Wiener Schnitzel or Viennese Schnitzel: Recipe with Step by Step Instructions Breading and Cooking Video

from Thomas Sixt
Hi, I am a German Chef and Food Photographer. The imparting of cooking knowledge is my great passion. Everyone can cook for himself and with this website I would like to contribute to its success. Cooking questions I answer you gladly at the end of the articles. Have fun and good luck!

Table of Contents
- 1. What Kind of Meat for Wiener Schnitzel?
- 2. Viennese Schnitzel Side Dishes
- 3. Bread Viennese Schnitzel
- 4. Fry Viennese Schnitzel optimal
- 5. Wiener Schnitzel Lafer, Wiener Schnitzel Schuhbeck, Star Chef Info
- 6. Video Lemon Star for Wiener Schnitzel Preparation
- 7. Wiener Schnitzel Recipe
- 8. Calories (kcal) Wiener Schnitzel with Potato Salad, an Overview of Nutritional Values
- 9. Wiener Schnitzel in Vienna… Eat + some History at the End
1. What Kind of Meat for Wiener Schnitzel?
The original Wiener Schnitzel is made from veal. A breaded schnitzel made of pork or turkey or chicken is called “Schnitzel Viennese Kind”. The good veal escalope meat is cut from the veal topside, veal bottomside, Austria: veal fricandeau, Switzerland: veal undercut or veal undercut. The following table will help you with your shopping:Description | Meat type | Cut(s) |
---|---|---|
Original Wiener Schnitzel Original Viennese Schnitzel | Veal | topside, bottomside, back, fillet |
Schnitzel Viennese style | Chicken | Brust |
Schnitzel Viennese style | Pork | Oberschale, Rücken, Filet |
Schnitzel Viennese style | turkey meat | Putenbrust |
Schnitzel Viennese style | Game meat: deer, roe deer, wild boar | topside, bottomside, back, fillet |
Vegetarian schnitzel Viennese style | Smoked tofu, tofu, seitan, lupinia schnitzel, potato-based vegetable schnitzel. | #schnitzelwithoutanimal |

2. Viennese Schnitzel Side Dishes
Since you usually have to prepare the side dishes for the schnitzel first, the side dish thing comes in second place here! It is also a good idea if you have just bought the meat and now want to think of the side dishes for the schnitzel. I have arranged the side dishes for Wiener Schnitzel according to regional differences. Please choose a supplement now…For a stress-free schnitzel meal, prepare the side dishes first!
Side Dishes | Region | Particular Feature |
---|---|---|
Wiener Schnitzel with parsley potatoes | Austria | Parsley potatoes tossed in foamed butter, served with cranberries |
Wiener Schnitzel with Viennese potato salad | Vienna/Austria | Red onions in potato salad |
Wiener Schnitzel with potato and lamb's lettuce and pumpkin seed oil | Austria/Vienna/Styria (Styria is the home of TERMINATOR!) | Potato salad refined with pumpkin seed oil and lamb's lettuce |
Wiener Schnitzel with bacon potato salad | Bavaria (Where Thomas and the great beer comes from 🙂 | Typical Bavarian potato salad sometimes supplemented with cucumber, endive, lamb's lettuce. |
Wiener Schnitzel with French fries | Germany | Pommes frites mit Ketchup und Mayonnaise serviert |
Wiener Schnitzel with mayonnaise-potato salad | Northern Germany | Potato salad with herbs or pickled gherkin |
Wiener Schnitzel with roast potatoes | Northern Germany | Season fried potatoes with marjoram, thyme, salt and pepper. |
Wiener Schnitzel with mixed salad | all regions | Cabbage salad, carrot salad, potato salad, cucumber salad, leaf salad |
Wiener Schnitzel with green salad | all regions | Green salad with rather sweet salad sauce |
Wiener Schnitzel, Swabian potato salad, gravy | Region Swabia | In the region around Stuttgart, Swabia, Wiener Schnitzel is served with gravy, among other things. |
2.1 Potato Salad with Viennese Schnitzel
Here are some varieties of potato salad that go well with your Wiener Schnitzel:- Potato Salad Viennese
- Baverian Potato Salad
- Potato Salad Mayonnaise
- Bacon Potato Salad
- Swabian Potato Salat

