How to fry semi-finished cutlets? and got the best answer

Answer from Masha Ivanova[guru]
First, over medium heat (with an electric stove on two, for example, the stoves are different, I have the indicator 1, 2 and 3) on both sides until toasted, about two or three minutes on one side and a minute on the other, then electricity per unit and under the lid for 15-20 minutes. Pour in oil, not too much so that the cutlets drown, not enough so that they don’t burn, use a tablespoon or so and spread with a spatula.
Or it’s simpler, as Daria says, on minimal heat, a unit somewhere, under the lid and cook for 30-40 minutes in total, check periodically every 10 minutes so that the bottom doesn’t burn, when the first side is fried, turn it over. Then pierce it with a fork, if the juice is not red and does not bleed, then it’s ready, or cut it in half so that it is neither red nor pink. If they don’t reach it at all and the inside turns out pink, put it in the microwave on high for 3 minutes. If it is made from minced chicken, then cook it quickly, 25-30 minutes.

Answer from 2 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: How to fry semi-finished cutlets?

Answer from VIZIT[active]
and you don’t have to fry!!!

Answer from Goy[guru]
the most cost-effective way is a double boiler

Answer from Maria Clerk[guru]
you can look here:
available also "in Russian"
*how and how much to fry
*what and how much to add
*etc.
Good luck to you, and bon appetit! ;)

Answer from Denis Koval[newbie]
in the microwave for 10 minutes

Answer from Evgeniy Tavrin[active]
Yes, you can just fry it and that’s it. I fry it with potatoes and have no problems. I always buy semi-finished products from Istraproduct. Tasty and quite cheap. I tried from other manufacturers - it’s not the same.

Answer from Daria Romanova[guru]
Fry over low heat, because if you turn on high heat, they will burn on top and will be raw inside!!!

Answer from Tatiana[expert]
It’s very simple, heat a frying pan, pour oil, put the cutlets and fry until golden brown over medium heat, then cover and simmer on low heat for about ten minutes))

With modern technologies, even a housewife who is under constant time pressure will be able to freeze raw meatballs, meatballs or dumplings for at least a week and diversify the family menu with freshly prepared dishes every day.

The taste of the product, subject to the manufacturing and storage conditions, does not change.

Frozen cutlets are especially good. If for dumplings, pancakes or dumplings we have to prepare both the dough and the filling, in this case everything is simple: we make blanks from the minced meat, and then put them in the freezer until they are needed.

How to freeze homemade cutlets

You can prepare semi-finished products from meat, poultry, fish or vegetables (vegetarian option).

The principles of freezing are the same everywhere. Let's look at them using meat cutlets as an example.


We make minced meat from familiar products. Since semi-finished products can become dry after freezing, some housewives try to take two types of meat for them: one fattier - pork or lamb, the second - less high-calorie, most often beef.

Fish cutlets are flavored with twisted lard.

Raw onions and garlic added to minced meat may partially lose their taste when stored in the freezer. It is recommended to lightly fry them first and then add them to our semi-finished product. In addition, cutlets with cheese and onions have a shorter shelf life than without it.

The minced meat should be immediately salted and spices added.

The next stage will ensure the integrity of our workpiece during frying. To prevent the cutlets from falling apart in the pan, the minced meat must be thoroughly kneaded and beaten. Then the structure of the meat mass will be homogeneous, and the output will be a juicy, soft and fluffy product.

Let's form our cutlets. It is advisable to throw them from palm to palm several times - a kind of “mini-beat” or hit the board several times.

Although every housewife has her own idea of ​​ideal cutlets, let us remind you that it is not advisable to sculpt large products. They may fall apart when turned in the pan. Cutlets that are too tall will remain raw in the middle, while thin ones will dry out and harden. The optimal thickness of the semi-finished product is 2 cm.

The taste of the product changes slightly, but this does not pose a particular problem. If you want the feeling that our products are “piping hot,” it’s best not just to heat them up, but to simmer them in some rich sauce.

Freezing ready-made cutlets is simple: after cooling completely, place the result of culinary creativity in a food container (it can crumble in a bag) and send it for storage.

How to properly fry frozen cutlets

Both homemade and store-bought semi-finished products are prepared in the same way. However, factory-made products also need to be chosen correctly. We advise you to pay attention to the following points:

1. Packaging integrity. A torn box or polyethylene may indicate a violation of the storage conditions of the product. It is best to buy products in transparent vacuum packaging - they retain the taste and aroma, and, in addition, are clearly visible.
2. The cutlets in the box need to be shaken slightly. If they knock, it means they have not defrosted and are not stuck to the cardboard.
3. A long list of ingredients indicates low quality products: it contains preservatives, dyes, flavors, trans fats and other “harmful substances” that are absolutely unnecessary for our body.
4. You also need to pay attention to the sequence of listing the components. In cutlets made from mixed minced meat, beef (poultry) comes first, then pork or lard. Water should be in last place, or even better, it should be absent altogether. The share of meat in the product varies from 80% to 20%. It is clear that the less vegetable proteins there are, the better the quality of the semi-finished products.
5. Trans fats are listed as "hydrogenated oils" in the ingredient list.
   A large number of bright, aromatic spices most likely indicates an attempt to disguise a stale product.
6. If the minced meat shows through the breading, the cutlets will turn out dry and tough.
7. Appearance. The cutlets should have the correct shape and a pleasant creamy or golden hue (depending on the breading). Gray color indicates repeated freezing, cracks indicate an excess of water and moisture-retaining “chemistry”.

