Cris Pearlstein : Crispy Oven-Baked Chicken Cutlets

 Q + A

Tell me about yourself!

I’m a born-and-bred New Yorker, now living in San Francisco. A former fashion editor and stylist for over a decade, I am now a writer and a stay-at-home mom.

Through my Instagram page I share my love of cooking, eating, reading, along with excerpts of my published writing—I am also passionate about lowering her family’s waste footprint and love sharing all the small, weird, and quirky things I do in the name of being green.

I also write a newsletter called, “Hi, It’s Your Older Sister,” which I mostly use as an excuse to boss people around. It’s filled with reading things, writing things, cool things, mom things, and green things—plus lots of older sisterly advice on how to live your best life. You can subscribe by going to crispearlstein.com!

And I’m also ¼ of a family team who renovated a house in the Catskills called @franks_mountainhouse! It’s a cozy A-frame cabin and we are so excited to share it with the world!

What do you love about this recipe, and how has it helped you with feeding your toddler?

This recipe is very dear to my heart because it’s something my mom always made for me, no matter what phase I was in (I loved them just as much as a picky kid as I did when I was a sassy teenager). They were always a staple in my home and, in fact, I’ve always considered them part of my “birthday dinner” meal—you know, when it’s your birthday and your mom asks what you want for dinner? My answer was always chicken cutlets, and it still is!

I love this recipe not only because it tastes good, but because it’s healthier than its fried alternative. It’s also a very versatile recipe—you can easily sub in cornmeal or GF breadcrumbs for gluten allergies; you can add parmesan cheese and various spices into the breadcrumb mixture for added flavor; or you can use plain breadcrumbs if your little one is super picky. You can even sub out the chicken for thin-sliced pork. t’s not the exact ingredients that make this recipe a winner, it’s the method, so feel free to tweak it however will make your family happy.

When I make these I usually make a big batch (sometimes as much as 3lbs of chicken!) because it keeps so well as leftovers. You can store them in an air-tight container in the freezer (layered with parchment paper) for future meals, and just take them out one at a time for toddler dinners—simply pop them into the conventional oven on 350 degrees until they are warmed through. Or you can be like my husband and eat them directly out of the fridge cold or on a sandwich with Italian bread and roasted red peppers! Sometimes I even cut one up into pieces and add it to my daughter’s lunch box because I know they’re great at room temperature, too.

My daughter never gives me a problem when my chicken cutlets are on her plate. Sometimes she eats them with ketchup, sometimes she likes to eat them plain, and other times with a squeeze of lemon. No matter what I always serve them with a vegetable—her favorites these days are broccoli and peas. My husband and I will often eat them with a big pile of arugula on top smothered in my homemade mustard vinaigrette, which I highly recommend, too. And sometimes when we’re craving a really decadent meal, we’ll use the leftovers to make chicken parm—just spread them onto a baking sheet, cover each one with sauce and shredded mozzarella, and top with torn pieces of fresh basil. Honestly the options are endless.

What is your biggest tip when it comes to feeding a toddler?

Never stop offering the foods you want them to eat. Even if they don’t eat it, seeing it frequently in front of them will train them to know that it’s a food they should expect to see and eat.

Also, I’m very big on not making a second dinner if she claims she “doesn’t like” what’s on her plate. I tell her this is dinner, she doesn’t have to eat it if she doesn’t want to, but there’s no other option.

Sometimes she goes to bed not having eaten a full dinner, but most of the time she’ll come around to it eventually. Toddlers do a great job of regulating their hunger, often eating a ton one day and hardly anything the next (my pediatrician has confirmed this!).

I never get too worked up about her refusing to eat because I know if she was that hungry she would. Also, I always try to include one “safe food” on her plate, something I know she loves that’s a definite homerun. If she sees something she loves in her dinner, she’s much more likely to sit and engage with her meal. It never fails that when she takes a few bites of the safe food, she almost always then eats the other items on her plate. 

What is your current eating challenge and how are you working to overcome it/how did you overcome it?

Right now our biggest challenge is that Frankie has a really hard time sitting still during the duration of a meal. We’ve tried implementing timers, reading stories, and even bribery—some of those things work some of the time. We also try to all sit together and eat as a family as much as we can, though it’s not always possible.

She’s a really wiggly kid and I know sitting for an extended period of time is hard for her, so I try my best to communicate my expectations of how I want her to act during mealtime. If it was up to her she would eat every meal while walking around our apartment, dancing, and playing. In fact, most of her “pickiness” disappears if I feed her while she’s walking around the table—she’ll eat almost anything if I feed her myself. Obviously that’s not something I want to be doing, but I figure that’s an easier habit to break than giving in to her random moments of pickiness, and risking that she will then begin to regularly refuse to eat a variety of delicious and healthy foods.

Right now it’s more important to me for her to have a varied palette than to sit perfectly still at the table and feed herself—what good is feeding herself if she’ll only eat one thing? 

How do you keep your child entertained when prepping a meal?

When our schedule allows I love to have Frankie help me in the kitchen. We have a toddler tower that we pull up to the counter and give her little kid-friendly jobs. Recently for example, my husband made homemade naan bread, and he had her flattening and rolling out the dough, and then brushing the top with melted garlic butter. She loved helping, loved keeping her hands busy, and then was so proud to see the finished product.

Obviously it’s not always feasible to have her help (a lot of days I’m just trying to throw something together quickly before she gets hangry), and in those cases I will either set her up with an engaging puzzle or game, or I will put the TV on for her while I cook. Luckily we have an open concept apartment so even when I’m in the kitchen I can keep an eye on her. Overall, it just really depends on her mood and how frantic dinner time is that day.

Follow Cris at: @crispearlstein