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I love Japanese food especially bento boxes. One of my favorites is Tonkatsu which is crispy fried pork cutlet coated with Japanese panko breadcrumbs and a thick Tonkatsu sauce.
Tonkatsu bento box usually comes with steamed rice, Japanese salad, miso soup and tastes absolutely delicious!
Difference between Katsu and Tonkatsu
Tonkatsu is part of the katsu family in Japanese cooking. Katsu means fried cutlet of meat or seafood made with panko breadcrumbs so Tonkatsu is a katsu of pork cutlet.
Chicken katsu or torikatsu is fried chicken cutlet while Katsudon means katsu with rice as “don” means rice in Japanese.
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Tips on How to Cook Tonkatsu?
My homemade Tonkatsu recipe is very simple. It calls for a few basic ingredients.
- Use panko which is available at supermarkets in the International food aisle. Panko is lighter in texture and will be very crispy after deep frying. If you can’t find panko, you may use regular breadcrumbs.
- Deep-fry the pork cutlet at 350 degrees F for extra crispy, light and airy texture like Japanese restaurant.
- Don’t be afraid of deep-frying as panko breadcrumbs are dry, the oil won’t splatter.
- Drain the excess oil of the pork cutlets on paper towels.
Tonkatsu Sauce
You can buy Tonkatsu sauce in a bottle at Japanese or Asian restaurants but homemade sauce is very easy to make. It calls for the following ingredients:
- Ketchup
- Worchestershire sauce
- Soy sauce
- Mirin
- Sugar
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 248 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
This meal is best served with a bowl of steamed white rice. For a wholesome Japanese meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Tonkatsu
Ingredients
- oil (for deep-frying)
- 2-3 boneless pork cutlets
- salt
- Ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 1 large egg (beaten)
- 1 cup Japanese panko (preferred or regular breadcrumbs)
- shredded cabbage
- bottled tonkatsu sauce
Instructions
- Heat up a small pot of oil for deep-frying, at 350°F (176°C).
- Rinse the pork cutlets with cold water, pat dry with paper towels, and season with salt and black pepper. Arrange the cornstarch, egg and panko in three separate containers, next to each other.
- Coat a piece of the pork cutlet lightly with some cornstarch. Shake off the excess. Dip the pork cutlet into the egg, then immediately onto the panko.
- Make sure the pork cutlet is evenly coated with a layer of panko. Set aside for deep-frying. Repeat the same to the remaining pork cutlets.
- Deep fry the pork cutlets until they turn golden brown. Remove using a strainer and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Slice the Tonkatsu into pieces and serve immediately with some shredded cabbage and Tonkatsu sauce.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Hi Bee! Thank you so much for creating especially this one! It was scrumptious ? Please continue to do recipes! It will be nice indeed!!???
Thanks.
Hello Bee, I noticed that for the Tonkatsu ingredients you had cornstarch on the list but for the chicken katsu recipe you do not have the cornstarch on the ingredient list. What this a typo? was there suppose to be cornstarch too since the only difference between both recipes is the pork and chicken and the cooking results come out the same? Thanks
Either recipe works. Cornstarch will make the meat a bit tender as I think pork is tougher.
I usually give pork cutlets a bit of a bash before crumbing them to tenderise.
You got me craving for a good Tonkatsu — It is one of my favorite Japanese food! thank you for sharing lots of tips!
I LOVE your recipes! Always tasty, different and EASY! I’ll be making this tonight…. Thanks for all the Great ideas
I wish I had all ingredients or I would make it tonight also.
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Katsu Sauce from Rasa Malaysia. So crunchy & delish. Spend the money and buy some Panko.
Hi, thanks for the recipe. Can it be air fried instead of deep fried?
Yes, you can try.
I oven baked it (toasting the panko in a frying pan was nice). If you have an air fryer or convection oven it works great. But I would do 450 degrees (425 on convection) and 15 minutes.