An Indiana and Iowa specialty of a pork cutlet pounded paper-thin, breaded, and deep-fried into a crisp disc far wider than the bun it sits on, so that the meat overhangs the bread on all sides. It is dressed simply — mustard, pickle, raw onion, sometimes lettuce and tomato — with the oversized fried cutlet, not the toppings, as the point. The comically large overhang is a deliberate, defining feature.
The breaded pork tenderloin sandwich is traced to Nick's Kitchen in Huntington, Indiana, opened in 1908 by Nick Freienstein, the son of German immigrants who had earlier sold sandwiches from a courthouse-square cart. The sandwich is widely held to be his Americanized take on the Viennese Wiener schnitzel, substituting pork for veal and serving the cutlet between bread with pickles. Freienstein died in 1941, but the restaurant remains at its original North Jefferson address, and the sandwich became Indiana's unofficial state dish.
The first thing the teeth meet is the crackling, craggy breadcrumb shell; under it the pounded pork is thin, tender and only faintly chewy, having been beaten until almost no resistance remains. Because the cutlet so dwarfs the bun, the early bites are pure fried meat, with the bread and toppings arriving only at the center. Mustard sharpness and pickle acidity lift the rich crust. Done right it is crisp and greaseless; a thick or under-pounded cutlet turns chewy and heavy.
A boneless pork loin or cutlet is butterflied and pounded thin between plastic wrap, which both tenderizes by breaking down muscle fiber and maximizes surface area for the crust. Standard breading — flour, egg wash, then crumbs or seasoned cracker meal — fries crisp by Maillard browning at about 175°C, while the thinness means the meat cooks through in barely two minutes before it can dry. The egg wash glues the crumbs to the meat; pounding to even thinness ensures the whole cutlet crisps and cooks at the same rate.
Variations
Indiana favors a flat, mild cutlet from the loin, while across the river Iowa makes the same sandwich its own roadside staple. Some cooks brine or buttermilk-soak the pork first; cracker meal is a common crisper alternative to breadcrumbs. Garnishes vary by county, but mustard, pickle and onion are the traditional core, and many purists reject lettuce and tomato. It descends directly from German-immigrant schnitzel and is a close cousin of the breaded cutlet sandwiches of central Europe.
On the Palate
Where Pork Tenderloin Sandwich sits in the American flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
6 steps · 30 min
- 18 min
Butterfly a boneless pork loin into cutlets and pound each thin between sheets of plastic wrap.
Watch outPound each cutlet until it's thin and even all over — thick spots stay raw while thin ones burn, and even thinness is what lets the whole thing crisp at one rate.
- 24 min
Set up flour, beaten egg, and seasoned breadcrumbs or cracker meal in three dishes.
- 36 min
Dredge each cutlet in flour, dip in egg, then press into the crumbs to coat fully.
Watch outPress the cutlet firmly into the crumbs so they stick everywhere — bare patches won't crisp and the coating peels in the oil.
- 45 min
Heat oil to 175°C and fry the cutlets one at a time, about 2 minutes per side, until golden.
Watch outOil at 175 is right when a crumb sizzles briskly on contact — too cool and the breading drinks oil and turns greasy instead of crisp.
- 52 min
Drain on a rack and season lightly with salt.
- 63 min
Set each cutlet on a bun, dress with mustard, pickle and onion, and let it overhang.
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