Martha Stewart’s breaded chicken cutlets are baked, not fried, breaded in advance and cooked straight from the freezer in 12 to 15 minutes. One batch makes about 10 cutlets from chicken, flour, eggs, toasted panko, and olive oil.
Martha published this on marthastewart.com to launch a food column devoted to shortcuts and time-savers, her baked answer to boxed frozen cutlets. The stockpile idea is the recipe: bread a big batch once, and weeknight dinner waits in the freezer.
Toast the panko fully before it ever touches the chicken, because the short bake is not long enough to brown raw crumbs. Skip the toast and the cutlets come out cooked but pale and sandy, nothing like the fried crunch this method promises.
Martha Stewart Breaded Chicken Cutlets
Course: ChickenCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy10
servings55
minutes30
minutes280
kcal1
hour25
minutesTen crispy baked cutlets on permanent standby for sandwiches, salads, and chicken Parmesan night. One Sunday of breading turns into weeks of nearly instant dinners.
Ingredients
4 cups (240g) plain panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
¼ cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon coarse salt
Coarse salt and pepper, for seasoning
4 large eggs
2 lb (900g) chicken cutlets (about 10)
⅓ cup (40g) all-purpose flour
Directions
- Toast the panko. Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Toss the panko, oil, and 1 teaspoon salt on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring twice, until deep golden brown, about 15 minutes, then cool completely.
- Crush a portion. Crush a few handfuls of the cooled crumbs to help the coating stick.
- Season the chicken. Whisk the eggs in a bowl. Pat the cutlets dry and season with salt and pepper.
- Bread the cutlets. Dredge each in flour and tap off the excess. Dip in egg, then coat with panko, patting so it adheres.
- Freeze flat. Lay the cutlets in layers on a baking sheet with parchment between each layer. Freeze 2 hours, then transfer to resealable bags for up to 1 month.
- Bake from frozen. Set the cutlets on a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 450F (230C), flipping once, until cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. Fresh, unfrozen cutlets need only 8 to 10.
FAQs
Why bake the cutlets straight from frozen?
The freezer is doing the coating a favor. Frozen cutlets hold their shape while the hot oven crisps the outside, and the meat thaws and cooks in the same short bake.
Thawing first actually works against you, since melting ice soaks the breading and bakes it soggy. Thin cutlets are the reason this works, because a thick chicken breast from frozen would burn outside before cooking through.
Why crush only a few handfuls of the panko?
Whole panko flakes bring the crunch, but their size leaves gaps in the coating and they grip poorly on their own. The crushed portion works like mortar, filling those gaps and cementing the big flakes to the egg layer.
Crush them by hand right on the baking sheet, no processor needed. Keep the ratio mostly whole flakes, since an all-crushed coating bakes up dense and closer to regular breadcrumbs.
Why bake on a wire rack instead of the sheet?
The rack lets hot air reach the underside, so both faces crisp instead of the bottom steaming against the pan. That’s how these escape the soggy-bottom problem that haunts oven breading.
You still flip once, because airflow under a rack is gentler than direct heat from above. It’s the same setup that keeps her baked chicken wings crisp without a fryer, and stray crumbs land on the sheet instead of your oven floor.
Why freeze the cutlets flat before bagging?
Two hours on the sheet freezes each cutlet solid and separate, which is the point. Bag them soft and they slump into one breaded brick you’ll need a chisel to split.
Once solid, they pour into bags like loose parts, so you can pull exactly the number dinner needs. The parchment layers keep the coating from tearing when you pry them apart.
How long do these cutlets keep, frozen and baked?
Respect the one-month freezer limit, and not just for texture. Panko picks up freezer odors faster than plain meat, so an old batch tastes like the freezer smells.
Once baked, they’re a fresh-food problem again: 3 days in the fridge, with the coating softening by day one. Reheat on a rack at 400F (200C) instead of the microwave, or slice one over a bowl of her cheaters mac and cheese.
