Pork Schnitzel with Spaetzle

We don’t eat much pork in our house — mostly because I’m not a huge fan. So when a particular pork dish sounds good to me, we take advantage of it. While putting together our menu last week, Billy really felt like pork so we were trying to come up with ideas for something a little different. Enter homemade German food.

There’s this German restaurant not far from Billy’s parents house in Colorado Springs called Edelweiss that has some of the best German food (though, I don’t have much to compare it to considering there’s absolutely no German food around Albuquerque). So, we decided to try our hand at schnitzel and spaetzle since the only time we can get the real thing is when we’re visiting up north. Let me tell you…not only was this way easier than we thought it would be, it was also delicious. Not quite Edelweiss, but delicious nonetheless.

We didn’t really know where to turn for German recipes, so we just did a good old fashioned Google search. We ended up with one of our favorite chefs recipes for the spaetzle — Tyler Florence (he has the ultimate everything, remember?). For the pork, we used a recipe we found on Serious Eats that looked pretty darn delicious in the pictures, so we figured we couldn’t go wrong.

Pork Schnitzel and Spaetzle

{Print this Recipe}
Here’s what you’ll need:
Serves: 2
Schnitzel
- 2 boneless pork chops (any meat would work here, BTW)
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tbsp milk
- 3/4 cup breadcrumbs (regular or panko or a combo of the two)
- 1 tsp paprika
- salt and pepper
- 2 to 4 tbsp vegetable (or other neutral) oil
Spaetzle
- 1 cup flour
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 3 tbsp butter

Instructions:
This is one of those great meals that lets you get out all your frustrations — you get to pound the heck out of a few pieces of meat! Lay out each pork chop on a counter or cutting board and cover it with plastic wrap (or just use a Ziplock bag) and pound out using a meat hammer until they are very thin, about 1/8 inch thick. Make sure to trim off any fat before coating with breadcrumbs.

Set up a breading station, first with seasoned (salt, pepper, paprika) flour in a shallow bowl, then the beaten egg and milk and finally seasoned (salt, pepper, paprika) bread crumbs in another shallow bowl. Before starting to bread the pork chops, make sure to heat the oil in a medium saute pan over medium-high heat. You can test the oil with a pinch of breadcrumbs — if they dance around, the oil is ready for the meat.

Dredge the pork chops first in the flour, then dip in the egg and then coat evenly with breadcrumbs. Carefully place each pork chop in the oil and let cook for about three minutes. Don’t touch before flipping to the second side. After about three minutes, the pork should be a nice golden brown. Flip the pork chops over and cook for another four minutes, or until you get a nice brown crust on both sides and the pork is completely cooked through. (You may have to cook in batches, depending on how big your pork chops are. Just make sure not to crowd the pan.)

Remove the pork chops from the pan and tent with foil to keep warm while preparing the spaetzle. You can also make a nice pan sauce using stock and cream which goes great with the pork (the recipe we used suggested a dill sauce, but we made a pretty plain cream sauce and it was still very tasty).

Make the spaetzle dough is very similar to a pasta dough. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg and set aside. In another, smaller mixing bowl, beat the eggs and milk together until thoroughly combined. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the eggs and milk right into the center. Slowly draw in some of the flour, a little at a time, and combine well. After everything is combined, the dough should be smooth and thick. Let the dough rest for 10 to 15 minutes while a pot of salted water comes to a boil.

Once the water comes to a boil, reduce the heat so the water is at a steady simmer. To form the spaetzle, push the dough through a colander using a flexible spatula (make sure to push it through while you’re holding the colander over the water, otherwise little balls of dough will end up all over your counter). You’ll need to cook the spaetzle in batches (we did three) so that you don’t overcrowd the water, otherwise they won’t cook. Once in the water, they only take three to four minutes to cook — they’ll float to the top when they’re ready. You can use a spider or a slotted spoon to get the spaetzle out of the water.

In a large saute pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the spaetzle to the pan and toss to coat with the butter. Cook for one to two minutes, or until the spaetzle just begin to brown. This will give them a nice buttery flavor and a little bit of a crunch.

Pork Schnitzel and Spaetzle

We loved, loved, LOVED this meal. The pork was perfectly cooked and had a great crust from the breadcrumbs and the spaetzle was just awesome. We made a pretty basic pan sauce for the pork with chicken stock and cream, and we spooned that over the pork and spaetzle. The pork was really moist and tender, and it reminded me a lot of the schnitzel we’ve had at Edelweiss. The spaetzle had a little bit of a crunch from being sauteed, but the inside was so creamy and buttery.

Despite the pork being pan fried, this wasn’t a horribly unhealthy meal. It’s also definitely something we’ll make again, especially since it’s hard to find a pork recipe I love. We adapted our schnitzel recipe from this one at Serious Eats. You can find Tyler’s spaetzle recipe on the Food Network Web site.