Submitted by Aya Sokunjo. Tonkatsu is normally made with pork cutlets covered in panko (bread crumbs) and then fried. However, my family prefers to use chicken thighs instead because it’s thinner and more tender. You can find more Mount Holyoke College students’ favorite Japanese foods, drinks, and family recipes here.
Preparation（準備):
Time 時間：3０ mins分
- Cook your rice. You can use the leftover rice water to water your plants after!
- Pour enough oil into a pot so that the chicken will float and not touch the bottom. Heat it to medium or medium-high.
- Preparing the chicken:
- Cut off as much of the fat on the chicken as possible. Some like to leave it so it’s up to you.
- Cut them into smaller pieces so that they cook faster.
- Set up three bowls:
- Pour some flour into the first bowl. Make sure there’s enough so that you can coat the chicken.
- Crack three eggs into the second bowl and whisk it. Then, pour in some milk until the eggs turn a nice golden color. This will make it so that the tonkatsu will come out perfectly golden.
- In the third bowl, pour in enough panko so that you can cover your chicken with it.
- Set up the bowls in this order so that it’s easy to go through and dip the chicken in the right order.
- Place a rack with a tray underneath somewhere where it’s easy for you to place the coated chicken.
- Coating the chicken:
- Go through and coat the chicken with flour, egg, and panko respectively. Doing this process only once keeps the coating nice and thin yet crispy at the end.
Instructions （つくり方）:
Time 時間：45分
- Check the oil with a thermometer to make sure it’s the right temperature. It should be around 170 °C or 340 °F. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can place a chopstick in the center of the pot to see if the oil bubbles around it. If the oil starts to bubble rapidly, then you need to turn it down until you see only a few bubbles.
- Keep a bacon pan nearby so you can let excess oil drain.
- Once the oil is at the right temperature, start placing the chicken into the pot. Start with the ones you coated first and end with the ones you coated most recently. Flip over occasionally.
- Check the temperature of the oil every so often to make sure it’s not too hot and not too cool.
- Once you get a dark, golden brown color on both sides, you can put the tonkatsu onto the bacon pan.
- When you’re done with the oil, make sure you don’t pour it down the sink drain!
Cut ½ – 1 cabbage into really thin slices.
Now, you’re ready to serve!
いただきます