Pork Schnitzel with Lemon Caper Butter

My husband and I have been obsessed with capers lately! I've been using them in sauces for seafood, putting them in Caesar salad dressings and most recently in a sauce for sauteed pork tenderloin medallions.

This is a very tasty recipe that I found in our local newspaper. It had achieved the recognition of being one of the top 25 recipes that the newspaper had tested and reviewed in 2011. It's an adaptation of a recipe from the Gourmet Today cookbook.

Since pork tenderloin is our favorite cut of pork, I'm always looking for new ways to serve it. This was...delicious! The salty flavor of the capers pairs so well with the breaded schnitzel. It was also a fairly easy dinner to put together and the cooking time is quick. I served it with a simple salad on the side.

Enjoy!

Pork Schnitzel with Lemon Caper Butter

Adapted from Gourmet Today
Printable Recipe

Note: I cut the recipe in half and only used 1 egg

Makes 4 servings

1 ½ pounds pork tenderloin, slice into 1-inch-thick rounds

6 tablespoons cup unsalted butter (divided in half)
3 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and patted dry
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 eggs
1 ½ cups fine dry bread crumbs

6 tablespoons vegetable oil (about) (divided)

Garnish:
1 ½ teaspoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Lemon wedges

Line 1 baking sheet with waxed paper and another baking sheet with paper toweling.

Pound pork tenderloin rounds between two sheets of plastic wrap to ¼-inch thickness. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking sheet with wax paper.

In a small saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons butter. Stir in capers, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Remove from heat and cover loosely to keep warm.

Pat pork rounds dry and season with salt and pepper. In a shallow bowl or pie plate, beat eggs with ¼ teaspoon salt. Put bread crumbs in another pie plate or shallow bowl. Dip pork rounds in egg mixture, one at a time, allowing excess to drip off, then dredge in bread crumbs and place on wax-paper-lined baking sheet.

In a non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil with 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat until foam subsides. Add 2 to 3 pieces of pork, without crowding meat, and cook, turning once, until golden and just cooked through, about 1 minute per side. Transfer cooked rounds to paper-towel-lined baking sheet and keep warm in preheated oven.

Cook remaining pork pieces in the same way, adding 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter for each batch.

Serve pork drizzled with caper butter and sprinkled with parsley and lemon wedges on the side.