Pozharsky cutlets - one of those Russian national dishes, the original recipe of which is lost in the mists of time, and the history of creation is a collection of beautiful myths - choose according to your taste. Probably, it is precisely the “historical” curiosity that drives us when we decide to cook “something like that”. Meanwhile, fire cutlets are a simple and understandable dish. Cutlet. It consists of chicken, white bread and cream. Although ... not really, or not at all ... Yet this is a "kind of" dish - it has a very special breading and a lot of culinary sophistication.

Authentic recipe for fire cutlets (if any) see. Variations regarding the composition of the products. But the main thing in the recipe is not they, but the most tender meat and a crispy shell. It is their creation that is the culinary goal of the hostess - and all experts agree with this.

Output: 10 cutlets. Cooking time 40 minutes + cooling (30-40 minutes).

Ingredients

• chicken meat (fillet, breast) - 500 grams
• fresh bread crumb - 60 grams
• cream 20% fat - 300-400 grams
• white pepper, salt, nutmeg - to taste
• breadcrumbs
• egg - 1
• cooking oil

How to cook fire cutlets

Pour the cream into a bowl and place the bread to soften. And get minced.

Stuffing for fire cutlets. Grind chicken meat. It is necessary to achieve the smoothest, without any inclusions, tender stuffing. You can turn meat into minced meat in several ways.
  If you have a good command of the knife, then chop it (chopped meat is well chopped with a heavy knife).
  If this method does not work, use a meat grinder with a very fine wire rack and scroll 2-3 times.

The last and simplest, and possibly the best, method is to use a blender that turns the meat into a paste with an excellent uniform texture. Be sure to check later if the pieces are left, they should not be more than a raw buckwheat kernel.

Add the cream with the crumb that has blossomed into them. If you are afraid that after pouring all this liquid, you will get a liquid mass, you can add a little. But there is no doubt that meat will absorb everything without a trace.

Then we mix everything thoroughly, literally whisk. And we get dense, cream-like minced meat.
  Pepper and salt, add the nutmeg and mix thoroughly again. In this mixing lies the main intrigue of the recipe for fire cutlets.

INTRIGUE. Making cutlets from such stuffing is a process for the patient and diligent. The fact is that minced meat should be kneading properly. About the way we do it with the test, but not so. The goal is a perfectly uniform texture. Therefore, kick, pinch, roll and do whatever you want with minced meat, right up to the moment you understand what you can sculpt. Then immediately stop manipulating and put the bowl in the freezer so that your workpiece freezes, and you can work on it further. About 30-40 minutes in a cold place will be enough.

Prepare a breading: Pour breadcrumbs (breadcrumbs) onto a plate, and mix the egg in another.

If you want to bread in fresh bread crumbs, then they are done like this. First, a piece of bread is kept in the refrigerator (up to one hour), and then gently, using a grater, is freed from its crust.
  The crumbs are then obtained in cereals, large and beautiful. It is hard to say why, but such a breading is always tastier.

Form cutlets.   Form does not affect taste, so do as you like.
  After fashioning, roll the meat blanks in breadcrumbs - cold sticky minced meat will be perfectly covered with crumbs.
  Do not forget to wet your hands with hot water. And try to sculpt quickly so that the stuffing does not get warm.

I used an egg, so I just got a swim in it. Dipped. Generously.

And again in breadcrumbs.

Cooking on the fire.   The cooking process for the already formed cutlets consists of 2 parts: first, they must be fried in a pan with vegetable oil over high heat to form a beautiful crust-shell, and then bring the internal stuffing, minced meat, to the oven.

Fry the cutlets in just a few minutes and immediately spread on a baking sheet (can be on foil).

We put in the oven for 10 minutes with convection turned on (if possible) at a temperature of 170-180 degrees.
  Or in normal mode with the same or slightly less than t.

We serve immediately from the fire.
  And on the side dish, of course, potatoes, as well as salted mushrooms and a foggy pile.

About the "authentic recipe" of fire cutlets

They say that in an authentic recipe (is there any one ?!) an egg (I use) and onions were not used, and the chicken was taken the fattest and fattened for slaughter: meat and breast were combined for cutlets. If it was just chicken at all, that’s not a fact.

