I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that katsu are one of the most popular Japanese dishes, both in Japan and abroad. Most people think of pork (AKA Tonkatsu) when they hear the word katsu but in Japan, you'll find them made with chicken, beef and even tofu.
If you visit a specialist katsu restaurant, normally known as a "tonkatsu-ya", you'll not only find katsu on the menu but also "sauce katsudon" which means that your katsu will be delivered in a bowl perched on a blanket of shredded cabbage laid over a thick bed of rice. As the name implies, the final act is to drizzle lots of Bulldog sauce (or the restaurant's special in-house version of Bulldog sauce).
The recipe I've made here is for Chicken sauce katsudon. All in all, this makes a tasty and very substantial one bowl dish which will leave no appetite unsatisfied. Here in the UK, when I make any sauce katsudon, I use lettuce instead of cabbage - Japanese cabbage is much softer than the cabbage here in the UK, so, because the point here is to match the crispy, chewy katsu with a soft vegetable, I use shredded lettuce as a substitute.
From start to finish, this recipe takes around 30-45 mins to produce - just cook your rice in advance.
This is a dish I think you really should try out! If you want to do so, you can find the written recipe just below and for the youtube tutorial click Chicken sauce katsudon or scroll to the bottom of the page.
Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX.
If you want to try a non-meat katsu, take a look at my Aubergine katsu recipe here.
Chicken sauce katsudon
ingredients:
(makes 2 servings)
2 chicken breasts
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 egg
40g plain flour
50g ‘panko’ breadcrumbs
150g lettuce*
450g cooked japanese rice
some Bull-Dog sauce
1/2 lemon
2 tsp toasted white sesame seeds (optional)
cling film
veg oil for deep frying
some kitchen paper
*shredded soft cabbage is always served with katsudon in Japan, however the cabbage available in uk is, i find, quite hard, so I use lettuce here instead.
how to:
finely shred the lettuce
wrap the chicken breasts in cling film, place on a chopping board & tenderise with a rolling pin or steak mallet (the objective is to soften the flesh not to beat it very thin, so this should only take 20-30 seconds for each chicken breast)
coat the breasts in the plain flour, dip in the beaten egg, then coat well with breadcrumbs
heat 2cm of veg oil in a sauce pan, heat to 180’C and deep fry the “katsu” for 2 mins on each side
(be sure to adjust the heat to stop the oil getting too hot)
turn and fry the katsu for 2 mins more each side
(the frying time may need adjusting depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts)
to assemble the katsudon, put 1/2 the rice in each of your two serving bowls bowl & cover with a bed of lettuce
cut the katsu into 1cm slices & place on the lettuce
garnish with lemon wedges & sprinkle over the sesame, then drizzle with bull-dog sauce
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