This Grain-Free Pork Schnitzel from The Whole Smiths is the perfect recipe for any weeknight but it’s bound to make any Oktoberfest celebration a bit healthier and tastier too! It’s easy to make and is sure to be a hit with the entire family.

Hey everyone! Brad here for the first time. I have the day off so Michelle decided to put me to work and write her blog posts for her. Charming, isn’t she? You may or may not know that I actually love to cook as well and I’m pretty good at it.

I had a craving for schnitzel.

What we cook is most often a product of what we have on hand at the time. We do light meal planning, however more often than not, simply looking at what we have on hand is what ends up on the dinner table. This recipe for Grain-Free Pork Schintzel started in that “what sounds good” department and evolved based on what we had on hand.

As a self-described “meat and potatoes” kinda guy, I naturally gravitate towards hearty comfort foods. So one day when I saw a beautifully styled photo of a pretzel-crusted pork schnitzel online, it’s all I could think about for the rest of the day.

Schnitzel 101.

What’s a schnitzel you ask? A schnitzel is simply a thinly sliced piece of meat, usually breaded and fried in some kind of fat. Whether you call it schnitzel (from the German for “little slice”), tonkatsu (Japan), escalope (France), or milanesa (Italy and South America), you are getting pretty much the same delicious thing. A fried and breaded thin piece of meat. Needless to say, people have been frying up meat in different shapes and forms around the world for a long time. A German schnitzel traditionally uses a thin pork cutlet that is then breaded.

This brings us back to my quickly developing culinary dilemma. After seeing that lovely photo, I was now getting a serious craving for schnitzel. A dive into our freezer revealed that among the multitude of meats we have (Thank you Belcampo! Use “SMITHS10” for a discount.), the one thing missing was pork chops. I mean, seriously? We had flank steaks, ribeyes, roasts, stew meat, ground beef, chicken breasts, whole chickens…the list goes on but alas, no pork chops. The only pork I could find was some wonderful pasture-raised ground pork. I could make that work.

A grain-free breading alternative.

Alright, I had the meat portion figured out, but I had to figure out the breading. Having a gluten-free cookbook author in the house means that we probably had some options on hand. I first saw a bag of pork rinds and thought “Yes, crushed pork rinds would be perfect!”. In our home we love the ones from 4505 Meats. They are hands down the best. 4505 Meats is local to us but you can have them on your doorstep in 2 days through Amazon. Here’s the thing, I love pork rinds that an open bag is usually an empty bag. A quick peak revealed that I had already done some damage and only had a small amount left. I realized the pork rinds would bring the flavor but I could augment them with almond flour and tapioca starch. Alright, curveball number two, handled!

Lastly, I looked for some additional traditional-ish accompaniments and saw that we had some flat-leaf parsley and lemon. It’s like we actually planned for this.

Get that pork thin!

As I started to put everything together I realized there were going to be a couple of challenges using ground pork instead of pork chops. In order to make it more schnitzel-like and less like a pork burger, it needed to be very thin. But not too thin. I initially made the patties thin but too large in diameter and they fell apart when I tried to dip them in the egg and breading mixture. A bit of testing and I discovered that the ideal patty size was a width or 3-4 inches wide and about ¼ inch thick. I also used a metal spatula with a sharp edge to gently get them off of the surface I had them resting on.

All about that technique.

Hold the patties gently in your hand while you use your other hand or a fork to brush the egg over the top. Then, simply turn it over and hit the other side as well. Once it has a thin egg coating on it, lightly lay it into a shallow bowl of the flour/pork rind mixture. Sprinkle the mixture over the top. It’s a delicate process, I know. But it works and it isn’t difficult.

Using either your hand or a thin spatula, slide out the now coated patty and place into your frying pan of hot oil. Since the patties are nice and thin, they don’t take a long time to cook. Once you get that crave-worthy golden brown color, give them a quick flip to cook a bit on the other side. Then set it on a paper towel-lined plate to wait while you finish up the others.

To serve, a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of parsley is all you need to finish these off. Pair them with a fresh salad like Michelle’s Giant Green Salad with Dill + Black Pepper Dressing or some roasted potatoes like her Patatas Bravas with Garlic Aioli (who says you can’t mix cuisines?). Although they weren’t exactly what I set out to make, these little schnitzel patties hit the spot and dare I say… even better?

Tips:

Keep your patties thin, the idea is to have a hot, quick cook time on these to get a nice crust on the schnitzel. It’s not intended to be a juicy burger!
Use a metal spatula with a sharp edge to be able to transfer the uncooked patties without them sticking to their surface.

Can I use ground beef for this recipe?

Sure! It will work but it will obviously have a different flavor profile.

I don’t have any tapioca starch/flour on hand, can I just use almond flour?

Unfortunately, no. Grain-free flours each have different properties to them, mixing them together at different ratios is what gives them a similar texture to grain-based breadings.

gluten-free pork schnitzel on a white plate served with lemon wedges

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