How To Season And Bread Your Tonkatsu Like A Pro

Tonkatsu is a delicious Japanese dish featuring juicy pork cutlets breaded and pan-fried to perfection. The pork cutlets, which are leaner and meatier than other cuts of meat, are typically pounded into a thin disk, breaking up the fat and muscle to make each bite tender and satisfying. Oh, and you can't forget the tonkatsu sauce. Reminiscent of barbecue sauce, tonkatsu sauce adds a sweet and tangy counterbalance to the fattiness of the pork. Tonkatsu, like our crispy pork loin tonkatsu (rosu katsu) recipe, is a fairly simple dish when it comes down to ingredients, but its success hinges on your breading and seasoning.

We connected with Lucy Seligman, a restaurant critic, food historian, writer, and the owner of Lucy's Kitchen cooking school. We knew that her focus, specifically on Japanese food, would make her the perfect expert to speak to when it came to getting tonkatsu breading right. According to Seligman, you want to use panko breadcrumbs when making tonkatsu. "I season the meat with salt and pepper on both sides," she explains. "Dredge in flour, dip into a mix of beaten egg with a touch of neutral oil added to it (keeps the panko breading on the pork), and finally press into panko generously on both sides." Seligman recommends that you do this 15 to 30 minutes before frying so the breading has time to bind to the meat in the refrigerator.

Lucy Seligman uses panko rather than regular breadcrumbs not only because they are the traditional Japanese breadcrumbs used for tonkatsu, but because they are both lighter and fry up to be crispier than traditional breadcrumbs. If you're curious about panko breading, but not quite ready to crank out homemade tonkatsu, we recommend that you try some panko out on your next batch of fried eggs for added crispiness. Another important component of the tonkatsu flavor profile is the tonkatsu sauce. While you can eat tonkatsu on its own, the sauce provides more moisture and helps draw out the savory flavors of your pork cutlet. 

When it comes to choosing the best tonkatsu sauce, store-bought is the way to go — it's less rigmarole, but still delivers on the same big flavors. But not all bottled sauces are created equal, and the expert chef recommends one specific brand of store-bought tonkatsu sauce. Seligman swears by Bull-Dog Tonkatsu Sauce, which is also a favorite on Reddit's r/cooking thread. For more tips and insights into Japanese cooking, check out Seligman's cookbooks "The Wonderful World of Osechi: Japanese New Year's Recipes" and "Easy Japanese Recipes for the Home Cook." Both are available for purchase, through Kindle and softcover on Amazon. You can also try out her delicious tenpura recipe to achieve the best coating.