Pork Schnitzel

Sometimes when I'm having a hard time planning meals just from lack of inspiration or whatever the reason, I will let the grocery store tell me what to make. More specifically what's on sale. This doesn't always work out for me, but the times that it does are the best. Whenever I go to the grocery store whether just a quick run for milk or whatever, I almost always take a quick stroll through the meat section to see whats on sale. Meat is expensive and when you have a lot of mouths to feed, sales are your friend. My last milk run I wasn't disappointed, I snagged a pork tenderloin for $4! So that means on the menu tonight is one of my favourites, pork schnitzel.  I prefer to make my schnitzel with the tenderloin instead of the loin which is probably the more traditional way because the tenderloin, hence the name is tender. You can bite it easily, it almost melts in your mouth. It's perfect.

To start off you will need to clean up and slice your tenderloin. Start by removing the silver skin from the tenderloin (the whiteish skin). Just run a sharp knife under it and remove it trying to remove as little of the actual meat as possible. Once that's all removed cut your tenderloin into 3-4 sections. One section at a time slice each section into thin slices horizontally. See pics below.

Season your pork with salt & pepper and grab a meat tenderizer and gently (to avoid pork splattering all over your kitchen..speaking from experience here) hammer the pork thinner. 




Lets prep a breading station. Grab 3 bowls, in 1 bowl add 1/2 cup of flour and season with salt & pepper. In the 2nd bowl crack 2 eggs and add 1/4 cup of milk, salt & pepper and beat with a whisk until smooth. In the 3rd bowl add 1 cup of bread crumbs. Season them with salt, pepper, and Italiano seasoning.


In a heavy bottomed pan, add oil (vegetable is my preference) about 1 inch up the side of the pan. Heat over medium high heat. While you're waiting for the oil to heat up lets start breading. Grab a piece of pork, coat it in flour, then the egg mixture, then into the bread crumbs. Put on a plate to the side. Continue to do this until you have it all done. 

Once your oil is hot (if you put a few pieces of bread crumbs in the hot oil it should bubble, if it doesn't, it's not ready yet.) Carefully add your pork to the oil, do not over crowd your pan, you will need to do a few batches. Flip your pork half way through, you're looking for the breading to become golden brown. If this is happening very fast turn your heat down a bit. The pork is thin so doesn't take long to cook but if the oil is too hot you could have an issue with the breading burning before the pork is cooked through.  Set cooked pork on a paper towel lined plate. 

 



Serve with some tomato sauce to dip, lemon wedges and I like to  pasta on the side with garlic and butter. Enjoy! Here is the full printable recipe for my Pork Schnitzel.