Chicken schnitzel with herb salad and jasmine rice

Tam West

I love anything crumbed and fried. I also never mind acknowledging where my ideas for recipes come from, so when I liked the look of the chicken katsu recipe in Donna Hay's book Life in Balance, I decided to do my version. It is basically sliced crumbed chicken served with steamed jasmine rice and a salad with Asian flavours.

Ingredients

600 g	Free-range chicken breasts, cut into slices on the diagonal towards the pointed end, each slice lightly beaten out to 1.5cm thick with a meat hammer (Main)
½ cup	Flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
2	Eggs, beaten
¼ cup	Milk
150 g	Panko breadcrumbs, I like the NZ-made FogDog brand which is additive free
4 handfuls	Baby salad leaves, about 120g (Main)
2	Spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 small handful	Basil
1 small handful	Mint
1 small handful	Coriander sprigs
1	Kaffir lime leaf, central stalk discarded, leaf very thinly sliced
½ cup	Roasted peanuts, unsalted, crushed or chopped coarsely
¼ cup	Sweet chilli sauce, a Thai one
3 Tbsp	Fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp	Japanese soy sauce
1 tsp	Sesame oil
1 dash	Vegetable oil, for frying
2	Limes, in halves, for serving
4 servings	Steamed jasmine rice

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 200C.
2. Dust a chicken slice in the flour. Mix the eggs and milk together and dip the floured chicken in it. Place the chicken slice in the crumbs and firmly pat on each side so the crumbs stick. Repeat for the remaining chicken slices. Place each completed slice on a plate then reserve in the fridge. These are the schnitzels.
3. Put the salad greens, spring onion herbs, kaffir lime and peanuts in a salad bowl. Reserve.
4. Put the chilli sauce, lime juice, soy sauce and sesame oil in a small bowl and mix well. Reserve. This is the dressing.
5. Heat about ½ cm of oil over moderate heat in a deep frying pan and brown the schnitzel in batches, placing them side by side on a large ovenproof tray as they are browned. Place in the oven for 5 minutes or until completely cooked through. Wipe out the pan and replace the oil if it becomes cluttered with loose crumbs that have burnt.
6. Add the dressing to the baby greens mix and toss well, this is the salad.
7. Serve the schnitzel with lime halves for squeezing and with the salad and steamed jasmine rice on the side.

More Father's Day recipes from Ray

• Pulled pork buns
• Sirloin with horseradish, oven potatoes and fennel salad