Russia | Pozharsky Cutlet

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I USED

So, I did not make borscht. I'm not a fan of sour soups and I only like beets in certain circumstances and even then, I have to be in the mood for them.

The Pozharsky cutlets were different from anything I was expecting to find in Russian cuisine so I decided to go with them. They were referred to as the ancestor of the chicken nugget in several place and, after making and eating them, I can definitely see the connection.

There are roughly 124,568 variations of this recipe but they all included ground up chicken, bread, bread crumbs, and butter.

You mix the chicken with a panade (This IS a word, Spellcheck!), shape it into cutlets, and then dredge the cutlets in bread crumbs, brown them in butter, and then finish the cooking in the oven.

There's not much in the way of seasoning, just salt and pepper but I used seasoned dried bread crumbs for the dredge because that's what I had on hand and they added a nice flavor to the dish.

It's not really a difficult recipe to make but it is a bit messy.

The end result reminded me of a glorified chicken patty.

They were pretty good but very heavy and filling.

I ate them with mashed potatoes, gravy, and canned La Sueur peas.

Because they are not heavily seasoned or spiced, I think they would be good with just about any kind of potato, and vegetable sides.

I think, if you like chicken patties and/or chicken nuggets, you'd probably like these. They aren't exactly like either of those but they're definitely related, like second or third cousins.

Would I make this again? Probably not.

I enjoyed them but I don't think I'd ever crave them. And the browning in butter step made me feel greasy and in need of a shower afterward.

I like to eat fried foods, occasionally, but I do not enjoy the way I feel after cooking them, at all.