Just Wild About Schnitzel

I know you are probably wondering, "OFG, just what are you doing with all those turkeys?" Well, let me tell you. The Great Turkey Harvest of 2013 rolls on.

These turkeys are pretty darn big.

It's working really well to do a couple turkeys a day, let them rest in our beer fridge over nite, then I part them up the next day. We are down to 8 and hopefully by the end of the weekend it will be more like 4 or 5. We'll see how it goes.

While it's a certainty we won't be having turkey for Thanksgiving, we are enjoying turkey. A lot. As in we are greatly enjoying it and we are enjoying it in great quantities. Mostly, to me anyway, turkey is really versatile. Sure if you season it with poultry seasoning and cook it with butter it will taste like the most soon-to-be-forgotten holiday.... but you can do lots of other things with turkey. I'm kind of surprised that it's not more popular thru the year.

Note: the lighting in my house right now in horrid. I did the best I could. 

Right now we are on a meatball bender and a schnitzel tirade. Traditionally schnitzel is really just a cutlet, generally pounded flat as a pancake, then dipped in egg/milk, floured, then fried. It's tremendous and we are lovin' us some schnitzel.

It's extremely easy to make. I cut the turkey breast into cutlets and then get out a heavy cleaver. Sure you can use a meat mallet or a small fry pan, but my big ol' Japanese cleaver gets it done. Slap your meat between some plastic wrap and smack it flat. It's a lot of fun.

Then I let the flattened cutlets float around in some milk seasoned with some salt, pepper, and a little paprika. Put a little flour and/or some bread crumbs on a plate and then flip and flop the cutlets to coat.

I love this antique cast iron skillet....and chicken fat. I love to cook with chicken fat.

Meanwhile heat up your favorite pan and some chicken fat. Chicken fat? Sure! Why not? We still have some from when I rendered it out as chicken lard. And it gives a wonderful flavor. I could be mistaken but I believe it has a fairly high smoke point, based on results. Make sure you have enough to fill the bottom of your fry pan.

When the oil is hot, place the cutlets in the pan carefully and let them brown up nicely, turning once. At this point I usually turn on the oven to 400*. When the cutlets are done - browned on both sides - I put them in the oven to finish cooking and to keep them hot. They are done when the juices run clear. Depending on the size of your schnitzel this could be just a few minutes or 15.

These are really small cutlets. They were for lunch.

At this point you can enjoy all that schnitzel-y goodness as is.. or pour out the fat from your fry pan, keeping a couple tablespoons or so,  add some flour to the remaining fat and cooking it for a minute, then add some milk, and make yourself some gravy.

See? Wasn't that easy?

Hopefully you have as many potatoes as I do - and have them all mashed up and lovely. Then just fill your plate with schnitzel, potatoes, and gravy and watch all of your cares disappear.

This is one of our favorite farm meals. It can be done in about 30 minutes and requires very little effort. Why wouldn't you give this a try?

Happy Friday everyone! Are you making schnitzel?