Tonkatsu – Messin with Perfection
I am a firm believer that, if you are going to add calories to a meat by breading and frying it, it should be crispy. Not greasy, not soggy, but a good solid crunch. This stuff fits the bill.
I need to thank my son, Paul, and his girlfriend Mindy for this one. I stayed with them a few nights a week last summer, when I started a new job away from home. One of the nights, they made this Tonkatsu for dinner. They didn’t have the tonkatsu sauce, so Mindy made a creamy lemon sauce for the rice. Oh, it was delicious. All of it. I did a little research after that, curious about the sauce that was “supposed” to go with it. It sounded intriguing. I found “quick” recipes for it, most saying that the original sauce was quite complicated. There were also a number of references to what was the ready made sauce. Of course, I couldn’t find it anywhere, and eventually ordered a bottle from Amazon. It’s quite good. But really, now I had an idea what the sauce was supposed to taste like, so I started messing with a few of the recipes I found. Eventually, I came up with what I liked the best, which was a conglomeration of several different ones on the internet.
This whole dish is super easy and fairly quick to fix. You could buy the sauce (I tried Bulldog brand) or throw it together with a few ingredients many households have on hand all the time.
It is so good, I just served it with a little white rice that I cooked with part water, part chicken stock, then seasoned with some lemon juice and lemon zest.
It would also be delicious just with steamed vegetables or a salad.
- PORK:
- 4-6 boneless pork loin chops or other cut of bonelss pork, cut about ½ - ¾ inch thick
- about ½ cup All Purpose flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 - 1½ cups panko bread crumbs - enough to coat all the chops
- SAUCE:
- ¼ c. ketchup
- 3 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 Tablespoons Oyster sauce
- 4 teaspoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together. Set aside.
- Heat a heavy skillet with about ½ inch of peanut or vegetable oil. Peanut oil works well as it has a high smoking point.
- Between two sheets of plastic wrap, pound the chops to about ¼ inch thick (I just use a rolling pin or heavy skillet). Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Dredge the pork chops in flour, then dip in the beaten egg, the immediately place in panko bread crumbs. Pack and press the bread crumbs on, then set each aside for a few minutes.
- When the oil is hot, carefully add the pork to the oil, leaving enough space that they don't crowd each other. Fry until deep golden brown, then carefully turn and fry the other side, about 2-3 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Serve with a light drizzle of sauce. CAREFUL with the sauce the first time. A little goes a long way.