Tonkatsu is one of the most popular Japanese meat dishes in Japan. It actually originates from Schnitzel and first appeared in restaurants in Japan that served Western food around 200 years ago. The dish became well known and people started serving it as a part of a Japanese set menu with a bowl of rice and miso soup. Today you can find a lot of Japanese restaurants that specialise in serving only this dish.
Ton means pork and Katsu means cutlet, but you can use chicken to make chicken katsu.
Ingredients (serves 4)
4 pork steaks (2 cm thick, about 150g weight )
plain flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg beaten
panko (Japanese breadcrumbs, or coarse breadcrumbs work well)
oil for shallow frying
Shredded cabbage
Tonkatsu sauce for serving (substitute Worcestershire sauce)
Method
Prepare the pork by removing any extra fat. Tenderize the cutlets by making a few slits across the surface, and then pound the meat with a rolling pin on both sides of cutlets until they are slightly thinner.
Salt and pepper both sides well of each cutlet then dust with flour. Dip in the egg and coat with panko
Pour oil to 2cm depth in a frying pan, and heat over medium heat. When the oil becomes hot (test the temperature by dropping a little breadcrumbs – when the breadcrumbs immediately come up to the surface, the oil is ready for frying )
Gently slide the tonkatsu into the oil. Let them cook undisturbed for 4-5 minutes. Once the cutlets are golden brown on one side, carefully flip them over and brown the other side. Continue to cook for another 4-5 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel to drain excess oil and rest for about 5 minutes.
