Easy Chicken Milanese Recipe

Hey I’m John Canell and today we’re making an easy delicious chicken milanese so let’s get started.

Ingredients and Prep

First off we need two large boneless skinless chicken breasts. We’re going to use a sharp knife and slice them down the middle. Chicken milanese is one of those really really quick dinners you can make on a weeknight or a weekend that everybody’s gonna love. Milanese just refers to the style of breading that we’re doing so we’re gonna dredge this a couple times and make it delicious crispy and amazing.

I have my four pieces of chicken breast. I’m laying these on parchment paper and I’m just going to pound them out. Don’t do this directly on your counter; use a cutting board—your hammer could slip and something could chip.

Now we’re gonna dry our chicken off with paper towels. Just like that our chicken is nice and prepped.

Dredging Station

It’s time to create our dredging station—a milanese style dredging station. You want three shallow dishes:

• In the first one: three quarters of a cup of flour (you could have a little bit more, it doesn’t matter).
• In the last one: two cups of panko bread crumbs. These are gonna be those nice big bread crumbs that really give you a good crunch.
• In the middle: two large eggs beaten—just give it a little mix.

I’ll be seasoning both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper: one teaspoon of salt distributed evenly on both sides and three quarters of a teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper.

Cooking the Chicken

My chicken is seasoned, my dredging station is set up. Now we’re going to get a good sized skillet and place it over medium heat along with half a cup of olive oil.

The chicken goes into the flour. From the flour we’re going to place that right into the egg, allow some of the excess to drip off, and now this goes into your panko crumbs. Grab a handful and sprinkle those over the top. You kind of want to bury the chicken in the panko and press so you get a really good coverage.

I’m letting all the chicken just hang out on a piece of parchment paper while the oil finishes warming up. By the time my last chicken breast is done everything should be ready. If you’re wondering how you know when the oil is done, you’re looking for it to start shimmering. It shouldn’t be smoking but it should be like dancing in the pan when you look at it with the light against it.

Last one: good coverage with the flour. The flour is helping the egg stick and the egg does a really good job of helping the panko bread crumb stick. Sprinkle it over, move it onto the sides and press down.

My chicken’s all breaded and the oil warmed up just in time. We’re gonna add this right into our warm oil. You should hear that nice shushing sound. We’ll cook these two at a time; there’s no need to crowd them—there’s just not room. We’re going to cook them on each side for three to four minutes or until they are golden brown. They have to be 165 in the middle so if you’re all concerned use a food thermometer, but this is so thin that by the time they’re golden on both sides the chicken should really be cooked through.

This looks nice so we’re gonna flip them over. Another three minutes. I’m gonna grab a big bowl, get my arugula out, the parmesan, and just be ready to mix this up. This is gonna be done in just a few minutes—it’s like the fastest dinner ever.

Switching to my non-raw chicken tongs—it’s almost done. For the sake of food safety you don’t want to cross contaminate things you use the raw chicken with things used for the cooked chicken. So I have a fork to flip things over when the chicken is cooking and once it’s done I have these tongs.

That looks so nice. Let this rest on a paper towel; it’ll drain a bit too. We want to have a little bit of olive oil in this pan—it can’t get too low and the chicken does absorb some—so we’re gonna add another three tablespoons to a quarter cup. Let that oil warm up a little bit more because we just added cold oil in, and then we’re gonna be ready to add in our last two chicken breasts.

Air-Fryer Adaptation

I get a ton of questions on how you would adapt recipes for air fryers and this is something that you could air fry. Will it be exactly the same? No—deep frying is magic and so is pan frying—but here’s what you would do: exactly the same steps except you would use a micromister and mist it all over so all of those panko bread crumbs were coated, and then you’d air fry it. I would do 400 degrees for about 11 minutes and flip it halfway through. You’ll have to play with it because every air fryer is a bit different.

Just like that my chicken is ready. It’s gonna drain for just a minute on the paper towel.

Arugula Salad

In the meantime we’ll make an easy delicious arugula salad. Grab two big handfuls—or two cups—of arugula. If you haven’t tried it, arugula is a peppery delicious green; it’s one of my all-time favorites.

I want a nice healthy squeeze of lemon juice right in here. I would juice a whole lemon here but at least a tablespoon. You’ll want a nice drizzle or a little misting of olive oil, a little bit of salt—about a quarter teaspoon—the same amount of pepper. This salad by the way is like a go-to of mine for almost any kind of meal; I actually love it for breakfast with some eggs and toast.

The last step is a generous shave of parmesan. Oh my gosh this is pure heaven to me. Give your salad a quick toss.

Plating and Serving

Now we’re gonna plate it up: grab some salad, a little chicken, and there you have it—the perfect dinner in under 20 minutes. If you haven’t tried this recipe you just gotta trust me and make it happen. That chicken is perfectly tender inside with a crunchy golden exterior and that peppery lemony parmesan salad is perfection. I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.