Chicken Breast Milanese With Green Olive-Celery Relish Recipe (2024)

"... add olive oil to a depth of 1 inch. Heat oil to 365"
Firstly, the ingredients only mention "Extra-virgin olive oil", so a pan filled 1" would be serious $$$ - and it's not the type of oil you can re-use.
Second, don't fry with EVOO, wrong use for this oil, which has a smoke point of 320F., and the recipe says to bring to 365. Will result in smoking and off-flavor. Use grapeseed, or avocado, or even canola or peanut. Reserve the EVOO for the relish

Try this to avoid frying and eggs:
Turn the oven on to 450.
Slather the breasts in mayonnaise then roll them in breadcrumbs.
Place the breasts on a baking sheet and put them in the oven. Turn after 8 to 10 minutes and let brown for another 7 or so minutes. (the breasts "self fry" with the oil in the mayonnaise)

We, living in Milan (Italy), prefer to fry chicken in butter. There's such a great difference. Just try! Ceasar, Roman emperor, once arrived to Milan was compelled to taste butter. He didn't like it, really, but we do.

In Milano the classic Milanese is NO flour and cooked in clarified butter.

Remarkable is that almost every published recipe, not only the NYT, advices to use extra-vergine olive oil. I think that's a shame.
Use grapeseed oil (you are right m) or rice oil.

I soaked the cutlets in buttermilk and prepared them as a schnitzel, crisped in some oil and butter but not fried. The olive-celery is delicious. I served it with orzo and an arugula salad. Really nice weeknight meal.

And by the way, the photo in the article shows far less than an inch of oil.....

Panko crumbs work well, too. Pound the breasts to 3/8 inch and one can use far less oil, and at lower temperature. Still, I use grape seed or peanut oil for frying.

I wondered about that too. It is unusual for a NY Times recipe to be so wrong.

I cut each breast into 4 pieces, add 2T mayo and 1T dyon to the egg dip, fry them in a heavy frying pan with 2T butter and 2T oil, for 3 minutes, turn them over and then bake them in the pan for 10 minutes at 350.

Maybe I'm too much of an old-school chef, but to me, this recipe doesn't really work. Separately, the chicken and the "relish" are excellent, each on their own, but I don't think they belong together. The "relish" is reminiscent of an olive tapenade and as such, is more at home with Mediterranean cuisineThe chicken is reminiscent of a breaded cutlet or schnitzel, more in line with northern Italian or even Germanic cuisine it deserves a light piquant sauce like piccata or lemon butter.

Just skip the hot pepper, and it's probably a very dish.

I can't believe how delicious this was. I made it as listed with the exception of Canola oil for frying and using dill instead of the mint, parsley and basil because its what I had on hand. I will definitely be putting this in our rotation. Really easy and delicious.

I served this last night without the Relish. I had just eaten it at Felice in NY & served it as they did, lemon squeezed over chicken,topped with arugala, lightly dressed w mustard vinaigrette, with cherry tomatoes,shave parm. For the cutlet, I agree with chef Pace below "classic Milanese is NO flour". Used only egg and crumbs. Added garlic powder along with the cayenne. Cooked "hot" in 2T canola oil, 2T butter. Salted only the meat, not the bread crumbs. Wonderful, simple & healthy.

I made this with a few modifications and it was excellent! To avoid frying, I sprayed both sides of the fillets with an olive oil spray, placed them on an oven-safe rack on a baking sheet, and baked in a convection oven at 425F for 16 minutes, flipping halfway through. I also halved the ingredients of the remoulade to minimize waste, and this was perfect for 4 servings.

We have made this 3 times...first with EVOO, next with Canola, then again with EVOO. Didn’t like the flavor of the Canola! Agree about the smoke point of the EVOO, keeping the temp at 365F is important..but hard to control. Will try avocado oil next...also, we do not cook the breast as long as they say, I find they start getting a little dry...perhaps 2 mins per side seems to be the magic number...of course this will all depend on the thickness you have pounded them! Very delicious!!

Made this with a apple-crabapple relish instead. Very good!

use coconut oil

You can also add finely ground Parmesan to the crumbs. Really. It works and is delicious.

I cut each breast into 4 pieces, add 2T mayo and 1T dyon to the egg dip, fry them in a heavy frying pan with 2T butter and 2T oil, for 3 minutes, turn them over and then bake them in the pan for 10 minutes at 350.

This was delicious - no changes to recipe though I did cut back on the flour, bread crumbs, and olive oil. Marinated breasts in buttermilk for 1.5 hours. Would def make again.

Used boneless thighs, canola oil . Used ground almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries in place of flour coating as lower glycemic index modification.
The results were well received

This relish is wonderful. I didn't have fresh celery, but it was great without it. Put all the ingredients including olives (only had the pimento stuffed ones) into the small food processor and whirled it up. A. Ice change to a plain cutlet.

No way to get around the work involved in doing a proper Milanese, empanada, schnitzel, depending where you come from, variations abound, the true test being how thin you pound it to, apprx 1/8", being the ultimate.This recipe, complies.The olive relish that makes this recipe unique is wonderful.If you are fortunate to have any leftover enjoy on top of crusty toasted bread, with arugula watercress, drizzled with olive oil and drops of lemon.BTW I suggest frying in less inexpensive olive oil