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Geschnetzeltes is a long word, but it really just means “cut-up meat” and it’s a standard German recipe for meat with a cream sauce. When we lived in Germany, the largest part of my cooking was with the Maggi and Knorr sauce packets that were nearly as simple as Hamburger Helper, except without the pasta, and using chicken, turkey, or pork more often than hamburger meat. I regularly made Puten-Geschnetzeltes or Rahm-Geschnetzeltes and when we came back to the US I hunted around online for a recipe for something similar, tweaking what I found until I was satisfied. It’s a simple cream sauce and is fairly fast to make.
At the same time, I’ve been making a recipe for chicken curry that we all liked but I was never entirely satisfied with because it required using coconut milk, then boiling it to reduce it so it wasn’t runny. Tonight I combined the components of the two recipes to make a curry geschnetzeltes which I’m reasonably satisfied with.
So, first, here’s the standard geschnetzeltes recipe. The recipe is three-teenaged-boys sized, but with alternate quantities in parentheses.
1 1/2 + (1) pound(s) boneless chicken breast or thigh (preferred) or pork.
1 onion, chopped
1 can mushrooms (or fresh sliced mushrooms)
3 (2) cups water
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (3/8 cup) flour
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon/soup base
cooking oil
Method
Cut the meat into strips. (If using chicken thighs, trim the fat as you go.)
Saute the onion in the oil. Add the meat and cook ’til browned/cooked through. (I cut the onion first, get it cooking while starting to cut the meat, then add the meat in two batches, pushing what’s cooked already to the outside of the pan. I also use an extra-large skillet for the recipe because there’s so much.) Add in the mushrooms somewhere along the way if you’re using fresh mushrooms.
Combine the flour and water, starting with 1 cup or less to mix it without lumps, then adding in the rest. Add the mixture to the pan, scraping up the browned stuff on the bottom. Add in the mushrooms, the W-sauce, the chicken bouillon, and the salt. After the sauce has thickened, add the cream, and stir ’til combined. Check and add more salt if needed.
Note that there are some times when this turns out very good and sometimes when it’s just OK, and there are some times where it’s very think and other times when it’s runny, and I’ve never figured out the reason, but it works out either way. And, again, fast to make, very easy to have the ingredients on hand (Aldi has UHT cream so I generally have some in the fridge), and acceptable to my teens.
Curry Geschnetzeltes variation
subtract out the mushrooms and the W’sauce from the above list.
Add
1/4 cup tomato paste
4 tsp (1 tablespoon + 1 tsp) curry (or more, I think; I’ll edit as needed)
1/2 tsp coconut extract
some handfuls of fresh spinach
Cook chicken & onions as before but also add in curry and salt (does the timing matter? could you just as easily add the seasonings with the sauce? Maybe.)
Then, after the sauce has thickened, add in the tomato paste and coconut extract along with the chicken bouillon. Add in the cream as before. Lastly, add in the spinach until it wilts.
Note: this came out very thick. I think that the tomato paste added to the thickness, so next time I’ll use less flour.
Finally –
the photo shows the chicken served over riced cauliflower, as I’m following what I call a “half-a**ed keto” diet at the moment. Usually you’d serve this over rice or spaetzle. And if I were keto-ing more diligently I’d experiment with different thickers (there’s a list here and xanthan gum pops up a lot but I can’t find a more convenient conversion guide).
