Recipes from the Homeland
I have a really simple go-to recipe that has saved my butt countless times.
I used to help my mom with this dish when I was younger. It’s really easy, doesn’t require many ingredients, and can be prepared using a variety of meats! The top image, for instance, is made from either ground beef or ground turkey while the bottom image is a pork cutlet. I’ll be sharing my two favorites below :)
1 lb ground turkey, 2-3 eggs, breadcrumbs (I use “Italian” because it’s more flavorful, but plain should work too), and your preferred cooking oil (I use olive oil)
Roll chunks of ground turkey into balls, and flatten them a little like in the first picture. When flattened, the kotlet should be a little smaller than the size of your palm.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs. On a separate plate, have a small pile of bread crumbs ready.
Coat each kotlet in eggs and then roll in breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs should stick really well to them. If they’re not, you didn’t coat the kotlety in eggs fully enough. Also, make sure the breadcrumbs are completely covering the surface of each kotlet.
With the stove at med-high, pour about 1.5 tbsp of cooking oil (or at least a decent glob of oil) on a medium sized frying pan. After the pan heats up, you can start cooking your kotlety!
Cook each side for about 5 minutes, turning them with a spatula. If you notice that the outside is cooking quickly, reduce your heat. These taste best when they’re a medium brown color, so we want them cooking at a heat that doesn’t burn the outside and cooks the inside throughly! You can check to see if the meat is fully cooked by cutting the fattest kotlet in half with your spatula.
Once done, serve with mashed potatoes, tomatoes, peas and carrots, or kapusta! :D
**These are very similar to the above recipe, so everything but the first step is the same.
1 lb chicken breast, 2-3 eggs, breadcrumbs, your preferred cooking oil
Take each chicken breast and tenderize with a meat tenderizer (funny enough, I don’t own one of those yet, so I use a real hammer). You want the thickness of these to be at about a half-inch. Pro tip: if you cover the meat with a sheet plastic wrap, the juices won’t squirt everywhere and there will be less clean up for you!
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs. On a separate plate, have a small pile of bread crumbs ready.
Coat each kotlet in eggs and then roll in breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs should stick really well to them. If they’re not, you didn’t coat the kotlety in eggs fully enough. Also, make sure the breadcrumbs are completely covering the surface of each kotlet.
With the stove at med-high, pour about 1.5 tbsp of cooking oil (or at least a decent glob of oil) on a medium sized frying pan. After the pan heats up, you can start cooking your kotlety!
Cook each side for about 5 minutes, turning them with a spatula. If you notice that the outside is cooking quickly, reduce your heat. These taste best when they’re a medium brown color, so we want them cooking at a heat that doesn’t burn the outside and cooks the inside throughly! You can check to see if the meat is fully cooked by cutting the fattest kotlet in half with your spatula.
Once done, best served with mashed potatoes, tomatoes, peas and carrots, or kapusta (sauerkraut)! :D
Like I said, a very simple and tasty meat dish! It’s done in 20 minutes or less, and clean up isn’t so bad. You may want to soak the dish used for breadcrumbs, though, so they’re easier to scrub off later! :)
