Family-style weeknight chicken and gravy but made with fried chicken cutlets and a rich and creamy herbed country gravy. Thinly sliced chicken cutlets dredged and shallow fried until golden and crispy served with a homemade white country gravy that’s infused with fresh thyme and rosemary spooned generously over those golden and delicious crispy cutlets.

This is my version of a Southern/ American inspired chicken and gravy dinner.  This is a super popular weeknight staple dinner that’s been transformed a little bit more into my style to make it comforting, creamy, and crunchy. All elements I love to have in each meal.

FRIED CHICKEN CUTLETS 

In order to make the perfect chicken cutlets you take boneless and skinless chicken breasts and you press down on top of the breast with your hand to secure it on your cutting board. Then you take a sharp knife and run it across the chicken to slice it into 1 even clean stroke. It’s almost like butterflying except you are cutting horizontally all the way across to have thinner pieces of chicken. Of course you can pound them down really excessively to make it super thin, but the proper way is also very budget cautious. So 1 piece of chicken breast can give you up to 3 cutlets. This is a great way to stretch out your food.  The rest is making a simple dry dredge and using some of that mixture into a wet dredge with cold water. Now you take your cutlets dip them in the wet and then coat them with the dry to create that crispy crunchy exterior. I chose to shallow fry because it’s less wasteful and the chicken pieces are very thin so they are easy to fry this way.

COUNTRY GRAVY

Country gravy is an American white gravy often seen poured over chicken, fried chicken or country fried steak. Its made how you typically start a simple gravy by making a roux with melted butter and flour, whisking until it thickens and turns brown. From there instead of pan drippings, or beef broth you use milk to thicken it into a silky smooth sauce. Of course I wanted a little bit of a beef flavor so I added a cube of beef bouillon, if I had drippings I would have added that too with the milk. Next time I guess.. and then once it reached the texture that I liked, I seasoned it with salt, a generous amount of pepper, fresh thyme, and rosemary. I find the milk really eliminates a lot of flavor and leaves it kind of bland so its important to season and probably season a lot.

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Print Recipe

Fried Chicken Cutlets with herbed country gravy

Southern inspired fried chicken cutlets with a homemade herbed country gravy.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Course: Mains

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken, country gravy, cutlets, dinner, family, fried chicken, weeknight dinner

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

• 2-4 chicken breasts cut into cutlets
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp kosher salt or sea salt
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup cold water
• vegetable oil for frying

country gravy

• 4 oz stick salted butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 cube beef bouillon
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tsp kosher or sea salt
• 1 tsp thyme removed from stem
• 1 tsp rosemary roughly chopped

Instructions

• Cut each chicken breast into cutlets. Use a sharp knife to filet the chicken into 2 or 3 cutlets. Do this by pressing down onto the chicken with your hand and and slice through horizontally in a clean even stroke. Repeat until all the breasts have been cut into filets.
• Create the dry dredge. Combine flour, cornmeal, cornstarch, and spices into a baking tray or shallow dish. Remove about 1/2 cup worth of the dry dredge and combine with cold water. This will create a wet batter. Whish until the mixture gets to a pancake batter consistency. Add more of the dry dredge or water as needed.
• Heat vegetable oil to 350 degrees F. Add enough to either shallow fry or completely cover the chicken.
• Dredge the chicken through the wet mixture and transfer to the dry mix. Coat both sides and repeat until each piece has been dredged.
• Drop the chicken into the hot oil. Fry until golden on both sides and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• To make the gravy: melt butter and whisk in the flour to create a roux. Continuously whisk over medium heat until thickened, about 3 minutes. Slowly add the milk and continue to whisk until it becomes smooth and there are no clumps. Continue to add milk until your desired consistency is reached. Stir in the beef bouillon, season with herbs, salt, and pepper. Taste and adjust if needed.
• To serve: Top each piece of chicken with some gravy, garnish with finely diced green onions and serve with your choice of sides. Enjoy!