Chicken Katsu

One of the most famous Japanese chicken recipes, is Chicken Katsu. Not surprisingly, you can order it many small restaurants and it is often put into bento boxes. During our last vacation to Shibu Onsen we ordered some chicken katsu at a small (little run-down) restaurant owned by an very friendly old man. Because the restaurant had a half-open kitchen we were able to see some of the cooking. And when he brought us our meals (really big), and we tasted it, it was really good! Definitely one of the best Chicken Katsu we had ever eaten. So, because we wanted to eat it again (and Nagano is a bit far for Tokyo) we decided to try and make it ourselves.

Ingredients (2p):

• 300 gr chicken breasts*
• pepper and salt
• 1 egg (beaten)
• bread crumbs
• frying oil

* you can also use pork or beef, then you will get respectively tonkatsu or beefkatsu, also very nice!


Preparation
First you need to pound the chicken breast until they are approximately 1 a 1,5 cm thick.

Then, you need to prepare to egg and bread crumbs. Beat the egg, and place it in a shallow bowl. In another shallow bowl, place a handful of bread crumbs

beaten egg

bread crumbs

 Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper to taste, dip it briefly in the beaten egg , and press it in the bread crumbs so the chicken breast is covered (both sides) with crumbs. Repeat for the other chicken breasts.

Heat around 0,5 cm of oil in a fry-pan. Put the chicken in the fry-pan and let it cook in the hot oil until the outside has a nice brown colour. Turn the chicken halfway through the cooking.

Chicken Katsu with rice

Serve it as side dish, or serve it with rice (and lettuce) as Chicken Katsu-don. Tastes best when topped with tonkatsu sauce.

Oyakodon (Chicken-and-egg rice)

 This time we made a dish with a really interesting name: Oyakodon. It means parent-child rice bowl because it uses both the chicken and the egg. Although the recipe sounds like something Hannibal Lecter would eat, it actually tastes really good!

The recipe comes from our Japanese language book 'Minna no Nihongo' and is used to show how you can say 'do this according to these instructions'. Good students as we are, we took that literally and started cooking straight away. Though the basics are still 'Minna no Nihongo'-style, we made some slight improvements in the ingredient ratios. This dish is really easy to make, very low in fat and super tasty. Kids love it and parents too ;). Oh, and it has the coolest name ever!

What do we need?

Ingredients (2p):

• Rice for 2 persons
• 250 ml water
• 1 tblsp dashi
• 3,5 tblsp soy sauce
• 2 tblsp mirin
• 1,5 tblsp sugar
• 1 chicken filet
• 1 onion
• 2 eggs

First cut the chicken in thin long strips. Then cut the onion in wedges. To make wedges you first cut the onion horizontally in half and then cut each half in quarters (or just chop the onion up :-P).

The chicken and onion cut into pieces

Then mix the water, dashi, soy sauce, mirin and sugar and pour the mixture into a preferably small fry pan. Bring to a boil and add the chicken and onion. Both should be covered in liquid. Now bring down the heat to a simmering. After 6-7 minutes your broth should be ready but make sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

The chicken and onion simmering in the dashi-mixture

Beat two eggs and pour them evenly over the simmering broth. Put a lid on the frying pan and let nature take its course for 2 minutes.

Two beaten eggs divided over the simmering broth, cover with lid

In the meanwhile you can put the rice in your bowls. Uncover the frying pan, divide the broth and onions onto the bowls and put the chicken with egg on top of the rice. You are now ready to go Hannibal Lecter!

Video review:

End result: