Tonkatsu (Japanese pork cutlets)
Shatteringly crisp panko pork cutlets with a tangy homemade katsu sauce, crunchy cabbage and a bowl of rice.
- 50 min total
- 40 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $2.47 a serving
- 850 calories
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1½ cups jasmine rice
- 3 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 cups green cabbage
- 4 boneless pork chops, boneless, about ¾ inch thick
- 2 large eggs
- 1¼ cups panko breadcrumbs
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges (optional)
From your pantry
- 2¼ cups water
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
Each serving has about 850 calories, 47 g protein, 83 g carbs and 36 g fat, and costs about $2.47 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No jasmine rice? Long-grain white rice or basmati rice works.
- No green cabbage? Red cabbage or coleslaw mix works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the rice and bring it with the water in a .
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
High heat
Cover, turn the heat to low, cook 15 minutes, and leave it covered off the heat.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Stir the ketchup, Worcestershire, soy sauce and sugar together for the katsu sauce.
the cabbage as thin as you can and keep it in a bowl of cold water in the fridge until you serve.
Shred. Shredding means making thin strips, either on the big holes of a grater or by pulling cooked meat apart with two forks. Shreds soak up sauce and mix evenly through a dish.
How you’ll know: Cooked chicken pulls apart into strands with little effort, and cheese comes off in long, loose strips.
Dolly’s tip: Cold water makes the cabbage extra crisp. Drain it well before it goes on the plate.Pound the chops to about ½ inch thick between two sheets of plastic wrap with the bottom of a heavy pan, then them dry and with the salt and pepper.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Set out three shallow dishes: the flour, the eggs beaten, and the panko. Coat each chop in flour, then egg, then press it firmly into the panko on both sides.
Dolly’s tip: Keep one hand for the flour and panko and the other for the egg, so your fingers don’t turn into breaded clubs.Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Heat the oil in a large over medium until a panko crumb sizzles as soon as it hits. Fry 2 cutlets at a time, 3 to 4 minutes a side, until deep and the middle reads 145°F.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 7 min
Dolly’s tip: Lay each cutlet in with the edge nearest you going down first, so any splash goes away from you.Food safety: Steak, pork chops and other whole cuts are safe at 145°F in the middle, then let them rest for 3 minutes before cutting.
Set the cutlets on paper towels to 2 minutes, then them into 1-inch strips.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Timer: 2 min
Drain the cabbage and serve the tonkatsu with the rice and cabbage, the sauce over, and lemon wedges.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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