2.2 Further Side Dishes with Viennese Schnitzel
Here are some more side dishes of the Wiener Schnitzel in a nutshell- Make your own French fries
- Parsley potatoes: Boil the potatoes until soft, peel and toss in butter. Finish with salt, pepper, nutmeg and finely chopped parsley.
- Fried potatoes: Cook the potatoes until soft, peel them and fry them crispy in hot fat. Finish with salt, pepper, nutmeg, caraway and finely chopped parsley.
- Juice: If, then please correctly, with veal jus
I have eaten Viennese Schnitzel with sauce only once in my life: In a Michelin-starred restaurant in Stuttgart I had Viennese Schnitzel with morel jus based on veal jus. DELICIOUS!
3. Bread Viennese Schnitzel
For breading Viennese Schnitzel you need a breading line: 1 flour, 2 eggs, 3 breadcrumbs:- Schnitzel meat prepared, cut by butcher, thickness of schnitzel meat: guideline 5-7 mm
- A roll of cling film, a plating iron or a schnitzel beater or a saucepan with stems for beating the schnitzel.
- A fork for beating the eggs and pulling the schnitzel through the beaten and spiced egg.
- A bowl with freshly sieved flour (Wiener Grießler or type 405)
- A bowl with breadcrumbs
- A bowl for the eggs: Season the eggs with salt, pepper, some paprika and some cream and whisk well.
- A plate for the breaded escalope, this is covered with some breadcrumbs, so that the breaded escalope does not soak.



Why the schnitzel has to go into the flour…
The so-called “flouring” (Austria: “farinieren”), i.e. the coating of the meat with flour, is of great importance. Egg does not adhere to raw meat. A coating with flour creates the connection between the meat and the egg. By the correct breading with flour and egg also the breadcrumbs stick perfectly to the schnitzel. The preparation step: “Turn meat first in flour” is important for a successful breaded escalope!


4. Fry Viennese Schnitzel optimal
Wow, thanks, you made it this far. This is the difference between you and 94% of the average chefs 🙂 If I visit you, I get surely a great schnitzel… Your side dishes are ready, your schnitzel is breaded, NOW it goes to the schnitzel roast. Here are the most important secrets of good schnitzel cooking:- The Viennese Schnitzel must make a free swimmer in hot fat!
- Heat a high pan with plenty (1.5 finger high) of rapeseed oil, maize germ oil or sunflower oil.
- Carefully place the freshly breaded schnitzel in the hot fat and bake on both sides.
- When baking the schnitzel, carefully swivel the pan to create the wavy breading. This process is called “prompting”.
4.1 Viennese Schnitzel – the right Fat or Butter?
I recommend neutral, refined oil for the schnitzel roast: Rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, maize germ oil. The Viennese Schnitzel, baked in clarified butter, gets a very sweet note. Pork lard used to be popular and is known from grandma’s kitchen as well as neutral coconut fat. Butter is unsuitable for escalope roasting because butter burns at high temperatures. The experienced chef swivels the schnitzel briefly in salted, foamed butter after frying in hot fat and gives the schnitzel a real #taste kick.5. Wiener Schnitzel Lafer, Wiener Schnitzel Schuhbeck, Star Chef Info
Star chefs prepare the Viennese Schnitzel with a particularly fine breading. The special breadcrumbs are called “Mie de pain”. For this, box white bread is dried without rind, then finely grated into breadcrumbs. The fine breadcrumbs promise a special taste experience!Alfons Schuhbeck swivels his escalopes baked in fat in foamed butter shortly before serving. Johann Lafer prepares the Wiener Schnitzel with clarified butter. At Eckart Witzigmann, I discovered schnitzel tossed in nut butter with capers and lemon fillets.

6. Video Lemon Star for Wiener Schnitzel Preparation
Please note: Due to the fact that in this video I am cameraman and cook in one, I show cutting out the lemon in my hand, above the board. Please put the lemon on the board at home and cut it out safely. So nothing can happen to your hands.7. Wiener Schnitzel Recipe
Now it starts, I wish you good success and much fun with the frying of Wiener Schnitzel… If you have any questions, please use the comment function at the bottom of the page!Viennese Schnitzel - Viennese Escalope with potato Salad
Detailed recipe with article about the original Wiener Schnitzel with potato salad. The Austrian chef Thomas Sixt shows you how to prepare the popular veal escalope, the breadcrumbed and fried veal meat escalopes step by step.

