Monday I made the Japanese Katsu recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. The next recipe in the cookbook from last week’s gyudon is katsudon, which calls for “8 to 12 ounces leftover Japanese chicken or pork cutlet (page 465),” so I needed to skip ahead to Japanese katsu (page 465) to get the necessary ingredient for katsudon.

Really, the only unusual ingredient for this recipe is the optional “Japanese-style pickles (sunomono).” I didn’t find these, but nor did I look hard since they were optional.

The general technique is to pound the meat (chicken or pork, we opted for chicken) to a flat, thin cutlet, dredge in flour, dip in eggs, and then dredge in panko breadcrumbs. Then the cutlets are deep fried.

The katsu was incredible; everyone in the family enjoyed it. It was probably the most chicken my daughter has eaten in a single sitting. Everyone did not, however, enjoy the accompaniments: shredded green cabbage and rice.

Happy to make this again, but probably with different sides.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.