Breaded scallop, escalope panée in French, is a fundamental restaurant and residential cooking dish. Right here is my final recipe with many suggestions and data.
On this article, I offers you the recommendation I realized after I was skilled to be a chef and bought the French CAP delicacies diploma.
I’ll let you know how one can bread escalopes, whether or not utilizing veal or poultry (hen or turkey), and provide the secrets and techniques and suggestions for crispy breading and tender meat. In addition to the detailed recipe. After all!
You’ll additionally see you can range the breadcrumbs and the seasonings.
Which meat to decide on for breaded escalopes?
Escalope is the French phrase for the English “scallop” or the Italian “scallopina”. It’s a really skinny piece of meat pounded flat, often referring to veal.
This recipe and method are usually related to veal escalopes, typically utilized in dishes equivalent to escalope à la milanaise / Milanese scallopina or escalope à la viennoise / Wiener Schnitzel , that are Italian and Austrian recipes.
Your butcher will be capable to choose the perfect meat reduce for you, or you too can ask for veal rump, veal knuckle, veal quasi, veal sirloin….
You need to use skinny slices of veal, in addition to poultry, equivalent to hen or turkey breast sliced and flatten to be skinny as an escalope. Presumably pork. Within the case of pork, make sure that the slices will not be too thick. You could must trim them if crucial.
Why and how one can flatten meat
For excellent tender escalopes, the meat have to be flattened.
Flattening meat breaks down sure muscle fibers, leading to extra tender meat.
There’s a particular cooking utensil known as a meat tenderizer, which considerably resembles a mallet.
You don’t want to speculate on this kitchen utensil; you should utilize a saucepan or frying pan, faucet meat with the underside, or use a rolling pin.
Cowl your escalopes with parchment paper earlier than tapping them along with your pan to keep away from damaging the meat. In case you purchase your meat from the butcher, he’ll be joyful to do that for you.
So, flatten the meat a bit, however not too forcefully; you don’t wish to pound it too exhausting, as that would have the alternative impact.

The way to make your home made breadcrumbs?
The method used right here in French delicacies is named panure à l’anglaise, which accurately means breaded the English method.
The substances you want:
- Flour
- entire eggs
- breadcrumbs
- oil and/or butter
Flour: it helps the egg adhere to the meat. You possibly can season the flour with spices equivalent to paprika, cumin, curry…
For a gluten-free model, omit the flour (some do even with out the gluten free intention), or go for a gluten-free flour equivalent to rice flour, or a extra simply digestible gluten equivalent to spelt flour.
Eggs: Beat the eggs into an omelette. You possibly can add a drop of milk, or a drizzle of impartial oil.
Be aware that sooner or later, you’ll season your meat with salt and pepper. You are able to do this both straight on the meat earlier than coating it with flour or including salt and pepper to the flour, the eggs, or presumably the breadcrumbs. I personally want including them to the eggs.

Which breadcrumbs to decide on?
You possibly can use store-bought breadcrumbs (in France, there are chapelure offered in most supermarkets), otherwise you could make your personal home made breadcrumbs from leftover bread.
Use dry exhausting bread and easily grind it kind of finely in a blender or meals processor. Grind to the specified fineness.
The Japanese panko used for tempura could be very gentle and crispy. I like to combine half home made breadcrumbs and half panko.
You possibly can additionally use chips, cornflakes, Swedish crispbread, and many others. It’s in fact doable to make gluten-free home made breadcrumbs with gluten-free bread leftovers.
Taste your breadcrumbs with spices, a bot of cheese like Parmesan, contemporary or dried herbs…
For instance, I exploit coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley in my breadcrumbs to arrange breaded fish. Attempt it, it’s nice.
In what order must you proceed for profitable breading?
1 Flour, 2 egg, 3 breadcrumb
I’ve lengthy wanted to double-check the right order by which to arrange the escalopes.
What must you begin with? First, the flour. Then, the crushed eggs. Lastly, the breadcrumbs.
You possibly can repeat the method once more for a thicker breading: 1/ flour, 2/ eggs, 3/ breadcrumbs, 4/ eggs, 5/ breadcrumbs.

Lastly, cook dinner the escalopes
Use a non-stick frying pan if you need your escalopes to carry collectively nicely.
Prepare dinner your breaded escalopes in a sizzling frying pan with a mixture of butter and oil.
The butter makes escalopes crispier, whereas the oil prevents the butter from burning at too excessive a temperature. Be beneficiant with the butter; your escalopes will probably be even tastier.
Prepare dinner for five minutes on one aspect, flip the meat, add just a little extra butter if crucial, and cook dinner for five to 10 minutes on the opposite aspect till the meat is cooked by. Cooking time clearly relies on thickness.

Origin of breaded scallop
Despite the fact that escalope panée is a basic of French cooking repertoire, this recipe is definitely not a French invention. It has its origins in one other European nation. This not French delicacies first however presumably Italian with the Milanese escalope or Austrian with the Viennese escalope /Wiener Schnitzel?
I learn that the Lombards, i.e., the Italians, started breading their meat within the twelfth century, thus creating the Milanese escalope, escalope à la milanaise.
The story goes that within the early nineteenth century when the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia was a part of the Austrian Empire, Austrian Area Marshal Joseph Radetzky led the Austrian military within the area. He reported the native scenario to his new emperor, Ferdinand, and the ruling Habsburg household.
Sooner or later, operating out of data in certainly one of his stories, his aide-de-camp is alleged to have prompt that he describe a neighborhood Lombardy dish, giving him the recipe for Cotoletta alla Milanese, a breaded schnitzel.
When he returned to Vienna on the finish of his mission, he was shocked to style a Viennese escalope (Wiener Schnitzel) similar to the escalope milanese. He found that the capital of Austria had adopted this dish, which had turn into very modern in Austrian delicacies.
And like many culinary tales, one other Austrian model says that schnitzel Milanese dates again to the sixteenth century.
I haven’t discovered something dependable concerning the adoption of breaded escalopes in France by the French.
There are a couple of variations between Milanese escalope, Viennese escalope, and our French escalope panée. If I’m proper, the Viennese escalope has milk in its breading to make it gentle.
There are variants of this breaded meat recipe in lots of cuisines on this planet: Hungarian, Japanese, Israeli…
Variations and substitutes
As defined above, have enjoyable with breadcrumbs, spices and herbs.
Use this breaded escalope recipe to make a sous-chef. Add cheese and ham to a big turkey or hen reduce, fold it in half, and proceed in the identical method for the breading methodology defined right here, and also you’ve bought a scrumptious home made sous-chef.
You possibly can serve breaded meats with any aspect dish. The day I took these images, I served a Provençal tian with summer time seasonal greens. The selection is yours: potato gratin with inexperienced salad, pasta with sauce, sautéed greens…
Keep in mind to serve with lemon; it’s good with (plenty of!) lemon juice.



French breaded escalope
The proper French recipe for crispy and tender breaded scallop (escalopes panées). I let you know what meat to decide on, how one can put together the breading, the order of steps, and breadcrumb substitutes….
Stop sleep
Discuss with the article for suggestions and variations that may enable you to or permit you to create derivatives of this recipe. The article explains what meat to decide on, why and how one can flatten the meat, how one can put together the breading, substitute choices for breadcrumbs, and seasoning concepts with variations.
Bon appétit !
In case you get pleasure from dishes with breadcrumbs, you is likely to be tempted by my savory crumble with fish and greens.