Chicken cutlet recipe step by step with pictures- chicken cutlets or croquettes, where chicken breast or boneless pieces are used to make chicken mince or ground chicken for making this indian style cutlet, when well marinated(in simple spices) raw chicken mince turned to be raw chicken mince patties and later coated with breadcrumbs and deep fried in oil. This wonderful cutlets of chicken can be served in a dinner table with some dips and salads or as a perfect evening snack accompanied by a cup of tea or coffee.
This cutlet has two different versions, first one is, where a fillet or slice of the of chicken breast, marinated in lemon, pepper, ginger-garlic, and other preferred ingredients and later well-marinated chicken meat slices will be coated in breadcrumbs to give a proper shape of cutlet with the help of beaten eggs and later deep-fried in oil .
The second one is, where minced chicken meat, is well marinated with lemon, pepper, ginger-garlic, and some other spices as per your choice and then after an interval, shape it up, dip it into the well-beaten eggs and nicely coat it with breadcrumbs and deep fried as well.
Though the second one is worldwide considered as croquettes, we generally keep it in the category of this cutlet recipe. Though we can describe these cutlets as chicken mince cutlet or indian style ground chicken cutlets too.
In Indian cuisine, there is a huge usage of fish fillets but meat fillets use, are almost not exists, especially in pure Indian starter. So we basically prepare chicken cutlets with marinated minced or ground chicken breast, even you may use boneless chicken pieces too for aking this recipe. So you can describe chicken cutlets as chicken mince patties too.
This bengali chicken croquette or cutlet recipe is popular in West Bengal as fowl cutlet or foul cutlet and it basically comes from foreign land probably from England. Only later it has been modified as per our Indian taste buds. This chicken cutlets first stepped in our Bengali kitchen during the British era as then kolkata was the capital of india.
This bengali chicken cutlet or fowl cutlet has a huge fan base in kolkata since ages. Probably this croquette recipe was named during the pre-independence period. Here “fowl” means any domestic bird which is nurtured for using its eggs and meat, but here it indicates any domestic cock or hen. As these bengali chicken croquettes are made of the meat of cock or hen(chicken), so it’s called fowl cutlet though people spell it as the foul cutlet(name doesn’t justify it). And this fowl cutlet or foul cutlet is easily identified by its unique diamond shape. This fowl cutlet or foul cutlet has a huge fan base since ages,
Today I used some tricks in my kitchen while making these chicken cutlets or croquettes, and the tricks are, firstly I made a special ground roasted spices from green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick, whole cumin, coriander, and black peppercorn.
Secondly, cut the chicken breast or boneless chicken pieces into small cubes, put those chicken cubes with peeled ginger, skin out garlic cloves and stem removed green chilies together in a blender jar to make a smooth paste.
Later add half lemon juice and red chill and the roasted ground spices to it. Then marinate it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hr. And lastly, to get the perfect shape and awesome crunchiness (coming from breadcrumbs) keep these cutlets in the refrigerator for another two times.
And Lastly deep fry this bengali chicken cutlets or croquettes and serve these cutlets hot with different dip or sauce and salads. It was just a summary of this recipe, come along with me, I’ll explain to you all the details of this recipe.
For making this cutlet recipe only breast pieces are used for making ground chicken or chicken mince and I didn’t use potatoes or any other things as a binder. That means these indian cutlets are totally packed with protein and you can easily enjoy it by baking when you are in the diet too. Even you can use air frier to relish these delicious crispy chicken cutlets.
Try this recipe at home and let me know how these chicken cutlets or chicken croquettes worked in your kitchen by leaving a comment in the comment section below.
These easy chicken cutlets are my durga puja special starter recipe, I wish all of my Bengali friends to have great fun in this Durga Puja.
You may check my other chicken recipes, Crispy Fried Chicken Tenders Recipe, and Bengali Chicken Kosha Recipe. you can check other cutlets too, i.e, Prawn Cutlet Recipe, Mochar Chop Or Banana Blossom Cutlet Recipe.
Bengali chicken cutlet recipe
Ingredients
For the marination of chicken mince
- 300 gms chicken breast or boneless chicken pieces
- 5-6 cloves
- 1/4 inch ginger
- 2 green chillies
- 3/4 tsp red chilli powder
- 1/2 lemon juice
How to make special ground roasted spices
- 1/2 tsp cumin and coriander seeds(1/2 tsp each)
- 5-6 whole peppercorns
- 3 green cardamom
- 3/4 inch cinnamon stick
- 3-4 cloves
dry roast this all ingredients and ground it to make a fine powder.
