Hunter Schnitzel – German Jägerschnitzel

Welcome to another Where Is My Spoon little series, this time featuring Schnitzel, a staple in German cooking, something you would find in every restaurant in Germany, well maybe not in an Asian or vegetarian restaurant, but otherwise pretty much everywhere.

And the first recipe is a German classic: Jägerschnitzel or Hunter Schnitzel, which is a pork schnitzel cooked in the typical way and eaten with a particularly delicious mushroom sauce. And fries, never forget the fries!

I do like a good schnitzel, but to tell you the truth, I’ve never made schnitzel myself very often before. I eat it every now and then in a restaurant or at a party, but have always thought it to be too much trouble to make at home. So many different pots that get dirty and then the stove cleaning after cooking… And I am also not a big fan of frying things.

But my son said one day he would like to eat schnitzel, so I thought, why not? Let’s do schnitzel. While looking for a recipe for this sauce, I found so many related recipes that I thought I’d love to try and I knew this could turn into a series. And it did. We did overdid it with eating schnitzel during the past 6 weeks, but trust me, nobody complained. Actually I am pretty much sure they were all happy with me cooking something “normal” and meaty for a change….

What I personally liked most about this recipe was the sauce, absolutely my thing. I could imagine eating it not only with schnitzel but as a ragout with boiled potatoes or on top of rice or pasta. You might want to at least double the ingredients in that case. And after frying the schnitzel, I had no intention whatsoever in frying potatoes as well (I never do anyway), so we served this with oven potatoes. And some salad.

The meat used to make schnitzel is actually called schnitzel in Germany. I made some research and found out that the meat necessary to make schnitzel is called boneless pork chops in America. I used clarified butter (Butterschmalz) to fry the schnitzel, but you can use vegetable oil instead.

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Hunter Schnitzel – German Jägerschnitzel

Rating  5.0 from 2 reviews

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  20 mins

Total time:  40 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 pork schnitzel (boneless pork chops)
• 2-3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 4-5 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs (more if necessary)
• 500 g/ about 1 pound mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 30 g/ 1 oz bacon, small cubes
• 1 small onion
• 125 ml/ ½ cup vegetable broth
• 125 ml/ ½ cup single or double cream
• 3 sprigs thyme
• a small bunch parsley
• vegetable oil
• salt and pepper
• lemon slices to serve
• oven fries to serve
• green salad to serve

Instructions

1. Wash and dry the schnitzel. Pound between two sheet of plastic foil using a meat tenderizer or (as I did) a not very large but heavy pan. The schnitzel should be about 6 mm/ ¼ inch thick after pounding.
2. Sprinkle them generously with salt and pepper on both sides. Place the flour and the dry breadcrumbs in two separate, rather large plates. Beat the eggs lightly in a shallow, wide bowl.
3. Start making the sauce now. Clean and cut the mushrooms in halves or quarters, depending on size.
4. Heat the butter in a pan and fry the mushrooms on medium-high heat for about 3 minutes or until they start releasing their juices. Remove from the pan.
5. Heat the oil in the same pan and cook the bacon cubes and the chopped onion until the onions are soft and golden. Return the mushrooms to the pan, add the vegetable broth, the cream and the thyme leaves.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste, bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 -15 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle the chopped parsley on top.
7. In the meantime continue with the schnitzel. Dip the meat pieces into the flour, coat on both sides and shake off excess flour. Dip them in the beaten eggs, coating on both sides and then coat them with the breadcrumbs. Press the breadcrumbs very lightly, shake off the excess and fry the schnitzel immediately.
8. Heat enough clarified butter or vegetable oil in a large pan. The schnitzel should be able to swim lightly in it. The oil or clarified butter should be hot but not smoking or anything. Carefully place the schnitzel in the hot oil and fry them about 2-3 minutes on each side or until the coating is deep golden brown.
9. Remove from the pan and place on paper kitchen towels, which will help remove the excess fat.
10. Serve immediately with lemon slices, fries and salad.

3.5.3208

Others you might like:

German Beef Roulades

Potato Wedges

Salad with Yogurt Dressing