Chicken milanesa tortas
Thin, crispy breaded chicken cutlets in soft rolls with refried beans, avocado, pickled jalapeños and all the fixings, Mexico City style.
- 45 min total
- 40 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $3.07 a serving
- 790 calories
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 lb chicken breasts, about 2 breasts
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 can refried beans
- 4 hoagie rolls
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 1 tomato, sliced
- 1 cup shredded lettuce
- ¼ cup pickled jalapeños
From your pantry
- 1 tsp salt, divided
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
Each serving has about 790 calories, 46 g protein, 76 g carbs and 34 g fat, and costs about $3.07 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No chicken breasts? Boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins work.
- No hoagie rolls? French bread works.
- No avocados? Guacamole works.
- No tomatoes? Roma tomatoes work.
- No shredded lettuce? Iceberg lettuce or romaine lettuce works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Cut each breast in half through the side into 2 thin cutlets. Lay them between plastic wrap and pound with a heavy pan until about ¼ inch thick.
Dolly’s tip: Pound from the middle out. Even thickness means it cooks through before the crust burns.Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Sprinkle the cutlets with ½ teaspoon salt. Beat the eggs in one shallow dish, and mix the panko, garlic powder, oregano and the rest of the salt in another.
Dip each cutlet in egg, let the extra drip off, then press it firmly into the panko on both sides.
Heat the oil in a large over medium-high until it . Fry 2 cutlets at a time, 2 to 3 minutes a side, until and cooked through to 165°F.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: Lay each cutlet in away from you so any oil splashes the other way.Food safety: Chicken and turkey are done at 165°F in the thickest part. A thermometer is the only sure check. Without one, cut into the thickest piece: it should be white all the way through, with no pink.
them on paper towels and cook the rest.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
Warm the refried beans in a bowl in the microwave for 1 minute, halfway.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Timer: 1 min
Split the rolls, spread the bottoms with beans and the tops with mayonnaise.
Fill each torta with a cutlet, avocado, tomato, lettuce and pickled jalapeños, then press it closed.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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