Recipe: Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce

I remember the first time I ever ate chicken katsu. It was at a small Japanese restaurant called "Shogun" in Newton, Massachusetts. Shogun does it in a nice traditional "bento style" in which the meal is served in a lacquered box with all the components of the meal fitting neatly into their own compartments. Over the years I had Shogun's version a number of times and I was never disappointed. The Shogun also serves damn fine sushi and tempura. Check them out if you're ever in Newton, you won't be disappointed.

The second place I ever had chicken katsu was in Honolulu, Hawaii. I was staying in Waikiki in Hawaii and a friendly tour guide directed me to a little hole-in-the-wall called "Irifune's" on Kapahulu street just past the Honolulu Zoo. So one day my wife and I made the long walk to the restaurant from our hotel. Our tour guide had given us the lowdown so we knew what to expect when we arrived. I remember liking Irifune's for several reasons:

1.) A car had driven through the front door a few days before we went to dine there and it still looked like it had happened on the day we arrived. The interior was eclectic and funky with old ship models and a fish pond with real fish and plastic plants in the dining room.

2.) The food was inexpensive.

3.) The katsu was gigantic and delicious.

4.) The ahi maki sushi rolls were the size of hockey pucks.

Hockey pucks I tell you! HOCKEY PUCKS!

I haven't been back to Irifune's but I hope it is still there when I am back in that neck of woods.

Upon returning home from Hawaii I did a little research and learned how to make this dish and the accompanying sauce. It's been a number of years and katsu's popularity with my family and friends has kept it in the heavy rotation section of my cooking repertoire. The dish gets its signature crunchiness from Japanese panko bread crumbs. There was a time when I used to bring a year's supply home from Hawaii. Globalization being what it is though, it is now relatively common on grocery store shelves.

The crunch of panko is a key element to what makes chicken katsu so good. The real deal sealer however is the tonkatsu sauce! It's kind of hard to describe if you've never had it. It's kind of like a barbeque sauce but not quite. There are Asian elements and flavors to it that make it different and uniquely delicious. For the record, it's just not katsu without the crunch of panko and the sweet tanginess of tonkatsu sauce!

Unlike panko bread crumbs, it is hard to come across tonkatsu sauce in most grocery stores. I'm going to recommend you make your own and of course I've included the recipe below. However, if you'd rather buy your tonkastu sauce I'm going to recommend Bulldog Tonkatsu Sauce as a Product I Love. It's the ONLY Tonkatsu sauce offered in the Chop Onions, Boil Water Kitchen Outlet Store and that's for good reason. I've tried a variety of tonkatsu sauces over the years and Bulldog Tonkatsu Sauce is my number one choice, hands-down. I often make my own, but if I don't have the time I've always got a bottle of Bulldog in my fridge. My daughters even use it on their chicken nuggets!

This is a simple recipe that everyone seems to love. Give it a shot, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Chicken Katsu (see tonkatsu sauce recipe below)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Enough peanut oil to fry cutlets in (about 1/2" to 1" deep)
1 cup of panko bread crumbs
1 cup of all purpose flour
2 eggs (beaten)
2 TBS milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the chicken breasts and pat them dry.

Using glancing blows, pound each breast half with a flat faced tenderizing mallet until the cutlet is uniformly a 1/4" to 3/8" thick. Season both sides with salt and pepper to taste and set aside. Continue doing this with the rest of the chicken.

Put the beaten egg and milk in a wide shallow bowl. Place the panko and flour in their own separate dishes.

Heat the peanut oil in a high sided pan and bring it up to frying temperature.

Dredge the cutlet in the flour then coat in the beaten egg. Allow the excess egg to drain off and then dredge in the panko flakes until well coated.

Place the coated cutlet in the hot oil and cook turning once, you want it golden brown on both sides. Be sure the chicken is cooked through.

Allow excess oil to drain off.

Cut into manageable parallel pieces, (see photo).

Dress the chicken with tonkatsu sauce and serve with steamed white rice.

Tonkatsu sauce

1/2 cup of ketchup
8 tsp soy sauce
8 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
8 tsp sugar
8 tsp yellow mustard
4 tsp sake
4 tsp mirin
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp of garlic powder

Prepare the tonkatsu sauce at least several hours before you plan on cooking the katsu.

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together until well combined. Place the finished sauce in the refrigerator to chill and allow the flavors to meld and heighten until needed.

Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk

Recipe: Michelle's Awesome Burgers

(Photo: Michelle's Awesome Turkeyburger, a variation of the recipe below)

If it is not apparent at this point let me make it clear. In my home I do 90% of the cooking. After a one-hour commute to work and a nine-hour workday, I get my butt back in a car and spend another hour in traffic to get home so that I can prepare a real dinner for my family. I do it day after day after day and you know why? Because I LOVE IT! Well, not the work and commute stuff, SCREW THAT! It's the cooking for my family thing I enjoy. It is relaxing and I think its fun. We've got a pretty good situation in my home. I love to cook and hate to clean, my wife hates to cook and loves to clean -- HARMONY!

However, there are times and situations when I just can't cook or on very rare occasions, don't feel like cooking. That's when Mrs. K works her magic and cooks for the family. Remember, I wrote that she hates to cook, not that she can't cook, she certainly can. Unlike me, she's really humble about her skills and her dishes. She'll charmingly deflect any attempt to compliment her efforts. Though sometimes I think that's because she doesn't want to get too good at cooking too many things! She's clever like that. How else was she able to wrangle such a high quality man into marrying her?

There are several things she prepares for me that are among my favorite versions of those foods. Among them are her hamburgers. True to her style she takes some simple ingredients and creates something I REALLY and SINCERELY enjoy. True to my writing style I'll offer that her hamburgers transcend the potential of their ingredients! Snazzy huh? In fact I like her burgers so much, that she is the only one who makes them in my house. They're better than any of the ones I've ever made and well, once I grab onto something I like I'm not letting go!

So here is my favorite burger recipe, compliments of my wife Michelle for whom I am happy to cook 90% of her meals.

Michelle's Awesome Burgers

3 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup onions (chopped fine)
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
Ground black pepper to taste
Wheat or whole grain hamburger buns*
Sliced cheddar cheese
Stone ground mustard
Bufalo Brand Chipotle Hot Sauce
Dad's Coney Island Hot Dog Sauce

In a large bowl mix the ground beef, onions, Worcestershire Sauce and ground black pepper.

Divide into desired size servings and form into hamburger patties.

Place patties on grill.

While patties grill, toast the hamburger rolls.

Cook patties until done adding a slice of cheddar cheese the last few moments.

On the bottom of the bun spread Bufalo Brand Chipotle Hot Sauce to taste.

On the top of the bun spread the stone ground mustard.

Place burger on bun and top with two tablespoons of Dad's Coney Island Hot Dog Sauce.

You can also add tomatoes, lettuce and extra onions if you like.

*OR Supremely- Portuguese sweetbread buns or bolos levedos (Portuguese pancakes). For more information on these please see this previous entry.

Recipe: Michelle's Awesome Burgers from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk

Review: Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce

I can always remember where I was in my life when I've tried some important foods. Chimichurri was in Oranjestadt, Aruba. Manapua was in Honolulu, Hawaii. Boeuf Wellington was in Providence, Rhode Island. Oh man, the charbroiled hot dogs they sell on the street in Ponta Delgada, Azores are something else! The list goes on and on, but you get the picture and you can probably relate

The first time I ever had Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce was in the Cancun Airport in the Yucatan as I was leaving Mexico after another great vacation in Playa del Carmen. I was walking around looking for a cold beer and I walked into a small hot sauce shop. The guy behind the counter asked me if I wanted to try any and I chose a serrano-based hot sauce and the Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce I bought a couple of bottles of the Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce on the spot and I've never looked back.

When I ran out of my initial purchase, I quickly found a new supplier and I've used the stuff religiously ever since. I guess you could call it my favorite hot sauce. It is thick, rich and the smokey chipotle flavor just makes anything you put on it a taste sensation. It's not one of those set-your-butt-ablaze hot sauces that all the low-browed chest pounders love to brag they use. It has just the right amount of heat to make it a food experience rather than a dare.

I've tried other chipotle flavored hot sauces just for comparison and they just don't match up. The others are always too watery, too vinegary, or too something that just falls short of the Bufalo brand. I'm sticking with this stuff.

Recipe-wise I use it on and in a number of foods. My favorite thing to put it on are my wife's cheese burgers (recipe forthcoming). Now, those burgers are among my favorite foods anyway, but when she shakes some Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce on them... BANG! I am into yum yum outer space!

Bufalo's homepage here.

Nutritional information here.

I rate this stuff 4 out of 4 stars.