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Katsu the crispiest Japanese chicken

Easy chicken katsu recipe with chicken breast coated with flour, egg, and panko, deep-fried until golden brown
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Ingrédients
  

  • 2 cups panko breadcrumbs
  • 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 10 ounces each)
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups vegetable or canola oil, for frying
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Instructions
 

  • Prepare the breading. Place 2 cups panko in a pie plate, add 1/2 teaspoon of the kosher salt, and stir with a fork to combine. Beat 3 large eggs in a second shallow bowl with the fork until evenly combined. Place 1/2 cup all-purpose flour on a plate.
  • Slice the chicken. Cut the tenders from 2 chicken breasts if still attached. Positioning a knife almost parallel to the cutting board, slice each breast crosswise at an angle into pieces about 1/3-inch thick. The pieces will not all be the same size, and that’s okay.
  • Season the chicken. Place the chicken, including the tenders, on a baking sheet. Season on both sides with the remaining 1 teaspoon kosher salt.
  • Dredge the chicken. Working with one piece of chicken at a time, dredge completely in the flour, then dip into the eggs, and finally thoroughly coat with the panko. Place back on the baking sheet in a single layer. Refrigerate while you heat the oil.
  • Heat the oil. Heat 3 cups vegetable oil in a large frying pan or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until 350ºF, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, fit a wire rack over a baking sheet. Make the sauce while the oil is heating.
  • Make the sauce. Place 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar, and 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar in a small serving bowl and whisk to combine to make the sauce; set aside.
  • Fry the chicken. Fry the chicken in batches of about 5 pieces to prevent crowding: Add the chicken and fry, flipping once with tongs, until cooked through and golden-brown, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side. Transfer to the wire rack and repeat with the remaining chicken.
  • Slice the katsu and serve. If desired, slice the katsu crosswise into 1/2-inch wide pieces. Serve drizzled with the katsu sauce or serve the sauce on the side for dipping.
  • you can drizzled it with tonkatsu sauce. 

Notes

  • Storage: Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 2 days.
  • Dishes using cutlets usually involve pounding out the meat first to get thin, even slices. But when researching chicken katsu, I discovered there’s an easier way to get thin pieces of meat instead: slicing at an angle. I saw this technique in Japanese cookbooks way and : 
    To do this, start by checking the chicken breasts to see if the tenders are still attached. Chicken tenders are the little strip of meat that’s on the underside. If you find them, pull them off first and set them aside. They won’t go to waste and will be fried up for the katsu. Then cut the chicken crosswise on a slight diagonal, holding the knife almost parallel to the cutting board. Aim for slices about 1/3-inch thick, and don’t worry that the pieces aren’t uniform in shape since the chicken breasts are usually a bit thinner at each end.
    Cutting the chicken this way is a lot easier than pounding out chicken and yields quite a number of pieces from just one pound. While you don’t get big pieces to serve each person, this method provides lots of surface area for the coating to adhere to and turn crispy.