PORK MILANESE: Easy, Elegant and CHEAP!

Pork Milanese elevates the lowly (inexpensive!) pork chop to a company worthy meal. It’s easy enough for weeknight dinners too!

Pork Milanese is a super easy, fast, and inexpensive way to jazz up dinner time. Perfect for a crowd because a little pork goes a long way!

What do you serve Pork Milanese with?

Greens

We like them best served on a big platter, family style, on a bed of dressed arugula or baby greens. We dress the greens simply with a drizzle of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and honey. A sprinkle of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper and you’re ready to serve. This is standard Milanese style, sans tomatoes. We’re not a big fresh tomato crowd around here, but they do add a lot of visual interest to the plate. If you want to add them, put them on top of the greens, under the dressing, and add an extra sprinkle of kosher salt to each tomato. (If you have time, sprinkle the tomatoes with salt before putting everything together: a little salt will make the tomato super tasty and juicy.

Pasta

Serve your crunchy pork cutlet on top of pasta or buttered egg noodles for a classic treat.

Mashed Spuds

Serve the pork on top of a mound of mashed potatoes (extra points for roasted garlic mashed) with some brown gravy. This pretty much requires peas on the side.

Schnitzel

Serve with a garnish of parsley and a sprinkle of lemon for schnitzel. A fried egg (sunny-side up, please) makes for a perfect saucy topper. Add some German Spaetzle for a tantalizing side.

Parmigiana

Add half a cup of grated parmesan cheese to the bread crumbs and proceed with the recipe as written. Top with some store bought marinara and melt provolone or mozzarella for Pork Parmigiana. Add some garlic bread to sop up all the juice.

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Pork Milanese Recipe Details

Prep the pork chops by removing any visible fat and cutting each in half horizontally. (Basically Butterfly the chops, but don’t stop when it’s open like a book: go all the way through the edge. You’ll have two thin pork chops.) Place on a piece of plastic wrap or inside a plastic bag.

Sprinkle the pork chop with a few drops of room temperature water to lubricate the meat so it doesn’t tear while pounding. Cover the chop with another piece of plastic wrap and pound with the flat side of your Meat Tenderizer. No meat tenderizer? Use a heavy skillet or a rolling pin.

Set first pork cutlet aside and continue cutting and flattening chops. When the meat is ready, set up your dredging station. I like to use my cake pans for this because the sides are high enough that I don’t get the countertops completely covered with schmutz. Any shallow bowls will work though. And they don’t have to match.

Season the flour and the cutlets. Sprinkle the cutlets with kosher salt and ground black pepper before you dredge in flour to make sure the pork is perfectly seasoned.

Dredge in flour on both sides of the cutlet. Use your trusty tongs to hold the meat so your fingers don’t get all covered in breading. Bonus: you only have to clean the tongs once.

Then into the eggs!

And finally, into the panko. You can either bread all the cutlets at the same time and keep them resting on a platter while you are cooking, or you can bread as the pan is ready for them, which is what I do.

Time to cook!

Heat the oil in the cast iron pan until shimmery, then melt a tablespoon of butter until mixture foams. Sauté the cutlets in the skillet for about 1 minute on each side. I like the cast iron skillet for this because it heats evenly and maintains the temp for all the cutlets. If you’re picking up a cast iron skillet, don’t forget to grab this (wonderful!) cleaner for it too: Ringer Cast Iron Cleaner.

Continue cooking the cutlets and keep warm in a 350 degree F oven on a sheet pan while you cook the remaining pork. The pork should be at least 145 degree F internally when tested with a meat thermometer.

While the cutlets are cooking, prep the greens on a big serving platter and drizzle with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and honey. Sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Nestle the cutlets into the dressed greens.

Whip up the easy butter caper pan sauce: Melt a few tablespoons of butter in the pan. When it foams, add in the capers, and cook for about a minute. Be careful – they’ll pop a little because of the brine.

Spoon the sauce on top of the cutlets (or serve on the side if not everyone is a fan of the little salt bites that are capers.)

Not feeling like a salad? Pop that cutlet (or two) on a roll and top with lettuce and tomatoes. That’s a handful!

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