Modern editions of fire cutlets treat oil differently. Allegedly, the ancestors used only melted, which is logical. But today it’s enough and good quality creamy. In addition, in recipes you can find a recommendation to mix butter with olive oil or fry cutlets exclusively on vegetable. What do you agree, is more suitable for adherents of a healthy diet.

Culinary historians argue about what was used: milk, cream or sour cream. And what was breaded: fresh crumbs or dry.

You can also find the recipe element a la - adding small slices of chopped cold butter directly to minced chicken. But this is a matter of taste, and is hardly related to a historical recipe.

Of course, there was no mention of any spices (today, without them, nowhere).

And a little more from the history of fire cutlets

The very name of the cutlets is intriguing. What side does Prince Pozharsky (if this is, of course, cutlets carry his last name) to cutlets? There are several versions why cutlets are so called, but the two most widely used.

The first reads as follows. Prince Pozharsky ordered his cook to cook veal cutlets, which he loved so much, and the cook did so skillfully. Moreover, there was a reason - the Grand Prince of Moscow came to visit. The cook replied that the veal, alas, ended yesterday. Having threatened the cook to make a cutlet out of him, if they were not on the table by the appointed time, the prince went about his princely affairs. And the cook ... and the cook saw a chicken running past, and it dawned on him.

The second legend is slightly less beautiful. It refers to the city of Torzhok and some Pozharsky, who lived in it and contained a tavern. By the way, the fact that the Pozharsky cooked amazing cutlets in their tavern is true. Pushkin himself advised Sobolevsky to dine at his leisure time in Torzhok and to taste fried cutlets at Pozharsky (AS Pushkin “From a letter to Sobolevsky”).

The legends, of course, are wonderful, but the fact that a reliable recipe has not been preserved. And this gives free rein to our imagination: having prepared our own version of fire cutlets, we will not hear what we did not at all that Pushkin enjoyed. So, we will experiment.

A couple more recipes of fire cutlets in your collection.

Pozharsky patties with butter

Recipe ingredients

• chicken fillet - 650 grams
• milk - 200 ml
• white bread crumb - 100 grams
• butter - 50 grams
• breadcrumbs
• egg - 1
• cooking oil

How to cook

Pour the bread with milk, let it turn sour. Turn the meat into minced meat by passing through a meat grinder.
  Combine minced meat, milk, soft butter, and bread together. Salt to taste. And again, pass through the meat grinder. And then beat off well (pick up a little mincemeat in your hand and sharply slap it back in a bowl - do it very carefully).

When the mass becomes plastic, form patties, each of which is crushed in breadcrumbs, then dip in the egg and roll again.

Fry in a preheated pan until golden brown. Then put in the oven for 10 minutes.

Pozharsky chicken and veal cutlets

It turns out a very interesting taste of cold cuts.

Recipe ingredients

• veal - 400 grams
• chicken meat - 400 grams
• onions - 400 grams
• cream 20% fat - 200 ml
• crumb of white bread - 150 grams
• butter - 150 grams
• salt pepper
• breadcrumbs
• melted butter for frying

How to cook

Put the crumb in a bowl and pour milk.

Chop the onion finely. Put a little butter in the pan and stew the onions in it. But do not bring it to a golden color! Just soften and make it transparent, that's enough.

Prepare the minced meat by passing chicken and veal, bread and cooled onions through a meat grinder. Salt and pepper, beat the meat mass well. Put it in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Push the chilled butter into the minced meat, mix and refrigerate again for half an hour.
  Form cutlets, roll each in a breading. Fry in melted butter until golden brown. Then bring to readiness in the oven (t - 200 degrees, time - minutes 7).

Classic cutlets are made from chicken breast and thighs. But there are recipes that use turkey, veal, hazel grouse and game. The composition of the dish also includes butter, white wheat bread, fat cream, onions, salt and spices. In the classic recipe, an egg is not used.

The five most commonly used ingredients in recipes for fire cutlets:

Billets are formed from minced meat and crushed in breadcrumbs. Cutlets are fried in vegetable or ghee, and then cooked in the oven.

