Chicken Cutlets with White Sauce

Russian Chicken Cutlets with Vegetables

Let’s make some crisp and delicious chicken and vegetable cutlets. They’re chicken cutlets made with white sauce that’s very thick, also known as panada. I don’t know why, but for some strange reason, in India and Pakistan, these chicken cutlets or patties to which white sauce and potatoes are added as binding agents are called Russian chicken cutlets.

Actually, in Russia, their cutlets are made with ground chicken or beef with egg, bread soaked in milk, and a generous amount of butter added to the mix to keep the cutlets moist and tender.

But no matter if the cutlets we’re making are not exactly like those made in Russia, our version too is absolutely tasty. What keeps them moist and soft inside is one of the two binding agents – Panada. A sort of very thick white sauce, Panada is made with butter, maida or all-purpose flour, milk, and stock. In this chicken cutlets recipe, we’ll be using chicken and vegetables stock.

I have several other tasty cutlet recipes you could check out too. Goan Chicken Potato Chops, Brinjal Cutlets, and Vegetable Cutlets are all easy to make but super-delicious too.

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp crushed garlic

1 tbsp crushed ginger

500g chicken breast

½ cup chopped onion

½ cup finely chopped green beans

1 ¾ cup water

1 tsp salt

½ cup green peas

½ cup grated carrots

For panada (thick white sauce)

55g (4 tbsp) salted butter

50g (6 tbsp) maida

½ cup chicken & veggies stock

¾ cup milk

For cutlets

Shredded chicken

Cooked vegetables

2 small potatoes (200g)

½ cup chopped coriander

¼ cup chopped mint

10 green chillies, finely chopped

1 ½ tsp ground pepper

1 tsp garam masala

½ tsp turmeric powder

Panada

1 chicken soup cube (optional)

1 ½ tbsp lime juice

More salt if necessary

Oil for shallow frying

Coating

8 – 10 tbsp maida (all-purpose flour)

½ cup maida+¾ cup water+pinch of salt

(Medium thick slurry)

Breadcrumbs / Semolina / Mix of both

Will make 16 burger-size cutlets or 20 smaller ones.

Procedure

1. Heat the oil. Sauté the crushed garlic and ginger in it for a few seconds on medium heat.
2. Add the washed chicken breast cut into medium size pieces. Sauté the chicken till it turns white and opaque.
3. Add the chopped onion and cook this for a minute or so till it softens and then add in the finely chopped green beans. Stir everything, add the water and salt and then cover the vessel and let the chicken mix cook for around 7 to 8 minutes.
4. Add the green peas and grated carrot, stir the mix, cover the vessel, and let everything cook for 5 more minutes.
5. Transfer the mixture to a colander and let the stock drain away.
6. The chicken will be cooked completely by now. Remove the chicken pieces to a bowl.
7. Squeeze all the stock from the drained vegetables.
8. If you want the chicken strands to be thick, then you could shred the cooked chicken pieces by hand. But if you want to shred the chicken finely, you could do this in seconds in a mixer grinder, using the pulse mode. Don’t run the grinder continuously or the chicken will be ground to a pulp.
9. Now it’s time to make the panada or thick white sauce. Melt the butter and then sauté the maida in it for 2 minutes till it gets properly cooked. Add in the milk and chicken + vegetables stock and stir everything properly so the mixture is free from lumps. (If your stock is larger or smaller in volume than what is mentioned in the recipe, then either decrease or increase the quantity of milk accordingly.) Cook the panada on medium heat for around 3 -4 minutes till it’s very thick and take it off the heat. It will thicken even further on cooling.
10. To the shredded chicken, add the drained vegetables, boiled and mashed potatoes, chopped coriander, chopped mint, chopped green chillies, ground pepper, garam masala, turmeric powder, the panada, crumbled soup cube, and the lime juice. Mix everything well. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasonings if necessary.
11. Wet your palms or grease them with oil and divide the cutlet mixture into balls.
12. Roll each ball in dry maida, dip it in the maida slurry, and then flatten and roll it in breadcrumbs, semolina, or a mix of both. You could also use crushed fine vermicelli as the final outer coating.
13. Shallow fry the cutlets on medium heat till golden brown on each side.

Enjoy!