Thursday, March 20, 2014

Schnitzel and Jäger Sauce

My family lived in Germany (called West Germany at the time we were there in the late 70s) when my dad was in the Army.  My mom learned to cook quite a few German dishes.  This plate of schnitzel and jäger sauce is one of our favorites.  

Traditionally made with pork or veal (Wiener-Schnitzel,)  she was introduced to it as chicken once and that is how we always eat ours now. The name for the chicken version is Hänchen-Schnitzel but we just call it schnitzel. Served with the sauce it is called Jäger-Schnitzel and if you put a slice of cheese on it, Käse-Schnitzel.  Sometimes we do both sauce and cheese so I laughed and asked if we were technically eating Jäger-Käse-Hänchen-Schnitzel?  Maybe so, but we'll keep it simple and say schnitzel and know that all will be available when served at our houses. 

Schnitzel and Jäger Sauce

For Jäger sauce:
One slice of bacon,cut up
8 ounce can of mushrooms, undrained
2 med onions, sliced thin
3-4 cups of water (or use beef broth and leave out bouillon cubes)
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 Tablespoon Kitchen Bouquet (aff link on Amazon)
cornstarch

For schnitzel:
boneless skinless chicken breasts (1 per person)
flour *
eggs, lightly beaten*
container bread crumbs*
canola oil

SPAETZLE Noodles recipe 

JÄGER SAUCE:
Add bacon to saucepan and cook until brown. Careful not to burn.
Add mushrooms with their juice, 
the sliced onions,
water, bouillon cubes (or beef broth) 
and lastly the Kitchen Bouquet.  
Boil until the onions are as soft as you like them.  Make a slurry out of cornstarch and water. Start with 2-3 tablespoons of cornstarch and enough water to make it runny.  Add, while stirring, to the pan a little at a time. It should thicken up quickly. You may not need it all or you may need to make more slurry.  Each batch is different.
SCHNITZEL:
Dump some flour in a shallow dish or paper plate.
Add beaten eggs to a shallow dish and add some bread crumbs to a separate shallow dish or dump onto large sheet of waxed paper.
Coat the chicken with flour.
Then coat the chicken in the eggs. 
Coat the chicken with the bread crumbs.  If you use the waxed paper you can use the paper to push the bread crumbs up on the chicken to keep your hands clean.
Coat all your chicken while heating the oil.  
The oil should be heated in a large skillet.  You should have enough oil to cover about half of the chicken when it is placed in the pan.  Maybe 1/2 to 1".  You can test your oil by putting the end of a wooden spoon in your oil and it should bubble around it or if you are brave like me I sprinkle in a little bit of water and it bubbles.  Fry on one side until golden brown and then the other.  Approximately 3-4 minutes per side. 
Serve with spaetzle noodles.  Growing up I did not like the gravy as it was full of onions and mushrooms.  I ate my schnitzel with a drizzle of lemon juice which is another traditional way of enjoying in. 

* Start with 2-3 eggs for 6-8 pieces of chicken.  Flour and bread crumbs can be added to your dishes as you coat your chicken and find yourself running out.
Jager


21 comments:

  1. One of our favorite foods ever! Thanks for sharing your family's recipes.

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  2. Awesome recipe loved it our family is half German my dad's side if from Upper Bavaria . We love your blog, drop by ours some time! We would love to hear from you.

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  3. My husband's mother was from Germany, and he loves to try German recipes, so we will definitely be trying this one!

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    1. Definitely should. This recipe is easy. I'll be sharing sauerbraten soon too and have a few more up my sleeves as well.

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  4. I've never had spaetzel before but it looks tasty! I'll have to give it a try!

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  5. Yum Yum! I spent 16 months in Northern Germany and rarely had schnitzel and spaetzle noodles, but I do love them. I am definately going to have to try this! I stopped by form The Weekend Retreat to check it out because I wanted a trip down memory lane and wanted to see whether this would be a recipe I would be willing to try! Thanks for sharing this, I'll definately be saving it to my yumprint.com cookbook and pinning! HUGS

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  6. I'll be sharing sauerbraten soon and have a few other German recipes up my sleeve as well!

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  7. This looks wonderful! Thank you for linking it up Friday at our Weekend Social on Kitchen Dreaming! We hope to see you again this week! :)

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  8. Yum Jenny! This looks over the top fantastic! I love German food. Thanks for sharing at my Sunday Dinner Link Party!

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  9. My sister's husband is German. Can't wait to send her this dish he will love it.

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  10. Hi Jenny. I'm hopping over from Let's Get Real to check out your schnitzel recipe. We have a Croatian party center in town so we have the opportunity to eat lots of schnitzel over the years. It is so good. I've often thought it would be nice to know how to make it............and now here you are. Your sauce looks delicious. I'm a big fan of anything with mushrooms.

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  11. G'day! LOVE this recipe Jenny!
    Cheers! Joanne
    http://whatsonthelist.net

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  12. This looks wonderful Jenny! Perfect comfort food. Thanks again for sharing at Simple Supper.

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  13. What a fantastic recipe! We thoroughly enjoyed it! Thank you so much for attending Weekend Social Blog Hop and Link Party #13 ! Don't forget the requirements of being featured .We hope to see you there Friday at 9 PM to kick off week 14! We can hardly wait to see what you surprise us with!!

    Heidy L. McCallum of The McCallum's Shamrock Patch

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  14. One of my favorite German dishes too. The recipe looks delicious. Thanks for sharing it during our Let's Get Real Friday Link Party. I hope you'll join us again on Friday.

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  15. Jenny,
    I would love this German dish. The gravy part is really similar to my mushroom & onion gravy I make with Kitchen Bouquet. I love that stuff. Anyway, what is really different are the noodles. This entire dish sounds and looks really delicious. Great JOB!
    Blessings,
    Diane Roark

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  16. My dad absolutely loves Schnitzel and most German foods, so I am pinning and sending a copy of this to my mom for him. thanks, Jenny :)

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  17. I loved the bit of family history. I'm sure it makes this dish that much more special for you. Thanks for sharing this family recipe. It sounds wonderful and I am sure my husband will love it!
    Blessings,
    Shari

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