Breaded Pork Steaks (Polish Style)

Snowy weekends are all about cooking comfort food, in my case, this usually means recreating a Polish dish from my childhood kitchen. Whilst on a recent visit home, I borrowed an old 1970’s Polish cookbook, called Kuchnia Polska, to serve both as a reference point and as a reminder of home. For a quick alternative to a Sunday roast, we had Kotlety Schabowe today, which are Breaded Pork Steaks or Chops. We used to have these all the time at home, usually served with mashed potato, or new potatoes with butter and dill and my favourite, mashed beetroot!

Breaded Pork Steaks

An unexpected surprise when looking through old books at my mama’s house is that you often find leaflets tucked inside, in this case, I found an old baking leaflet, with recipes for ‘coconut pyramids’ and ‘melting moments’ – who remembers those? I love the fact that, in the days before the internet and blogging, you were invited to write to ‘The Home Economist’ for your free recipe leaflet. I also came across a very handy Herb & Spice Chart, which is probably around twenty years old.   

Kuchnia_Polska

I opened Kuchnia Polska at Kotlety Schabowe, or breaded pork chops. I had pork tenderloin steaks in the fridge, and since they are smaller than pork chops, I managed to make eight breaded cutlets.  

I set up my flour, egg and breadcrumb production line. For my own (Whole 30/wheat-free) portion, I used just the eggs and almond flour, they were tasty, too. We also had baby potatoes with dill and a cucumber salad on the side.

Flour Egg Breadcrumbs

There weren’t many colour photos in my book, just one or two, but every now and again there are lovely illustrations of the cooking process. Here’s our 1970’s housewife dipping her pork chops in flour!

Polish Pork Steaks

And here’s my crispy, tasty, full-colour version!

Polish Pork Steaks

You can use exactly the same method for chicken breast pieces, flattened out, and homemade fishfingers, too. These breaded pork chops are similar to Austrian Pork Schnitzel. I get my breadcrumbs from my local Italian deli.

[kitchenbug-your-recipe-appears-here-5348] 

I’m linking this post up with Dom’s Random Recipes, this month the challenge is ‘Another Country, Another Kitchen’ – since my Kuchnia Polska book came from my mama’s kitchen, I am on brief!

Random Recipes #23 - December

Also, I’ve just launched a late January round of Simple and in Season. I served my breaded pork steaks with a very simple butternut squash mash, cooked in a little stock and lightly mashed with a bit of butter.

Simple and in Season

Hope you have fun playing in the snow – or keeping warm! 

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19 Comments

  1. thanks to Karen for a awesome post. i hope i will try this soon. but i am not sure what i could .

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  3. Amanda Jones says:

    Hi Ren!
    great recipe! made this last night, very very tasty. Just wondering if you had a recipe for kotlety? i have tried several times to make them by memory of taste and a few from the net but the never taste like Babcia’s!
    Im australian and we have something similar called rissoles using minced meat also but they are not qutie what i want!
    can you help?
    cheers!

  4. I came across your beautiful blog today while I was checking the net to see if anyone had cooked from this book. This post is wonderful and brings back fond memories of eating these with family (with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, of course). My mother used to soak the pork in milk overnight for added tenderness, something I do if I’m organized enough.
    I’m making the paczki from Kuchnia Polska today for Fat Thursday….I highly recommend the recipe if you haven’t already tried it.

  5. I discovered your website a few months ago and I love the way so much of your culinary life mirrors mine. I am also a Pole brought up in England, with young children. I read your blog and I keep smiling and going ” oh yes thats what we do too!!!”. Today it was Kotlety Schabowe or “Polish Pork Chops” as my children call it, and I also have a Kuchnia Polska!

    1. Hi Natasza, so lovely to hear from you and that your children enjoy Polish Pork Chops, too! I think there’s a big Polish food wave on its way. Thank you for leaving a comment x

  6. Oh lovely, pork is my favourite meat. Normally I do chicken or veal schnitzels but pork is now a must try too. A great family dish 🙂

    1. It’s lovely especially with very thin pieces of pork, even better if you can bash out tenderloin. Hope you try them. x

  7. Liz Thomas says:

    I’ve got that exact spice chart. Haven’t seen it in years but I’m sure I haven’t thrown it away, it must be on a bookshelf somewhere.

    The pork chops look lovely. But that’s not beetroot, is it? Looks like pumpkin, which I happen to have in the house at the moment.

    Cheers!
    Liz

    1. Hi Liz, no that’s mashed butternut squash, I did say that somewhere but probably not very prominantly. Mashed beetroot is the very best with this, and mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce!

    1. Aah lovely to hear, Sally x

  8. I was happy to see and read your post about breaded pork chops as I am Polish living in NJ and my children love breaded pork chops in winter. I have Polska Kuchnia as well. I usually mix butter with oil to get a better flavor and also at the end I put a little bit of butter on top of each pork chop. I know it is to very healthy but … All the best.

    1. Hi Halina, thank you so much for stopping by to comment! You are right, adding a little butter to the pan helps the flavour too. Nadzrowie x

  9. Nice one! Some things change very little over the years. Are they considered better than the Wiener Schnitzel? (They probably are , in your household at least!) Shame about the Dill – I hate the stuff – I’d probably want apple sauce. 🙂

    1. Thanks Mark. Recipes for these pork cutlets go back to 19th century. Wiener Schnizel is made with veal, traditionally, whilst the Polish version, with pork tenderloin. No dill for you! Or fish…!

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