How to coat the cutlet
- 1 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 2-3 eggs
- 1/2 tsp salt and pepper(1/2 tsp each).
Prep time: 30 mins(without adding 1 hr marination+(30+30)mins resting time in the freezer)
Cook time: 15-20 mins
Served in: 2 hrs 50 mins
Course: Starter / Evening snacks
Cuisine: Bengali / Indian
Servings: 5
Author: Moumita
How to make bengali chicken cutlet recipe step by step with pictures
Instructions
How to make this recipe from the ground or minced chicken
- First, take 300 gms chicken breast or boneless chicken, wash it with lukewarm water.
- Place the chicken pieces on the chopping board to turn it into cubes.
- Now, put the chicken cubes, skin out garlic cloves, 1/4 inch peeled out ginger and 2 stems out green chillies in the blender jar. Blend it to make smooth chicken mince with spices.
- Remove the smooth chicken mince or paste from the blender jar, add 1/2 lemon juice and red chilli powder to it. Mix it well.
- Then take a flat pan, add all the spices(kept for dry roasting) to it, nicely dry roast the spices. Ground the spices nicely to get a fine powder.
- Add the ground spices to the smooth chicken mince or paste and mix it well together. Cover it.
- Then keep it in the refrigerator for 1 hr to marinate it perfectly.
- After 1 hr, take it out from the refrigerator, add 1/2 tsp salt to and mix it well. Then make some equal size balls from it.
How to make diamond shape bengali chicken cutlet
- First, grease your palm and fingers with a little oil and then give the balls a cylindrical shape. As shown in the pic.
- Put the cylindrical shapes marinated chicken dough on a chopping board(greased with little oil), flatten it with your palm and fingers to the cutlets or croquettes. And then shape it with the help of a knife to get this raw chicken mince cutlets. I gave it a diamond shape like popular bengali chicken cutlet or fowl cutlet recipe. Even you may shape these cutlets like a round or square too.
- Now again put it in the refrigerator for 30 mins to get the firmness of the cutlets. For the better result, can keep it in the freezer too.
How to make chicken cutlet coating with breadcrumb
- After, 30 mins, take the breadcrumbs in a plate, add salt and pepper to it. Then take 2-3 eggs in a bowl and beat it well with little salt and pepper too.
- Now, take out the diamond-shaped cutlets or bengali fowl cutlet from the refrigerator and first, dip it in the beaten eggs and the coat it with the breadcrumbs.
- Do the process once again by putting the single breadcrumbs coated cutlets or croquettes to the beaten eggs and nicely coat it with breadcrumbs once again for the better result. Though the double coating is not mandatory.
- Then place the raw well-coated cutlets on the chopping board and for getting the perfect edges of a diamond shape, use a knife. As shown in the pic.
- Now put these cutlets in the freezer(deep fridge) for 30 mins, for getting the awesome crunch in your cutlet or croquette.
How to fry the indian style ground chicken cutlets
- Lastly, place a pan on the medium heat, let it be hot. Add refined oil to it for deep frying the cutlets.
- When the oil gets hot, slow down the flame to the lowest heat of your oven.
- Take out the nicely cold and firm raw cutlets from the freezer and add it to the hot oil.
- Fry the chicken cutlets or croquettes till it gets a nice golden brown colour from both sides. Increase the flame to medium heat before removing it from the pan.
- Remove the cutlets from the pan to the paper towel for soaking the excess oil.
- Serve these hot cutlets with tomato ketchup and the salads. Though we bengalis serve these bengali chicken cutlets or croquettes with kasundi(bengali mustard sauce).
Tips
- Refrigerate the raw cutlets as per the instructions, for getting more crunchiness.
- Fry the cutlets in a low flame(as explained) as we have used raw chicken to it. Medium or high flame might give your cutlets a golden brown texture but it won’t be cooked properly.
- Even you can use single coating instead of double coating. I’ve used the double coating to get extra crunch.
- My mom says while frying food in a low flame, the fries soak more oil. So when removing the croquettes from the oil, we should increase the flame. And that will help to release the extra oil to the pan. That really works for me so you may apply this trick.
