Chicken Katsu
Sure matches the description
Time: 1 hour 11 minutes
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
Difficulty: 1/5
Who doesn’t like a good Katsu? If you haven’t had it before, it’s pretty much a thin, fried piece of meat, usually chicken or pork. This recipe comes from An Unapologetic Cookbook, which has been hit or miss in the past. Hopefully, this one is a hit.
Key Ingredients & Omissions:
This recipe is very simple, so nothing was left out. Everything should be pretty easy to find. I used chicken thighs instead of breasts to save a few dollars. Only thing is that I had to spend a little extra time to debone and skin the chicken thighs.
Tools:
Meat mallet or other pounding tool
Frying Vessel
Dredge bowls
Cooking Review:
Debone & Skin Chicken: 9 minutes
As I mentioned earlier, I used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs to save some money on this recipe. So, I had to spend 9 minutes to remove the bones and skin.
Pound & Salt Chicken: 7 minutes
Once the chicken was skinned and deboned, I placed them between two sheets of plastic wrap and used a meat mallet to pound them to an even thickness, one piece at a time. Once pounded, I seasoned both sides of each piece with salt.
Setup & Dredge Chicken: 14 minutes
I setup three shallow pans with the dredge ingredients. One with just flour, one with, beaten eggs and water, and one with just panko. Next, I the thighs in the flour, followed by the egg, and finished with the panko, making sure to get as much coverage as possible in each step. Once done, I put the chicken on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Heat Oil & Fry: 35 minutes
I heated the oil to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit before cooking one thigh at a time. I cooked each piece for about 6 minutes, flipping about 3 minutes in each time. I had a total of 4 batches (one per thigh). Once done frying, I transferred the chicken to a cooling rack over a baking sheet and seasoned with salt.
Analysis:
I really enjoyed this. The chicken was very crispy and well cooked. The flavor is pretty simple, as you may imagine if something is only seasoned with salt. The recipe references a cats sauce you could make, but I skipped it. Personally, I still liked it without any sauce. Granted, it is a great canvas for sauce. Only thing that I would say is that you need to make sure you season it well when you get the opportunity to. You could easily under-season it and have something that requires sauce. I’m going to give this recipe a 8/10. It’s pretty good, but nothing too special. You wouldn’t be disappointed if you gave it a try, but maybe not blown away, either.