Fire patties: cooking features

The history of the origin of this dish is quite curious. The wonderful Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, the writer Theofil Gauthier, the traveler Mikhailo Zhdanov, sang an amazing gentle taste in his poems.

At the beginning of the XIX century, the owner of the inn Yevdokim Pozharsky offered visitors tender cutlets of chopped veal. The heiress of family business Daria Pozharskaya improved the recipe and glorified her name for centuries. The innkeeper treated the famous dish of Emperor Nicholas I, passing through Torzhok. The taste of cutlets made such a strong impression on the king that he invited the innkeeper to the imperial court. Soon, the dish became popular in Russia and abroad. In Soviet times, the recipe was not forgotten, but it was possible to try it only in a good restaurant.

Five of the lowest calorie recipes for fire cutlets:

1. Chicken meat is minced in a food processor or blender. Stuffing is combined with soaked bread, add onions and chilled butter. The workpiece is brought to taste with salt and spices.
2. Sometimes cutlets are cooked with a filling. For her, they take cheese, mushrooms, chopped garlic, grated butter.
3. Cutlets are breaded in breadcrumbs or breadcrumbs. They are fried until golden brown, then sent to a preheated to 180 ° C for 15 minutes.

Before serving, cutlets are decorated with fresh herbs.

The dish is served with mashed potatoes, boiled rice, stewed vegetables.

Pozharsky patties ... Juicy, crispy, always served from under the knife and not tolerating reheating ... The dish is thorough and does not allow negligent attitude to oneself. Rarity and historical value, and at the same time - a very relevant dish, which is prepared with pleasure both at home and in restaurants.

The recipe for fire patties was invented at the beginning of the 19th century by Evdokim Pozharsky, the owner of a restaurant in the city of Torzhok. Chopped veal cutlets prepared in his institution, rightfully won popularity among numerous travelers from St. Petersburg to Moscow. After the death of her father, the daughter of Daria, who ran the tavern, became famous for "finalizing" this dish. Obviously, under the influence of the French tradition of cutlets, she begins to make them from chopped chicken. And Emperor Nicholas I, who was staying on occasion at a hotel, praised this dish, which laid the foundation for its all-Russian and European fame.

Since 1826, many historical figures, passing through Torzhok, mention the Pozharsky hotel and patties of the same name. At that time, they were one of the most famous tavern dishes on the road between St. Petersburg and Moscow. Undoubtedly, the main popularizer of cutlets was Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin:

“Have lunch at your leisure
  at Pozharsky in Torzhok,
  try fried cutlets
  and go light. ”

One of the earliest recipes is this one - a recipe from the "Almanac of Deli" for 1853 by Ignatius Radetzky, a professional chef.

Chicken fire cutlets naturally

Remove the required number of sirloins from the chickens, peel the veins, chop finely, put the butter in half the sirloins, stir, salt to taste, a little pepper, and cutlets of moderate size, brew in grated bread, then in egg and bread, and fold on melted butter in a saucepan, and before leaving to fry on both sides until color, and put in a dish, pour juice ...

After reading the recipe, there are too many questions to follow strictly. For example, what to do with the second half of sirloin and how to interpret the term “grated bread”. Olga Syutkina gave her revised version of the fire cutlets.

The recipe for fire cutlets from Olga Syutkina

INGREDIENTS

800 g minced chicken
  200 g white stale bread without crust
  200 ml chilled cream 20% fat
  150 g frozen butter
  half a classic frozen breading loaf
  ghee
  salt

STEP-BY-STEP COOKING RECIPE

Step 1
  Soak the bread in cream. Squeeze lightly. Scroll chicken twice through a meat grinder. The first time without bread, the second with bread.

Step 2
  Minced salt. In several steps, grate the frozen butter, each time stirring the forcemeat with a fork. Put the minced meat in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Step 3
  Grate the frozen loaf on a coarse grater and brown the crumbs in the oven at 160 ° C, 3-4 minutes.

Step 4
  Wet oval cutlets with wet hands and roll them in the prepared breading.

