If you’ve never had a Japanese Katsudon before, it’s essentially deep-fried pork or chicken cutlet, served on a bed of rice and sweet soy eggs. It’s sweet, salty, crispy and packed with umami. Best of all, it’s actually quite easy to make – let me show you how to do it!

There are 3 main components to this dish: Cutlet, eggs and rice

1. Cutlet: traditionally it’s pork but you cannot eat pork then use chicken instead. It’s breaded with panko breadcrumbs which is a Japanese breadcrumb that is a bit more coarse, resulting in a crispier cutlet. You can find it in most supermarkets nowadays or definitely at any Asian grocer.
2. Eggs: it’s essentially eggs fried/poached in a sweet Japanese marinate. You will need dashi stock (it’s dashi powder diluted in water), mirin, soy sauce and sugar. You can find all of these ingredients at Asian grocers.
3. Rice: Japanese rice is most preferred. It’s short-grained and a lot more starchy and sticky. If you can’t find it, any rice will do.

Ingredients

Cutlet:
1 pork chop or chicken breast
plain flour
2 eggs, beaten
panko breadcrumbs

Egg Component:
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 large onion, sliced
1/2 cup dashi stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1/2 tbsp sugar
green onion, sliced for garnish

Rice

Method

1. Prepare pork/chicken cutlet: set out your breading station – plain flour, eggs and panko breadcrumbs.
2. With a meat tenderiser or the back of your knife, flatten your pork chop/chicken breast into an even piece. Coat your meat in the plain flour, followed by the eggs and lastly into the breadcrumbs.
3. Fry the cutlet until golden brown, set aside.
4. In a pan with a bit of oil, fry your onion slices until slightly browned. Pour in the dashi stock, soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring to a simmer.
5. Pour in the beaten eggs, cover and cook for 2 minutes.
6. Serve the eggs over a bed of rice and topped with the cutlet and green onions.