chicken katsu [チキンカツ]

Chicken Katsu a crunchy and delicious Panko crusted chicken.

This particular dish, I’ve been wanting to make for a while, but was afraid of ruining it. Panko breadcrumbs are great to use in dishes but usually when I use them in an outer layer coating, I tend to brown it too much or it’s too charred and the entire house smells like I had a disaster in the kitchen. I’ve gotten better, though, with Panko and breadcrumbs in general. It just takes practice and patience.

When I was younger and didn’t like sushi (I know, can you believe it?), I would always get the Tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is Japanese fried pork. It’s made the same way as this chicken katsu was made, but just with pork. I love the light flaky crust and the crunch you get with every bite. It’s a lighter version of fried chicken, if that makes sense. The batter isn’t heavy and it isn’t heavy breading like fried chicken usually is. It’s light and you actually get meat with every bite. It usually has teriyaki sauce on it, I think, but Jason and I didn’t have that on hand so we just dipped it in a little bit of soy sauce with white rice.

It’s quite easy to make this but it does require a few dishes because of the assembly line setup but it’s well worth it :) I knew the basics of it so I just ran with it, which is why I want to say that this recipe was kind of just thrown together so it might not make sense to you “shakes, pinches”, ya know, not accurate measurements. However, I didn’t really measure anything (you don’t really have to with this). It turned out delicious, regardless! Also, if you find that you’re “running out” of coating, just add more of whatever you need. If you need more flour, add more flour, if you need more egg wash, add another egg..this recipe isn’t supposed to be exact :)

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chicken katsu [チキンカツ]

Love this dish at Japanese restaurants! The crispy chicken is so good!

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 25 mins

Servings: 4

Author: Julie Wampler

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Ingredients

• 5 chicken tenderloins or breasts
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 4 oz Panko breadcrumbs
• Couple pinches of salt
• 4 shakes of pepper
• Vegetable oil

Instructions

• In a ziploc bag, pound your chicken tenderloins or breasts to thin fillet, one at a time, with the flat end of a meat tenderizer or in my case, I used a hammer :) Make sure to have padding underneath your ziploc bag so you don't break your countertops lol
• In a shallow dish, add in flour, salt, and pepper. Mix around.
• In another shallow dish, beat 2 eggs.
• In yet another shallow dish, put your Panko in.
• Assemble the shallow dishes in the following order: flour, eggs, Panko.
• In a medium skillet, turn the heat on high and add about 2 tbsp. of vegetable oil to the pan.
• Take one of your chicken fillets, dredge it in flour, then egg, then cover it in Panko.
• Test the oil to see if it's hot by flicking some water in it. If it sizzles, you're good.
• With tongs, put your breaded chicken in and cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes or until it's brown (don't burn it).
• It shouldn't take long for the chicken to cook all the way through since they've been pounded out so thin.
• Before you start on another fillet, I would clear out the skillet of straggling Panko crumbs. Just take a spatula and scrape them out. They'll burn if you keep them in there for your other fillets and your house will smell like disaster :)
• Repeat until all your chicken fillets are cooked, slice into length-long pieces and serve with white rice. You can top with teriyaki sauce or soy sauce.