Step 5
  Warm ghee in a pan and fry cutlets for 2-3 minutes on each side.

Step 6
  Transfer to a baking dish and bake in the oven at 160 ° C, 15-20 minutes. Serve hot.

Preparation time: 1 h
  Cooking time: 1 h
  Servings Per Container: 10 Pieces

BTW

In order for the cutlets to be juicy and soft, you need to follow a few tips:

• For cutlets, it is best to use whole chicken fillet, including not only breast, but also thighs and drumsticks.
• Knead the meat with a fork, not with your hands.
• Stuffing does not beat off.
• Bread should be stale.
• Do not fry cutlets in vegetable oil. And do not regret ghee!

  Basic rules for cooking fire cutlets:

1. Cutlets have always been chopped.

2. Minced meat was always salted and pepper, and also added butter to it - not a piece, as in Kiev cutlets, but mixed with minced meat. But bread soaked in water or cream was not added to this dish. Such an additive appeared later - in 1989 in the "Practical Foundations of Culinary Art" by P. P. Alexandrova-Ignatieva.

3. Cutlets were of "moderate size", as they say - under the palm of Daria Pozharskaya herself.

4. For breading used white (wheat) bread, grated on a sieve. But we are now accustomed to seeing fire cutlets rolled in small bread cubes. Where did it come from? Again - thanks to Alexandrova-Ignatieva. It was she who proposed the recipe, where pieces of finely chopped butter white bread became the breading. Apparently, one of the Soviet cooks came across such a recipe, who introduced fashion for new fire cutlets in the dining rooms of the USSR.

Photo - Lory Photo Bank

A good fire patty should sprinkle with juice, exude a creamy flavor and have a crispy golden crust. Served with a side dish of mushrooms and potatoes, it can be safely considered the queen of Russian cuisine. The correct and tasty recipe for fire cutlets is not as simple as it seems: just one mistake is enough to make the dish lose its appeal. What is the technology and how to cook fire cutlets at home?

There is not a single person who would refuse to taste the delicacy that came to the liking even of the Russian tsars. Pozharsky patties are called the culinary attraction of Russia. But, despite the glory, one can’t call a beaten dish. This is largely due to a rather rigid cooking technology: a slight deviation can change the taste of the dish. But you can master the technology, most importantly, for the first time, do everything according to the rules, and then it will go like clockwork.

For the classic recipe for fire cutlets you will need:

• Chicken meat - 800 g
• Cream with a fat content of 20% - 250 ml
• Crust of white bread (preferably a loaf) - 200 g
• Large onion - 400 g
• Butter - 200 g
• Vegetable (sunflower) oil - 50 g
• Homemade breadcrumbs - 500 g
• Pepper, salt to taste.

Then the fun begins. When preparing the dish under discussion, it is important to do everything in stages, without breaking the sequence. And the first thing to do is chop the minced chicken. There is still debate: how best to cook it. You can cook fire cutlets at home in a whip, grinding minced meat in a meat grinder, but the best quality minced meat is obtained from meat cut to a size of 2-3 mm.

We start cooking:

1. Soak the bread crust in cream.
2. Cut the butter into small cubes (5 mm each) with a knife, remove it to freeze in the freezer.
3. Finely chop the onion to the size of a rice seed and fry in butter. It must melt, become transparent.
4. Mix the cooled onion, meat, bread, salt.
5. Add the cubes of oil to the minced meat.
6. Knead until smooth plastic consistency.
7. We clean for half an hour in the refrigerator.
8. We form cutlets.
9. We heat the pan.
10. Quickly roll the meatballs in breadcrumbs and lower them one by one into the pan.
11. Fry over high heat until crust, quickly turning.
12. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
13. We bring the patties to readiness within 15 minutes.

Cutlets cannot be overdried - otherwise the taste becomes different. They eat them hot with mashed potatoes, herbs, white bread.

The trick of technology! Cutlets cannot be made large, otherwise they will not be fried. Sculpt them oval in shape a little less than a palm. In this case, it is better to constantly moisten your hands with warm water, washing off excess minced meat and crackers from them. To do this, place a container of warm water next to the meat and wash your hands quickly from time to time. The process will go quickly, and the oil will not have time to melt.

