Scaloppini (or scaloppine, for Italian language speakers!) isn’t a recipe so much as it is a way of handling meat. In Italian, chicken ‘scaloppini’ just means chicken cutlets that are pounded thin, dredged in flour and fried in a little butter until they are juicy and tender. It cooks fast in just one pan, and it’s an easy weeknight recipe my family adores.
For my chicken scaloppini recipe, I add a few extras. A splash of wine, a lot of fresh garlic, and a handful of mushrooms to make a fast weeknight chicken dish that will make you fall in love with regular old chicken breasts all over again. Serve with pasta, potatoes, polenta or even risotto.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Chicken breasts: You can buy cutlets to save yourself some prep, or even use pork cutlets! You’ll still need to pound it thin, but the process will be faster.
- Flour: You can certainly use gluten-free flour if need be.
- Butter and oil: You could use all butter if you want, but I love having both the flavor of olive oil and the richness of butter.
- Wine: Dry white wine is best! If you don’t want to cook with wine, it’s fine to use some stock with a splash of extra lemon juice.
- Mushrooms: Cremini are my go-to! White button would work fine, or if you have some nice wild mushrooms (morels, chanterelles, etc) use them!
- Seasonings: Fresh Shallots, fresh garlic, salt and pepper
- Lemon: Both the zest and the juice
- Parmesan cheese: Freshly grated is best by FAR.
How To Make Scaloppini
See the full recipe card at the bottom of this post for more detailed instructions.
- Pound the chicken until it’s ½-inch thick. See tips about this process below.
- Coat the chicken in flour.
- Pan-fry the chicken in butter and oil.
- Set the chicken scaloppini aside while you make the mushroom sauce.
- Sauté the mushrooms in butter. After a few minutes, add the shallots and then the garlic.
- Now, make it saucy! Add wine, then butter, lemon juice and zest and stir in the cheese.
- Warm the chicken scaloppini in the mushroom sauce.
- Dig in!
Tips for Scaloppini Success
- When you pound the chicken cutlets, try to make them evenly thick so that they cook evenly throughout; no raw bites, no over-cooked bites.
- Don’t have a meat mallet? Use a rolling pin!
- Protect the chicken as you pound it with zip-top bags, plastic wrap or parchment paper.
- I know you’re in a hurry to get dinner on the table, but try to resist the urge to cram as much chicken into the skillet as you can. Instead, just fry a few cutlets at a time so that they get nicely browned and crispy. If the pan is too crowded, the chicken scaloppini will steam instead of fry, and that is no fun.
- This recipe does not freeze well! It tastes best fresh. If you want to keep leftovers, store the chicken scaloppini and mushroom sauce separately in the fridge. It’ll be fine for 3 days.
More Crispy Pan-Fried Chicken Breast Recipes
Easy Weeknight Happiness, This Way
For more recipe inspiration, follow us on Substack, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest or order our cookbook. We love when you share your meals. Tag us on Instagram using #themodernproper. Happy cooking!
