9 Schnitzel Recipes to Crisp Up Your Dinner

Food & Wine Best New Chef 2013 Jason Vincent makes his schnitzel with pork tenderloin. He beats the eggs for the coating with sour cream, which helps the meat stay tender and juicy inside while the golden breadcrumb crust crisps up.

Chef Hillary Sterling makes this extra crispy turkey schnitzel with matzo meal as part of a joyful Passover feast. If you plan to make this recipe as part of your own Passover seder, be sure to substitute matzo meal for the rice flour to keep the recipe kosher.

Marcia Kiesel swaps in trout fillets for the usual pork or chicken in her take on schnitzel, and accents the light fish with a sauce made with butter, anchovies, chile, shallot and lemon zest.

Food & Wine Culinary Director-at-Large Justin Chapple uses dried potato flakes, aka instant mashed potatoes, to produce the shatteringly crisp crust on these butter-fried pork chops. The flakes are made from dehydrated cooked potatoes and happen to be a great gluten-free substitute for breadcrumbs. Be sure to look for hot cherry peppers, not sweet ones, to give the mayo-based sauce some kick.

The idea for using crushed pretzels for the breadcrumb coating came to cookbook author Andrea Slonecker years ago when she was working on her first cookbook, Pretzel Making at Home, and had a surplus of homemade hard pretzels on her hands. She says pretzels deliver an extra crunch, and their signature alkaline flavor to this pork schnitzel. 

Thomas Keller says the success of his chicken schnitzel depends on two things: pounding chicken breasts to uniform thickness, and using Japanese panko breadcrumbs to give them an extra-crispy crust.

Wiener Schnitzel is one of the national dishes of Austria, and this classic version of the dish will show you why it's so popular in Viennese cooking. If you can't find lingonberry preserves, use cranberry sauce or another tart fruit preserve in its place.

You don't often see lamb schnitzel, but this recipe demonstrates why the rich meat is even better when breaded and fried. Use boneless lamb leg steaks for this preparation for the best results. The aioli served with it is full of flavor with mustard, vinegar and garlic, and takes this dish over the top.

This recipe requires just a few ingredients to produce something spectacular. The crisp and bright salad of cucumbers with dill and yogurt is a perfect accompaniment to the crispy fried pork.