Schnitzel with potato salad, or Schnitzel mit Kartoffelsalat, is one of the most popular dishes in Germany. A thin breaded escalope fried golden in butter, a warm potato salad dressed with stock and vinegar, and a wedge of lemon: it is simple, generous and really good.
I enjoyed it in April 2024 in Saarbrücken, just before another visit to the Franco-German Garden (Deutsch-Französischer Garten), with its little train, its pond and its swans. Saarbrücken is just a short drive from my home in Moselle, and this dish is one of my classics whenever I cross the border.
Here is the traditional version: a Viennese-style pork schnitzel and a Swabian potato salad, without mayonnaise, which should be nice and moist. The secret is to pour hot stock over the salad and let it rest before serving.
The story of that day: 🇩🇪 Saarbrücken - Franco-German Park
The recipe
Classic recipeThe traditional recipe for the dish, not the one from the restaurant where I tasted it.
Ingredients
Potato salad
- 1 kg waxy potatoes
- 1 onion
- 250 ml hot beef or vegetable stock
- 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp mustard
- 1 tsp sugar
- 4 tbsp neutral oil
- 2 tbsp chopped chives
- Salt and pepper
Schnitzel
- 4 pork escalopes from the leg (about 150 g each)
- 80 g plain flour
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp milk
- 150 g fine breadcrumbs
- 200 ml neutral oil
- 40 g butter
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- Salt and pepper
Method
- Cook the potatoes in their skins in a large pan of salted water for 20 to 25 minutes, until tender. Drain, peel them while still hot and slice them 3 to 4 mm thick into a bowl.
- Finely chop the onion. Put it in a saucepan with the stock, vinegar, mustard, sugar, 1 tsp salt and some pepper, and bring to a simmer.
- Pour the hot mixture over the potatoes and mix gently. Leave to rest for at least 30 minutes: the potatoes soak up the stock and the salad turns creamy. Then add the oil and chives and adjust the seasoning.
- Meanwhile, place the escalopes between two sheets of cling film and flatten them with a rolling pin or meat mallet to 4 to 5 mm thick. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
- Set up three shallow plates: the flour, the eggs beaten with the milk, then the breadcrumbs. Dip each escalope in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs, without pressing, so the coating stays light.
- In a large frying pan, heat the oil and butter to about 170 °C (a few breadcrumbs should sizzle straight away). Fry the escalopes one or two at a time for 2 to 3 minutes per side, gently rocking the pan so the fat washes over the top: the coating puffs up into waves.
- Drain the schnitzels on kitchen paper and serve straight away with the potato salad and lemon wedges.
Tips and variations
- Use veal instead of pork and you get a true Wiener Schnitzel. Made with pork, Germans call it Schnitzel Wiener Art.
- The potato salad should be juicy, almost saucy. If it looks dry after resting, add a little more hot stock.
- Some regions add cucumber slices or crispy bacon to the salad: your choice.
- The salad keeps for 2 days in the fridge, but take it out 30 minutes before serving. The schnitzel is best eaten right after frying.
Recipe shared for guidance only, adapt it to your equipment: times and temperatures may vary. Check for allergens (gluten, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, nuts, sesame…) and make sure ingredients are fresh. Raw or undercooked fish, meat and eggs are not recommended for pregnant women, young children, elderly or vulnerable people. Take care with hot oil, flambéing and alcohol. I am not a health or nutrition professional.