note

GOST or TU? We already know that high-quality products are manufactured only in accordance with government regulations. But manufacturers often use a trick: they indicate on the packaging of goods produced according to technical specifications (and they can be absolutely arbitrary) the GOST number that they are supposedly guided by. Don't fall into this trap. The “TU” marking clearly indicates that clear product quality standards are far from achieved.

Weighed semi-finished products have a number of disadvantages: the date of their production, composition and manufacturing conditions are unknown. The main advantage is low cost. If you have to save money, you need to buy goods only from trusted brands.

Is it necessary to defrost semi-finished products?

Most chefs agree that it is better not to do this. After defrosting, cutlets easily lose their shape, “float”, and their taste deteriorates.

However, the question remains whether the meat will have time to cook if semi-finished products are fried, for example, in a frying pan or in the microwave. If you have such concerns, you can defrost the cutlets in the same microwave for about 5 minutes at a power of 600 W. Or remove it from the freezer in advance and keep it in the refrigerator for a while to let it “dead” a little.

But there are culinary tricks that allow you to bring the product to full readiness without such manipulations. We'll talk about them below.

How to fry frozen cutlets in a frying pan

Heat the oil until light smoke appears. You need to choose fat according to the composition of the cutlets:

• rendered lard is suitable for products containing pork or lamb;
• It is better to fry fish cutlets in refined sunflower or olive oil;
• the same product is also suitable for poultry;
• The exception is chicken Kiev, for which only butter is used.

Place our semi-finished products without defrosting and fry for 8 to 10 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Attention!

The bottom of the pan should be thick or have a Teflon coating to prevent the product from burning. No need to add salt or spices!

Don’t forget about the splashes that will be caused by liquid from the cutlets getting into the oil. Therefore, if we do not strive to get a crispy crust at all costs, it is better to immediately cover the pan with a lid.

You can do this after quick frying over medium heat, reducing it to low. This way we will simmer the cutlets so that the middle does not remain damp, which is dangerous, especially when we are dealing with store-bought products.

On a note

How long to specifically fry the product in a frying pan depends on the minced meat chosen. Pork products take the longest to prepare – up to 20 minutes. Poultry and fish are twice as fast (10 – 12 minutes).

Clear juice is released from finished meat products.


When stewing, you can add a little water, spices, fried onions, tomato paste or sour cream to the pan. The result will be an excellent sauce that will improve the taste of cutlets, especially store-bought ones.

Cooking frozen cutlets in the oven

Semi-finished products can be baked - it will turn out to be an excellent dietary dish.


There are two ways:

No roasting

1. Place the cutlets, without defrosting, in a greased fireproof dish.
2. Let's preheat the oven to 200ºС and send our semi-finished product there.
3. It is advisable to cover the product with foil - this way it will bake better and hold for 15 minutes, and then the same amount without it.

Alternatively, you can use a cooking sleeve.

Browning in a frying pan

1. Fry frozen semi-finished products in hot oil for literally 3-5 minutes.
2. Transfer to a baking sheet or mold, pour in the sauce and bake in a preheated oven for 20 - 30 minutes.

Diet recipe for steamer

If you have a wonderful steaming device, all you have to do is place the frozen cutlets on a wire rack and cook for 30 minutes. If the meat remains pinkish inside, you need to wait another quarter of an hour.

Quickly cooking cutlets in the microwave

This option is only suitable for devices equipped with a grill.

1. We defrost semi-finished products using the appropriate function.
2. After that, cook them for 7 minutes in a combined mode: “waves” plus grill.
3. Turn over and brush with sour cream. Then let it sit on the grill for 3 minutes to get a crispy crust.
4. You can sprinkle the dish with cheese and turn on the same mode for another 5 minutes.

The finished frozen cutlets should be placed in a glass container for the microwave, covered with a lid and heated for 14 minutes at a power of 650 W. Then turn off the device and let the product stand for 2-3 minutes.

There are enough ways to prepare frozen semi-finished products for every housewife to choose the most suitable option for herself. It is only advisable to make cutlets with your own hands, and not rely on factory manufacturers.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

Before talking about frying methods, it makes sense to answer the question that many housewives ask when they first bought a frozen semi-finished cutlet product: “Do I need to defrost ready-made cutlets?” All chefs answer this question unequivocally - no. When defrosted, they may lose their shape, and it will be more difficult to fry them in a frying pan. In addition, the taste of the finished dish may also suffer, i.e. The cutlets will not be as juicy as they could be.