Pre-revolutionary recipe for fire cutlets

Pozharsky cutlets were invented in the mid-19th century by the owners of a small inn from Torzhok Daria Pozharskaya and her husband. There is a legend that the emperor stopped by for dinner and ordered veal cutlets. Since there was no veal at that moment, innkeepers risked treating the emperor with a chicken dish. And he was delighted! Since then, the Pozharsky restaurant has flourished: everyone considered it his duty to taste delicious meatballs in Torzhok, so that soon the dish became famous throughout Russia.

How did the pre-revolutionary recipe differ from the modern one?

• Daria Pozharskaya never added onions to the minced meat.
• Chicken eggs were also not part of the required ingredients.
• Stuffing was prepared exclusively by chopping.
• Spices were expensive at the time, and the patties were not seasoned with them.
• The crumb was never squeezed, but only high-quality bread was taken - dense and without voids.

For the rest, the ancient recipe for chicken fire cutlets remained unchanged.

Curious! Want to know what guests of the Pozharsky tavern liked to eat cutlets? It turns out that the most popular was the ala-bechamel sauce with porcini mushrooms. It was crushed to a state of mashed potatoes and watered them with cutlets on top.

Simple and tasty fire patties with cheese

Cheese filling, of course, does not fit into the traditional recipe, but makes the patties even tastier. In this variation, you can add garlic to the minced meat, which goes very well with cheese and adds piquancy.

How to cook such patties? We do everything exactly the same as in the basic recipe. Knead the minced meat well, but without oil. We start our "buns" with cheese of any kind, although it is better to take semi-hard cheese with a pinworm or dorblu with blue mold.

Bread cutlets in breadcrumbs, fry, put on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes in the oven, heated to 180 degrees. You need to eat a hot dish while enjoying molten cheese.

Tender pork cutlets

Despite the fact that the classic recipe recommends using only chicken, experienced chefs do not give up trying to diversify the recipe. They mix meat of different fat content, take several varieties, and some came to the conclusion that it is impossible to think of anything better than pork: it is she who gives special tenderness, juiciness to fire cutlets.

The secret of the dish is in a special way of cooking minced meat. Before you cut it into pieces, the pork is beaten so that the layers of meat are translucent, and with a subtlety resembled writing paper. For this, cooks wrap the slices in cling film, striking them with a culinary hammer. Most suitable for these purposes is pork fillet or pieces of the neck.

The minced meat is kneaded by adding the ingredients according to the basic recipe. Cutlets are just as well stuffed with oil, fried and cooked in the oven.

With veal and bacon

Culinary historians claim that in the legendary tavern, the dish was made from veal and only by pure chance, the meatballs became famous as chicken. We think that the version has a right to exist. Moreover, veal, like tender and dietary meat, is more suitable for children and people with stomach diseases. Keep the proportions the same as in the basic recipe, but instead of butter, use lard without garlic.

So, we soak the bread in cream, cut the fat with tiny cubes and freeze it in the refrigerator. We chop the veal into small "peas", mix everything with lard and bread. Now it’s important to thoroughly mix the minced meat, mold the neat cutlets and roll them in homemade breadcrumbs. Fry them until golden brown in butter, and then bring to readiness in the oven. The bacon should melt during this time, giving each piece an extraordinary juiciness. We serve cutlets with any side dish.

Pozharsky cutlets from Julia Vysotskaya

Culinary fairy Julia Vysotskaya gives traditional meatballs its flavor. She urges not to give up her favorite spices and adds a mixture of peppers to the minced meat, which she often praises for its versatility and inimitable aroma.

The difference between the recipe and the fact that, together with the meat, she punch potatoes cooked until half cooked in a blender. This, in her opinion, makes the dish more satisfying and attractive for children. She also prefers to bring preparedness in a water bath: steamed minced meat becomes dietary and surprisingly juicy.

The recipe for fire cutlets from Ilya Lazerson

Ilya Lazerson, famous for his “brutal” approach to cooking, uses only chicken breasts in fire cutlets, and increases fat content through cream 20%, which he generously pours into bread while soaking. At the same time, he recommends taking toast as the most “sticky” and suitable for minced meat.

