Soy sauce
Sugar
Worcestershire sauce
Ketchup
2 pork cutlets (boneless pork loin chop), about 1 cm thick
½ teaspoon kosher salt
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
1 egg (beaten)
2 tablespoons flour
½ cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
Vegetable oil for frying
Combine the soy sauce, sugar, Worcestershire, and ketchup. Beat with fork until consistent.
If desired, chill sauce for a half hour to thicken.
Pound pork with meat mallet until thin, perhaps ¼ inch (a little more than 0.5 cm) thick. To reduce splatter you should put the meat in an open ziplock bag.
Season pounded cutlets with salt and pepper on each side.
Put beaten egg, flour, and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls.
Place pork in the flour, then egg, then crumbs (in that order) so that it is completely coated with each.
Heat oil in a frying pan to about ½ inch or 1.25 cm deep. Drop in crumbs to test when the oil is ready—the crumbs should float and sizzle.
Fry pork until deep golden or golden brown, most likely a for a few minutes on either side.
With a sharp knife cut pork into strips.
Serve with Japanese short grain rice and thinly shredded cabbage.
- •Pork can be substituted by chicken or beef.
- •Finished tonkatsu can be served as a topping to Japanese curry or simmered with egg and broth and served over rice as katsudon.