Cousine
Keyword
Preparation Time
20 Min.
Cook Time
20 Min.
Ingredients
Potato Salad |
||
350 | g | salad potaoes |
350 | ml | chicken broth (I take most time vegetable broth) |
1 | tbsp | mustard (try the original mustard Estragonsenf from Austria) |
1-2 | pc | onion (yellow or like in Vienna red onion) |
2-3 | tbsp | white wine vinegar (or red wine vinegar) |
Salt | ||
black pepper | ||
brown cane sugar | ||
2 | tbsp | Sunflower oil |
Decoration |
||
1/2 | pc | Lemon |
1/2 | bunch | Parsley |
1 | tbsp | Cranberries |
Wiener Schnitzel |
||
2 | pc | escalope of veal (je 140-160g) |
100 | g | freshly sieved flour |
2 | pc | eggs |
1-2 | pinch | paprika spice noble sweet (test it please!) |
1 | tbsp | Cream (test it please!) |
150-200 | g | Rapeseed oil (take more if you have a big pan) |
140 | g | breadcrumbs |
Salt | ||
black or white pepper |
Instruction
For the Wiener Schnitzel we start with the fast potato salad: Peel the potatoes, cut into 3-4 mm thick slices and cook until soft in the chicken broth or vegetable broth. The potatoes should be just covered. A large part of the broth may evaporate during cooking. At the end of the cooking time, add the diced onions for 5 minutes and leave to simmer in the hot stock.
If necessary, drain some stock, season potato salad with mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper and add the sunflower oil. Let the potato salad steep. Note: The sunflower oil gives the potato salad a glamorous appearance!
Cut out the lemon star or lemon quarter with a suitable office knife. Prepare the cranberries, finely chop some parsley for the potato salad.
Schnitzel breading: Prepare bowls with flour, breadcrumbs and egg. Whisk the eggs with salt, pepper, paprika and cream with a fork.
Beat the veal escalope, season with salt and pepper, then turn first in flour, then in egg and breadcrumbs and bread crumbs and press gently.
Keep plates warm at 100 °C.
Heat a pan with rapeseed oil and gently fry the breaded Wiener Schnitzel on both sides until golden yellow.
Season potato salad again, potato salad needs several times the addition of salt and pepper, add finely chopped parsley. Arrange the potato salad in bowls.
Remove the baked Wiener Schnitzel from the pan and place on a plate. Fry the remaining parsley briefly in hot fat and place on a plate with kitchen paper. Season crispy parsley with salt. Pour the fat into a heat-resistant bowl. Wipe out the pan and froth the butter in the hot pan. Lightly season the butter with salt.
Before serving, briefly toss the baked Wiener Schnitzel in the foamed butter and arrange on the preheated plates. Decorate with fried parsley and lemon and serve with potato salad.
Video
The information on flour and breadcrumbs are approximate values, please provide both ingredients in sufficient quantities so that the breading is easy to handle.
8. Calories (kcal) Wiener Schnitzel with Potato Salad, an Overview of Nutritional Values
9. Wiener Schnitzel in Vienna… Eat + some History at the End
Recommended restaurants in Vienna at a glance:
- Plachuttas Gasthaus zur Oper, Walfischgasse 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria, +43 1 5122251
- Figlmüller Lugeck, Lugeck 4, 1010 Vienna, Austria, +43 1 5125060
- Figlmüller Bäckerstrasse, Bäckerstrasse 6, 1010 Vienna, Austria, +43 1 5121760
- Figlmüller Wollzeile, Wollzeile 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria, +43 1 5126177
- Insider tip: Glacis Beisl at the Museumsquartier, Breite Gasse 4, 1070 Vienna, Austria, +43 1 5265660
9.1 History of the Wiener Schnitzel
Wiener Schnitzel is one of the most famous international dishes of Viennese cuisine.
The dish first mentioned in a 1908 cookbook and originally called “Einbröselte Kalbsschnitze” (crumbed veal schnitzel) cannot be historically clearly classified in terms of origin and actual origin.
The relationship to the “Costoletta alla milanese” is undisputed, i.e. a cutlet breaded in a similar way with egg and breadcrumbs and baked in clarified butter.
Gold on the plate: Already in the Middle Ages in wealthy circles dishes were “refined” with gold in order to enhance their appearance.
According to tradition, the golden-yellow baked schnitzel is an imitation of these gilded dishes.
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