He bakes crackers himself, using thinly sliced \u200b\u200bloafs of loaf, and then rolls cutlets into them, giving the shape of hedgehogs. Only Laserson fries the dish in a frying pan - the main cooking process takes place in the oven. The best side dish, according to the master, is mashed potatoes and thick champignon sauce.

In general, all chefs strive to adhere to the classics of the genre - meat base, breadcrumbs, finely chopped butter cubes. Here are three whales of real "fire" cutlets. Try to cook them yourself, and you will discover a new taste, get acquainted with the original Russian dish.

If you decide to master this masterpiece, first forget everything that you remember about minced meat, cheap ready-made minced meat and generally a daily kitchen routine. Fire cutlets   - This is a completely different story. The dish is elegant, complex, requiring meaningful preparation. A dish that is appropriate for a dinner party.

Products for fire patties require the most affordable: chicken, milk or cream, white bread, onions, butter, salt and pepper. An egg, as mentioned above, does not need to be added. However, buying and preparing products should also be very meaningful.

Products and Preparation

Chicken meat for a fire patty should be as fat as possible, but this does not mean that you can just add a couple of pieces of bacon to it and calm down. This means that the anemic chicken breast fillet from the nearest supermarket is absolutely not suitable here. Buy a whole chicken, as large and fat as possible. If you are not very keen on chickens, ask the seller for chicken, which can be roasted whole in the oven. After butchering it, take about equally equal meat from the breast and legs - if the chicken is well-fed, the meat from the legs will contain just the right amount of fat. Remove bones and skin.

White bread for fire patties   comparatively little is needed, but all the more attention must be paid to its quality. Crisp, firm, crumbless without voids and bubbles, fresh taste - I think anyone understands what good bread is. Cut the crust from the loaf, cut half, wrap in paper and put in the freezer for an hour and a half.

Cut a couple of thick slices from the remaining bread, break them into large pieces, put in a deep plate, fill with milk or cream. That is, if you have good milk at your disposal, use it ( it is not as simple as it seems; in particular, inexpensive sterilized milk from the bag is not suitable even for a decent cappuccino - it is strange to think that it will behave better in cutlets) If there is no good milk, use cream with a fat content of at least 20% ( better fatter).

As for the onion, it must be cleaned by cutting everything, even with a slight hint of keratinization, and cut into pieces the size of a grain of rice. Then heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and cook it, stirring and in no way allowing the color to change until soft and transparent. Once the onion is ready, transfer it to a clean plate and cool to room temperature. If there is a temptation to add onions to the chicken without frying, chase it away - there is little in the world even a mixture of raw chicken and raw onions.

It is clear that butter for fire cutlets is also not bad to buy a good one ( i prefer Irish, but it's subjective) Cut it into cubes with a side of less than 5 millimeters, put them in a bowl, tighten with foil and send to the freezer.

There are three ways to make minced chicken meat: by passing the meat through a meat grinder, smashing it in a blender or chopping it finely by hand with a knife. There are two problems with the meat grinder: it crushes the meat, destroying its cellular structure, and you can not control its work in any way. Therefore, I personally prefer a blender - it can be stopped at any time, and it does about the same as a knife, but much faster. When the meat is minced to the consistency of buckwheat porridge, add the cooled fried onions and bread soaked in milk or cream, without squeezing it ( it is here that the density of the crumb will affect - good bread provides the right ratio without any additional measurements) and press the button again, just to mix the ingredients.

Work with the mass

What you did can be called minced, but fire cutlets   one cannot yet make of it. Transfer the minced meat to a large bowl and begin to knead. It is necessary to knead in approximately the same manner as the dough: kneading fingers into a layer, then collecting in a sausage or lump, again kneading into a layer; among other things, you can still wrap a lump in a film and several times forcefully hit it on the surface of the table (you can hit without wrapping; but there will be splashes). In the process, the mince should be seasoned with salt and black pepper. The main goal is to achieve complete uniformity and plasticity. However, it is important not to mix the cutlet mass, since the meat is still different from flour. As soon as you feel that the mass can be sculpted, immediately stop kneading.

