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I am trying to do a pan-fried schnitzel with chicken breast coated in a mix of eggs, salt, pepper, some ketchup, a bit of olive-oil and sweet paprika.
Once I coat the chicken in the egg mix, I try to cover it with panko bread, but for some reason it doesn't stick and leaves tiny holes once it's pan-fried.
Somebody says I should coat the chicken with flour prior to the egg, but I'm not convinced that would do the trick.

Does anyone care to explain what to do?

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I answer this question the professional way here (Dave's answer is more or less the same): cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/15507/… – BobMcGee Aug 14 '11 at 6:13

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Panko won't stick to chicken (too dry), but will stick to egg. Egg won't stick to chicken (too smooth and non-absorbant), but will stick to flour. Flour will stick to chicken. Dredge first through flour, then through (well beaten) egg, then through panko. It's a tricky combination, but if you do it right the results are excellent. Any dry spices you want to put in can go in the flour. While I don't know for sure, I would certainly wouldn't include any oils in the coating, as none of flour/egg/panko will stick to oils.

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Alternatively you could dredge the chicken in flour then dunk it in a light batter, then coat with Panko. It'll give you a much thicker crust but the battering will allow you to add more herbs for flavour. Depends on what the desired end result is. – Chef Flambe Mar 11 '12 at 9:59
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Just wanted to second NOT adding oil to any part of the coating. That oil lets the cooking oil penetrate and break up your coating. Way back we tried making falafel, and used oil when they were too dry--into the fryer, and it was like they disappeared! The oil inside mixed with the frying oil and they broke up. – bikeboy389 Mar 11 '12 at 20:34

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