Milanese Breaded Veal Cutlet (Cotoletta alla Milanese)
A thin veal cutlet, breaded and fried in butter until deeply golden and shatteringly crisp outside, juicy inside. One of Milan's proudest dishes, best eaten the moment it leaves the pan with just a wedge of lemon.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Pound the cutlets
Place each cutlet between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound evenly with a meat mallet or the bottom of a small pot until about 1 cm thick, keeping the bone (if using) intact at the edge. Trim any thick rim of fat or sinew.
- 4 veal cutlets
✅ Done when: the meat is an even thickness all over, about 1 cm
Beat the eggs
In a wide shallow dish, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt until smooth. Spread the breadcrumbs on a separate flat plate.
- 2 eggs
- 1 pinch salt
- 200 g breadcrumbs
✅ Done when: the egg is well mixed and no streaks of white remain
Bread the cutlets
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Fry in butter
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Season and serve
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Pound the cutlets
Place each cutlet between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound evenly with a meat mallet or the bottom of a small pot until about 1 cm thick, keeping the bone (if using) intact at the edge. Trim any thick rim of fat or sinew.
- 4 veal cutlets
✅ Done when: the meat is an even thickness all over, about 1 cm
Beat the eggs
In a wide shallow dish, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt until smooth. Spread the breadcrumbs on a separate flat plate.
- 2 eggs
- 1 pinch salt
- 200 g breadcrumbs
✅ Done when: the egg is well mixed and no streaks of white remain
Bread the cutlets
This step is part of Foodie Premium. Subscribe to unlock the full method, cooking mode and every recipe in the library.
Fry in butter
This step is part of Foodie Premium. Subscribe to unlock the full method, cooking mode and every recipe in the library.
Season and serve
This step is part of Foodie Premium. Subscribe to unlock the full method, cooking mode and every recipe in the library.
The Story Behind the Dish
Cotoletta alla Milanese is one of Milan's great culinary symbols: a veal cutlet, pounded thin, breaded and fried in butter until crisp. It appears in Milanese cookbooks and trattoria menus going back to the 1800s, part of a long Lombard tradition of frying meat in butter rather than oil.
The dish is often linked, sometimes contested, with the Austrian Wiener Schnitzel, since Lombardy was under Austrian rule for part of the 19th century. Milanese cooks and historians have long claimed their cotoletta came first.
⭐ Why It's Famous
Its appeal is simplicity done perfectly: a thin, evenly golden crust that shatters at the first bite, giving way to tender, juicy veal, with nothing more than a squeeze of lemon needed.
💡 Fun Fact
A proper old-school cotoletta is cut with the rib bone left on and pounded so thin it hangs over the edge of the plate, a style Milanese cooks affectionately call 'orecchia d'elefante', elephant ear.
Milan, Lombardy
45.46°N, 9.19°E
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