Now you need to decide on the oil in which the cutlets will be fried. In most cases, refined sunflower or olive oil is used. However, if the product contains pork or, which is unlikely, lamb, then it is better to use ghee for frying. And only one type of cutlet should be fried in natural butter. These are chicken Kiev.

As for margarine and spread, it is better to avoid them. You can fry cutlets using these fats, but the taste of the finished dish may change. The fact is that both spreads and margarines contain many flavoring additives. In addition, both of these products are not very useful for the human body.

In the modern world, a working woman does not always have enough time to prepare lunches and dinners. Therefore, to solve this problem, various manufacturing companies make semi-finished products. If you still find time on the weekend, it’s better to make the minced meat yourself, cook the cutlets and put them in the freezer until the right time. When taking semi-finished products out of the freezer, it is not necessary to pre-defrost them; you can start frying directly while frozen. To fry the cutlets, you will need a frying pan, preferably with a thick bottom. It is necessary to preheat it over high heat. Then add sunflower oil, making sure that it is evenly distributed over the entire bottom. To do this, you need to take the frying pan by the holder, rotate it, placing hot oil over the entire plane. If there is not enough oil, there is a possibility that the cutlets will be overcooked. When using butter, make sure it is completely melted.

Now you can fry your own semi-finished products. When laying out, make sure that they are located at a distance of approximately 5 cm from each other, this is done so that they do not touch each other. On maximum heat, fry one side of the cutlets, then the other, until golden brown. The blush on the crust forms quite quickly, so you need to watch the back of the cutlets so that they do not burn. When performing this operation properly, you can count on juiciness, because the meat juice should not leak out during this time. Now you can set the fire to low and close the lid. Simmer in this position until done. If desired, you can add a little water or gravy. The gravy is prepared by mixing water, flour, mayonnaise and ketchup and a special mixture for cutlets. When adding water, you need to take into account its quantity so that you don’t end up with boiled cutlets.

How to fry semi-finished cutlets - this question is all clear, but now all that remains is to determine their readiness. There are two methods for determining the readiness of cutlets. The first method is piercing. You can pierce it with a fork or knife; the liquid should come out clear. And the second method is cutting. If, when cutting the cutlet, the cut is a solid gray color without any pink specks, then the cutlet is ready. Following these tips, frying cutlets is not so difficult. You can serve the cutlets in tomato or sour cream sauce. To prepare tomato sauce, mix tomato paste, water, and finely chopped garlic. Add salt and pepper. Pour the resulting sauce over the cutlets in a frying pan, cover with a lid and simmer over low heat for half an hour. For sour cream sauce, fry the flour in vegetable oil until brownish. Pour in water or broth, add sour cream and boil. Separately, fry finely chopped onion. Then combine the fried onion with the sauce and pour over the fried cutlets. Place in the oven for about 20 minutes.

At the current pace of life, housewives often come to the rescue of semi-finished products. If buying them is not a problem, then not everyone knows how to quickly fry cutlets in a frying pan if they are already frozen semi-finished products...

As a rule, stores sell ready-made cutlets, and they come in different types. There are round, oval, and breaded. How to properly fry them in a frying pan, whether you need to defrost frozen cutlets, and what to fry them in, we’ll talk now.

How to properly fry semi-finished products in a frying pan?

You should know that ready-made frozen cutlets already contain everything you need. You can read this on the packaging and not worry that there is no salt or pepper. In this regard, the cutlets do not require additional processing or fillers. Under no circumstances should semi-finished products be defrosted. They will crawl into a pile of minced meat, and after that it will be extremely difficult to fry them.

To fry frozen semi-finished products in a frying pan, you need to choose a frying pan with a thick bottom or a non-stick coating.

Refined vegetable oil is used for frying (see which oil is best for frying), with the exception of chicken cutlets. To fry delicious semi-finished chicken cutlets in a frying pan, you only need butter. You can also fry them in vegetable oil, but the taste will not be as delicate.

Pour oil into a frying pan and heat it. The oil must be very hot so that when frying, the cutlet immediately forms a crust and melts easily in the pan. Quickly fry the cutlets on both sides for 3-5 minutes until a crust appears, then reduce the heat and cover the pan with a lid. The cutlets were fried on top, but inside they were still raw and barely thawed. Simmer the cutlets under the lid for another 10 minutes, then open the lid and pierce one cutlet with a fork. If clear and aromatic juice flows out of it, it means the cutlets are ready and can be removed from the pan.

Sometimes the cutlets burn, and this is due to an unsuitable pan or lack of breading. If you can replace the pan or reduce the heat when frying, then you can’t do anything about the breading. It is useless to bread already prepared and frozen cutlets, and all this should be provided for when purchasing cutlets, or when preparing them, before freezing.

When frying frozen semi-finished cutlets, there is no need to rush. If the cutlets are half-baked, then you risk getting poisoned, even though the cutlets themselves are of high quality.

Carefully read the composition of the cutlets on the packaging, and if you are not afraid of soy or trans fats in their composition, then you can safely buy semi-finished cutlets in the store.