Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between katsudon and katsu? ›

What is the difference between Katsu and Katsu Don? - Quora. Katsu is pork or chicken covered with flour and put in an egg, then covered with bread crumbs and fried in oil. Katsudon is a rice bowl made with cutlets.

Katsudon (Japanese: カツ丼) is a popular Japanese food, a bowl of rice topped with a deep-fried breaded pork cutlet, egg, vegetables, and condiments. Katsudon. The dish takes its name from the Japanese words tonkatsu (for pork cutlet) and donburi (for rice bowl dish).

A little fun fact... It is a tradition for Japanese students to eat Katsudon before taking an entrance exam! Katsu means “to win.” A winwin dish indeed!

Several kinds of oils are used to make the frying oil, such as vegetable oil, lard, sesame oil, and olive oil. The amount of oil must be sufficient to completely submerge the meat. This is one of the secrets of frying, as it is this amount of oil which makes the tonkatsu so crispy, yet juicy inside.

Meaning of katsu in English

a Japanese dish consisting of a piece of meat, usually chicken, or vegetable, covered in bread crumbs, fried, then usually cut into strips and eaten with a sauce: One of my favorite dishes growing up, chicken katsu is basically the Japanese version of fried chicken.

Katsu is most often made using pork, with chicken coming in a close second, though beef or even ham or hamburger is not uncommon in parts of Japan. I typically stick with pork or chicken, or firm tofu or tempeh if I'm in the mood for a non-meaty version.

But I thought I should add a video to this Chicken Cutlet recipe as well, so that you needn't refer to the Katsu Curry video to view it. Chicken Cutlet is called 'chikin katsu' (チキンカツ) in Japanese. The word 'katsu' (カツ) is a short form of 'katsuretsu' (カツレツ) which came from the English word 'cutlet'.

It is said to be invented by a student of Waseda high school, Keijiro Nakanishi and his friends, and it was served for students at cafeterias then, and was spread nationwide.

It's sweet and tangy with an umami undertone that packs a flavorful punch. You'll usually find it served with pork tonkatsu, a popular dish of breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet with cabbage and rice. It's also commonly served on katsu sando, which is a sandwich with a piece of pork tonkatsu as the filling.

Since katsu also means “to win,” katsudon is traditionally eaten before important exams. There are multiple theories as to the dish's origins, but most of the stories trace back to the early twentieth century in the area surrounding Waseda University in Tokyo, deepening katsudon's connection to higher learning.

What are 5 fun facts about Japanese? ›

Similar in form to a German schnitzel, katsu is one of many Western foods that has been adopted, adapted to suit local tastes, and become a key part of Japanese cuisine. Katsu was invented in the late 1800s by a Tokyo restaurant that wanted to offer a European-style meat cutlet.

Cooking this too hot will char your delicate breadcrumbs, and cooking it too cold will give you soggy, oily katsu.

There are two main cuts of pork used for tonkatsu: hire-katsu meaning “pork fillet”, and rosu-katsu, meaning “pork roast”. Hire-katsu is made with a lean pork tenderloin, while rosu-katsu uses a richer cut of pork that comes with a strip of fat along the side.

Cornstarch Vs Flour

If you don't have cornstarch, use flour. Both will work! I have made tonkatsu with both, and I prefer cornstarch because I feel that it clings to the pork better and yields a crispier crunch.

Tonkatsu comes from the same pig character ton (豚) and katsu is short for katsuretsu, which is how “cutlets” is pronounced in Japanese. Tonkatsu, or pork cutlets, is made by seasoning and breading pork chops and then deep frying them. They are usually placed on a bed of shredded green cabbage.

Katsu is a Japanese dish of crispy fried cutlets coated with Panko bread crumbs. Popular varieties are chicken katsu (like this recipe) and tonkatsu (which is made with pork).

Short for tonkatsu, katsu sauce is essentially the Japanese equivalent of Western barbecue sauce. It's sweet and tangy with an umami undertone that packs a flavorful punch. You'll usually find it served with pork tonkatsu, a popular dish of breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet with cabbage and rice.

The dish was originally called Katsuretsu Curry which we now know as Katsu Curry. The word katsu, which simply means “fried cutlet” in Japanese, is a piece of breaded fried meat.