Chicken fillets are pounded, floured, dipped in beaten eggs and coated with panko then fried until the crust is golden and crisp. Chicken katsu is a favorite at home!
When craving fried chicken fillets, chicken katsu has been our default dish for years. The light crispiness of the crust and the juicy meat inside is simply irresistible.
While most cooks recommend chicken breat fillets, we prefer thigh fillets. But because the thickness of thigh fillets is uneven, we pound them until we get a uniform thickness all over.
And, unlike most cooks who recommend leaving the chicken unseasoned, we prefer to sprinkle the thigh fillets with salt and pepper. That way, we don’t need to rely on the sauce as the only source of seasoning. We season the chicken inside and out.
After the fillets have been pounded and seasoned, they go through the usual process that all katsu dishes share. Dredging in flour, dipping in beaten eggs and coating the thigh fillets in panko.
While deep frying is the most convenient way of ensuring that the chicken fillets will be cooked evenly, using too much cooking oil for a single dish always leaves us with the problem of dealing with used oil. Straining, storing… The truth is, chicken katsu can be cooked in much less oil simply by flipping the fillets over once the undersides are golden and crisp.
Chicken katsu
Ingredients
- 4 skinless chicken thigh fillets
- salt
- pepper
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 egg beaten
- ¾ cup panko
- cooking oil for frying
- tonkatsu sauce to garnish
- toasted sesame seeds to garnish
- cooked rice (Japanese rice is recommended) to serve
- shredded white cabbage to serve
Instructions
- Take a large piece of cling wrap. Place a chicken on one side and fold over the other half. If you have a very large of cling wrap, you can place more chicken pieces.
- Pound the chicken until the meat is half an inch in thickness. It is important for the thickness to be uniform for even cooking. And the chicken meat shouldn’t be too thick to avoid a raw center and a burnt coating.
- Lay the chicken pieces flat and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Place the flour, beaten egg and panko in three shallow bowls.
- Dredge each chicken thigh in flour; shake off the excess.
- Dip each floured chicken thigh in the beaten egg, making sure that every inch of the surface is coated with egg.
- Roll each chicken fillet in panko. Make sure that the panko coating is even.
- Heat enough cooking oil so that it is at least an inch and a half deep. The ideal frying temperature is 145F to avoid burnt breading and raw meat.
- Fry the chicken fillets, in batches if your frying pan is not large enough to hold them in a single layer. Check the underside after about three minutes. When the underside is golden brown, flip the chicken thighs over to brown the opposite side.
- Cut the chicken katsu into strips. Arrange over rice. Spoon over some of the tonkatsu sauce. Sprinkle in toasted sesame seeds. Serve with shredded white cabbage on the side.
Notes
If you cooked this dish (or made this drink) and you want to share your masterpiece, please use your own photos and write the cooking steps in your own words.
Panko, Flaky Japanese Bread Crumbs