Woah, how did I forget about this place for the entire summer? Anyway, here is a post on chicken katsu, which I made the other day. Pictures forthcoming.
Katsu is a perfect example of loan cuisine. The Japanese picked up the cutlet technique (along with many others) from European traders. In fact there is an entire genre of Europe/Western via Japan cuisine. Blahblahblah...
Ok, I forgot to get eggs, otherwise I'd have done the standard breading procedure. I got good results with this erstaz method.
1) Butterfly chicken breast and pound them out. Cut them in half. Season.
2) Make a thick batter of wheat flour (bread), water, salt, fresh ground black pepper. Toss with the chicken.
3) Dredge the cutlets in panko. Press the crumbs down to get a good coat.
4) Let rest to get good adhesion. (optional)
5) Pan fry. Takes surprisingly little oil.
Basically, I could have just said, make a chicken cutlet.
So, what do you do with your crispy, brown, and delicious cutlets?
Traditionally, it's served with thinly shredded cabbage, rice, and a Japanese version of A1 steak sauce, and maybe a wedge of lemon. Also popular are katsu sandwiches. As for me, I like katsu curry. Steamed rice, Japanese style curry (to be subject of an upcoming blog post if I do it sans curry brick), and sliced chicken katsu.
There is also another exceptional Japanese fried chicken dish. Karaage. Nuggets of chicken are marinated and tossed in starch (varies from potato, corn, rice flour, and/or wheat flour), then fried.
