Crispy Chicken Cutlets with Butter

Tear 80 g soft bread into small pieces, put in a bowl, and pour over all 80 ml milk. Leave for 10 minutes and prepare the remaining ingredients meanwhile. Mash the softened bread with a fork into a moist paste; do not squeeze it out, and do not drain the milk, as the entire contents of the bowl will go into the mixture.

Keep 600 g ground chicken refrigerated until mixing; do not rinse the meat. Cut 60 g cold butter into small cubes about 5 mm across. Add all the bread and milk paste, the egg, 6 g salt, and 1 g pepper to the meat, then briefly mix by hand or with a spoon until uniform and starting to bind together. Fold in the butter so the small pieces are evenly distributed, without prolonged kneading or warming the mixture; wash your hands and the utensils used after contact with raw poultry.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate the mixture for 20 minutes so it becomes cold and easier to shape. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C on the conventional (no-fan) setting, with a rack in the middle. Prepare a skillet about 28 cm in diameter, a flat plate for coating, and a large baking sheet about 30 × 40 cm lined with parchment paper. Take out the raw mixture only when ready to shape it.

Put all 120 g breadcrumbs on the plate. Divide the cold mixture into eight equal portions, about 110 g each before coating, and shape into oval cutlets about 10 cm long, 6 cm wide, and no more than 2 cm thick. Coat both sides and the edges of each, pressing the crumbs on lightly; the mixture should retain its shape and the coating should cover the surface evenly. Discard any breadcrumbs that do not adhere after coating, and keep the four cutlets for the second batch refrigerated until frying.

Heat 30 ml oil and 20 g clarified butter in the skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add four cutlets with space between them and fry for 3–4 minutes on each side until the coating is golden; lower the heat if it darkens too quickly. Transfer them to the prepared baking sheet in a single layer, without pouring over the fat from the skillet. This is only browning: the cutlets still need to finish cooking in the oven and are not ready to serve.

Take the skillet off the heat and carefully pour the remaining fat into a heatproof container reserved for waste; remove loose crumbs so they do not burn during the next batch. Add the remaining 30 ml oil and 20 g clarified butter, heat again over medium heat, and fry the other four cutlets for 3–4 minutes on each side. Transfer them to the same baking sheet beside the first batch, leaving space between them, and immediately put all eight in the preheated oven. Discard the fat left from the second batch once it has cooled as well, without pouring it over the cutlets.

Bake all the cutlets together for 15–20 minutes at 180°C on the middle rack, without covering them. The coating should stay golden and crisp, and the mixture in the center must be thoroughly cooked. Toward the end, cut open the thickest cutlet: the inside should be hot, cohesive, and moist, without raw, sticky poultry mixture; the color of the coating alone is not enough to judge doneness. If the center is still raw, return both cut halves to the baking sheet too and bake the whole batch for about 5 more minutes, then check again; do not serve undercooked meat.

Take out the baking sheet and leave the cutlets for 3 minutes without covering them so the coating does not soften from steam. Transfer to four plates, two cutlets per serving. Serve warm, without pouring over the fat left on the baking sheet.