Chicken schnitzel with chive pesto recipe

Chicken schnitzel is a quick and easy-to-make meal that's ready in minutes. Chive pesto makes a tasty change to basil pesto and so simple, just blend all the ingredients together with a stick blender or in a food processor.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons plain flour, seasoned
• 1 medium egg
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 100g white breadcrumbs (day-old bread)
• 4 chicken breast escalopes (total weight about 400g)
• 30g butter
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil

For the pesto:

• 30g toasted flaked almonds
• 30g fresh chives (mix with parsley, if you like)
• 1 small clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 15g freshly grated Parmesan
• Salt and ground black pepper

Method

1. To make the pesto: Put the nuts in a tall jug with the chives and garlic and whizz with a stick blender until roughly chopped. Gradually add the oil to make a paste. Stir in the cheese, season and spoon into a bowl.
2. Put the seasoned flour on a plate. Lightly beat the egg and milk in a shallow bowl, add the herbs, and put the breadcrumbs on a plate. Coat each piece of chicken in flour, then in beaten egg, and lastly in breadcrumbs, covering them and pressing crumbs on well.
3. Heat half the butter and half the olive oil in a non-stick pan over a medium heat and cook 2 escalopes for 3 mins on each side, pressing them down, until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the pan and keep them warm.
4. Wipe the pan out with kitchen paper to get rid of any cooked crumbs. Add the rest of the butter and oil and, when hot, cook the other escalopes. Serve the escalopes with a little of the pesto on top of new potatoes and sugar-snap peas.