Now remove the pieces of frozen oil from the freezer, throw them into the minced meat and mix quickly - very quickly so that the oil does not begin to melt. Then put the minced meat in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for half an hour. During this time, the fat contained in the meat will have time to freeze and thereby give the mass a unified and viscous consistency.

Breading

While the minced meat cools in the refrigerator, there is time to tackle the breading. Remove a frozen piece of bread from the freezer. At this point, he should lose twenty percent moisture, and that is what we need. Grate the bread on a coarse grater to get some kind of flakes, not very long, but not very short either. This is the breading for fire cutlets - the most important detail, by the way. Pour it onto a large flat plate.

Molding

Place a bowl of water on the table - as hot as your hand can handle. Do not worry, the water will cool soon. Take cold minced meat from the refrigerator and start making cutlets.

Immerse both hands in water. Scoop minced meat with your hand, so that a handful is full, but without a hill. Cover a handful with the second palm, press lightly to make a pie, and quickly give it the correct shape, patting it on the side with one palm or the other. Then slightly flatten the cutlet - this must be done very carefully so that no cracks go along the edge - and again give it the correct shape. Roll the finished patty on both sides in breading. The trick is that by this moment moisture should come out on the surface of the cutlet and the breading will stick without any additional glue. Put the cutlet on a clean dish, dip your hands in hot water and continue until the meat is over.

An important condition: the forcemeat should remain cold enough, otherwise the cutlets will not hold their shape well, or even creep out. If this starts to happen, take your time and do not get angry, but put a bowl with minced meat and a dish with prepared cutlets in the refrigerator. Let it cool, and in the meantime, have a cup of tea. By the way, if the trouble went away, and everything worked out - still put the dish with cutlets in the refrigerator for at least ten minutes.

Cooking

Traditionally, in Russian fire patties are fried in ghee. No questions, it’s delicious, but I like the French way of mixing butter with olive.

So, preheat the oven to 180ºС ( if your oven has a convection function, then up to 170ºС) Place a large pan with a thick bottom on medium heat, pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into it, then put a small piece of cream. When the butter has melted, mix both types of butter with a fork, spoon or a quick swinging motion of the pan - and start laying out the patties. This should be done at a pace, keeping the interval between the cutlets about a centimeter and in one selected direction, either clockwise or against it, so it’s easier not to get confused with which cutlet is fried and which is not.

When the pan is full, it is time to turn the patties on the other side. When all of them are turned upside down, it is time to shift them one by one onto a baking sheet ( i advise you to cover it with foil, so as not to wash it later) Some chefs send meatballs to the oven right in the pan, but I like it when they get a little drier outside.

Place a baking tray with fried cutlets in a preheated oven. It is hard to say how long it takes to bring them to mind. Depends on the size of the cutlets, the quality of the ingredients and the nature of the particular oven. I can only say that the minimum known to me is seven minutes, and a maximum of twelve.

Innings

Unfortunately, fire cutlets   you can’t warm it up, because warming up leads to the loss of the very charming difference in the internal and surface consistency, for which all the trouble was started. Therefore, they should be served at the table as soon as possible, and with the most unpretentious side dish. Classics mention fried and baked potatoes, I like buckwheat porridge fried on duck fat, or even just a piece of rye bread. I never thought about the wine that is appropriate for this dish, since fire-cutlets always eat silently, concentratedly and without being distracted by rubbish.

Someone may notice that I did not mention the chicken bone, which is sometimes customary to incorporate into the cutlets allegedly for beauty - but if at the same time it explains to me what exactly the beauty of the charred bone is, one more secret in the world will become less .

Proportions

For 800 g of fresh chicken meat without bones, films and skin, 400 g of peeled onions, 100-150 g of fresh white bread without crust and about 200 g of the same bread for breading, 1 cup of good milk or heavy cream, as well as good butter, 150 g cut into cubes and freeze, and about 50 g will go to fry the onions and cutlets themselves. Yes, you still need olive oil for frying ( not necessarily extra virgin, but ok if so), as well as salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.