Chicken Katsu with Rice
By Middagsarkivet
- Easy
- 4 servings
Katsu came to Nordic kitchens the way most foreign food does: through a cookbook, a travel memory, and eventually the supermarket stocking panko next to the regular breadcrumbs. What took hold was not the restaurant version with its cabbage mountain and matching set of pickles, but the home version, which is a breaded cutlet in a frying pan, rice on the side, sauce poured from whatever bottle is open.
Japanese home cooks treat katsu as a Friday dish, and so do Swedes and Danes, often with the chicken cut into strips for children who want it in finger form. Thighs are used more often than breast in home kitchens because they stay juicy even when someone forgets the pan for a minute.
Bottled tonkatsu sauce exists in larger American stores, but the version mixed here from ketchup, Worcestershire and soy is close enough, and it is what most people end up doing anyway. Panko gives the proper shattering crust; plain breadcrumbs work and give a denser, more Nordic coating.
How to make it
- 1
Start the rice
Put the rinsed short-grain rice, water and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, cover, and lower the heat to the smallest flame.
- 2
Cook and rest the rice
Simmer covered for 12 minutes without lifting the lid, then take the pan off the heat and let it stand, still covered, for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.
- 3
Mix the sauce
Stir the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, sugar and mustard together in a small bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
- 4
Dress the salad
Toss the shredded iceberg lettuce and sliced cucumber with the rice vinegar and the sesame oil, if using. Keep cold until serving.
- 5
Flatten the chicken
Lay the chicken thighs flat and open out any thick folds. Cover with plastic wrap and pound them to an even half inch with a mallet or a rolling pin. Season both sides with the salt and black pepper.
- 6
Bread the cutlets
Set out three shallow dishes: the flour, the beaten egg, and the breadcrumbs. Turn each cutlet in flour, then egg, then press it firmly into the breadcrumbs so the coating sticks all over.
- 7
Fry
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until a breadcrumb sizzles at once. Fry the cutlets in two batches, 3 to 4 minutes per side, until deep golden. They must reach an internal temperature of 165°F (74°C); check with a thermometer at the thickest point.
- 8
Drain and slice
Move the cutlets to a rack or paper towels for a minute, then slice each one crosswise into strips about three quarters of an inch wide.
- 9
Serve
Spoon rice onto each plate, lay the sliced katsu alongside, and add a pile of the lettuce and cucumber. Spoon over the sauce, scatter with scallion, and put lemon wedges on the table.
A couple of tips
Press the breadcrumbs on hard and let the breaded cutlets sit for five minutes before frying. The coating then stays on in the pan instead of in the oil.
Keep the oil at a steady medium-high. Too cool and the crust soaks up fat, too hot and the crumbs darken before the chicken is at 165°F (74°C).
Fry in two batches. A crowded pan drops the oil temperature and steams the breading soft.
What you need
- an instant-read thermometer
- a meat mallet or a heavy rolling pin
Serving
Serve over short-grain rice with the vinegared lettuce and cucumber, sauce spooned on at the table and lemon wedges for squeezing. A bowl of miso soup or a few quick-pickled carrots on the side rounds it out.
Storing it
Leftover katsu keeps 3 days in the refrigerator, loosely covered so the crust does not sweat. Reheat in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Cooked rice keeps 3 days refrigerated and should be cooled quickly rather than left on the counter.
Nutrition per serving
| Calories | 840 kcal |
|---|---|
| Fat | 27 g |
| of which saturated | 5 g |
| Carbohydrates | 100 g |
| of which sugars | 7 g |
| Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 47 g |
| Salt | 3 g |
Questions and answers
- Can you freeze chicken katsu?
- Yes. Freeze the fried, cooled cutlets whole for up to 2 months and reheat from frozen at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes. Freezing them breaded but raw also works; fry from frozen over slightly lower heat.
- Can I use chicken breast instead of thighs?
- Yes, sliced horizontally into cutlets and pounded thin. Breast cooks faster, so start checking for 165°F (74°C) after about 3 minutes per side.
- What can replace panko?
- Plain breadcrumbs give a denser but perfectly good crust. Crushed cornflakes are the other common home substitute and come out noticeably crunchier.
- Can I bake or air-fry the cutlets instead of frying?
- Yes. Toss the breadcrumbs with 2 tablespoons of oil first, then bake at 425°F (220°C) for 18 to 20 minutes or air-fry at 400°F (200°C) for about 14 minutes, turning once, until they reach 165°F (74°C).
- Can the sauce be made ahead?
- It keeps two weeks in a jar in the refrigerator and only improves after a day. Double the batch if you make katsu often.
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- $0.269
- 1 min 50 sec
- 5
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 17, 2026 | Wrote the recipe | anthropic/claude-opus-5 | 7,979 in · 4,123 out tokens | 52.7 sec | $0.143 |
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