken Milanese,
I saw a lot of people put
parmesan in their bread crumbs.
Could not find that in
the original versions
that I was able to research and pull up.
It's great to add at the
end, but not necessary
and not authentic to the original recipe
as how it was intended,
not because everyone
just has parmesan cheese
that we'll just throw in our breading.
It didn't really work like that.
Again, you have to remember,
this is peasant food.
What's available, what's lying around,
some old crusty bread
that we can just pound up
and make it into nice little flakes,
and then bread something with.
That's exactly what happened.
And in fact, they didn't even use flour
before dredging in the eggs
and then into the bread crumbs,
but the culinary side of me
needs to do the standard
breading procedure.
This is how I was taught.
So what we're gonna do
is line up three pans.
You can use bowls or
plates, totally up to you.
In the first one, I'm going to add in
some all-purpose flour.
I'm going to season it
with salt and pepper,
mix it together very well.
You can even taste a little bit
just to make sure it's seasoned.
Now in the next pan, I'm
going to add in some eggs.
You also wanna season this with salt.
Whisk this together until
it is completely combined.
Think you're making scrambled eggs here.
In the last pan, I've
got some bread crumbs.
You can make these homemade
or just get a simple
kind of traditional
family-style bread crumb
that you can get from the grocery store.
We're also going to season this with salt.
Go ahead and give it a nice mix.
And now we're gonna get ready.
If you noticed, I seasoned
everything along the way
because it should be
seasoned along the way.
Everything should taste great.
It's not gonna be over salty.
We didn't salt the heck out of everything.
We lightly seasoned everything
so that it's gonna taste
wonderful at the end.
And now we need to season
the chicken breasts as well.
So on that pounded out chicken,
we're gonna season it
up with some sea salt.
Next with some fresh cracked black pepper.
And now let it begin.
I'm gonna put some gloves
on, just like I did before
when pounding out the chicken.
Go ahead and add one
of the chicken cutlets
right to the flour, make
sure it's completely coated,
pat it if you need to.
Add it over to the egg wash mixture.
Again, just like the flour,
make sure it's completely
coated on both sides,
move it around, 'cause if
it's not completely coated,
the bread crumbs won't stick.
So go over to the bread crumbs.
I sort of like to push it down in there
and add a bunch of the
bread crumbs over top,
just moving it around and press it down.
Get those bread crumbs really
incorporated into the chicken,
and then just like before,
I like to set it to the side
on a sheet tray or just the table,
stacked and lined with parchment paper
until it is completely finished.
At this point, once all
your chicken is breaded up,
it's gonna look amazing, we're
going over to the cooktop.
I've got an extremely large pan.
What we need to do is add in
some extra virgin olive oil.
As soon as it begins to lightly smoke,
which is around 350 degrees,
we are going to add in our chicken.
I'm gonna turn the heat
down just a little bit
to make sure it doesn't burn.
This will literally cook for maybe
three to four minutes per side.
Again, the chicken is extremely thin.
You want that perfect
golden brown on all sides.
That's what gives it that extra crisp,
that flavor, that color.
It's the only way to do this.
Once they are brown, I like to set them
on some paper towels to sort of drain off
any excess oil that we don't want.
Once they are fried up, let's go back over
to wherever you're plating this thing up.
I like to serve it up on a nice platter.
Go ahead and layer up all those beautiful
fried Chicken Milanese, eight cutlets.
And for garnish, a very
simple chopped parsley.
Now to serve it up alongside the salad,
go ahead and add one of the fried
chicken cutlet Milanese right to a plate.
Next I'm gonna add on some arugula,
got some micro greens
I'm gonna hit it with.
Next we're gonna add on some
of those sliced tomatoes,
followed up by the
onions we thinly sliced.
We're gonna add on some
shaved parmesan cheese.
This is where the parmesan comes in,
not in the bread crumbs.
And then last but not least,
you just wanna drizzle
on a little bit of that lemon vinaigrette,
(smacks lips) done, let's try it out.
You guys, this looks incredible.
It smells amazing in here.
My wife actually stopped by
the studio and snagged one,
said she loved it, "You better
bring all of this home."
Let's try it out to make
sure it's good, too.
Maybe a little salad on there.
Mm, mm, mm.
Dude, that is so good!
Mm, mm, mm, perfectly seasoned.
That light lemon
vinaigrette, ooh, ooh, ooh!
So good.
Not wasting any more time.
Come back next week, you know the drill.
I'm gonna have something sweet.
See y'all later.
