Served on crusty ciabatta with thinly sliced radishes for crunch, these Chicken Milanese Sandwiches with Garlic-Lemon-Honey Butter offer a new way to love an old favorite.
By Amy Traverso
May 01 2024
Chicken Milanese Sandwiches with Garlic-Lemon-Honey Butter
Photo Credit : Adam DeTour/styling by Sheila JarnesChicken Milanese is a favorite weeknight meal: an easy chicken cutlet, breaded and pan-fried and served with a lemony arugula and Parmesan salad. It also makes a great sandwich. You just need to boost the flavor by adding a lemony garlic butter with a little bit of honey; meanwhile, thinly sliced radishes provide crunch and color. This recipe will produce more of the butter than you need, but the leftover amount is great to have in the refrigerator to put on toast or grilled fish or chicken.
This recipe first appeared in the May/June 2024 issue of Yankee Magazine.
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
4 slices fresh white sandwich bread, crusts removed (about 4 ounces)
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten
Vegetable or olive oil, for frying
8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter, softened
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 slices lemon, about ¼ inch thick
2 teaspoons honey
4 fresh, crusty ciabatta or sausage rolls, split lengthwise and lightly toasted
1 1/3 cups packed baby arugula leaves
1/3 cup thinly sliced pink radishes
Lemon wedges, for serving
Lay the chicken breasts on a cutting board. Put your hand on top of one breast to hold it in place, then use a knife to carefully slice the breast in half lengthwise so that you now have two pieces of chicken that are half as thick as before. Repeat with the second breast. Sprinkle the meat all over with pepper and 1 teaspoon salt. Use a meat mallet or rolling pin to lightly pound each to a 1/3-inch thickness. Set aside.
In a blender or food processor, pulse the bread slices until they form fluffy bread crumbs. Add the Parmesan cheese and pulse just to combine. Transfer the mixture to a shallow bowl. Put the flour in another shallow bowl. Put the eggs in a third shallow bowl.
Dip one piece of chicken in the flour and turn to coat both sides. Next, dip it in the egg, coating both sides. Finally, dip it in the bread crumbs to coat both sides, pressing the crumbs into the meat. Repeat with remaining three chicken pieces. Set aside (you can do this up to 6 hours ahead of time and refrigerate, covered).
Fill a skillet with oil to a depth of about 1/3 inch. Warm over medium-high heat until a pinch of bread crumbs dropped in the oil sizzles and browns nicely. Cook the chicken, making sure not to crowd the pan, until browned and cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and lightly sprinkle with more salt.
To make the garlic butter, use a standing or immersion blender to puree the butter, garlic, lemon slices (including the peel), and honey until smooth.
To make the sandwiches, butter each cut side of the halved and toasted rolls with the garlic butter. Lay the chicken on the bottom halves, then top with equal amounts of arugula and then radishes. Top with bread and slice in half. Serve warm, accompanied by lemon wedges to squeeze over the radishes and arugula just before eating.
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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