Tonkatsu (Japanese Pork Cutlet)
These Japanese style pork cutlets come together in just 20 minutes, or less!
Jason and I try to penny pinch whenever we can. He’s a starving grad student and I’m working 2 jobs (which includes blog work because let’s face it – blogging is a full-time job!) to pay off sky high credit card bills and to ultimately save up for a house. That’s when budgeting for groceries becomes incredibly important.
So when I meal plan for the week, I try my best to stick with recipes where I have most of the ingredients on hand, like this tonkatsu here. With pantry staples like flour, eggs, rice, Panko, salt and pepper, I usually just need to buy a pound of boneless pork chops, which is about $3.99/pound at Trader Joe’s. And a pound of this is more than enough to feed 2 people, so feeding a party of 2 for $4 will definitely not break the bank! Plus, this comes together so quickly and you can even freeze the cutlets before cooking to save them for later on.
It doesn’t get easier, or cheaper, than that!
Tonkatsu (Japanese Pork Cutlet)
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 pound boneless pork chops
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 cup Panko* bread crumbs
- Cooked rice, for serving
- Tonkatsu sauce, for serving
Instructions
- Heat corn oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Season pork chops with salt and pepper, to taste. Working one at a time, dredge pork chops in flour, dip into egg, then dredge in Panko crumbs, pressing to coat.
- Working in batches, add pork chops to the skillet, 2 or 3 at a time, and cook until evenly golden and crispy, about 3-4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Serve immediately with rice and tonkatsu sauce, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I love this dish! I buy thin sliced boneless pork chops at Aldi, as well as jasmine rice. It’s a very affordable dinner, along with some chopped cabbage and some tomatoe. I’m retired, but make dinner for my son twice a week. We both love tonkatsu and your recipe checks all the boxes. Thank you!
Just made for my picky family and they all loved it. . Will definitely make it again.
Use a mallet to tenderize and evenly thin the cutlet before breading it so it cooks properly and fully. Anything cut 1/2″ or greater will not cook properly, maillard reaction will not be achieved without overbrowning the breading. Burnt razor blade is not how you want panko coating.
I loved it, it tasted amazing and make it quite often because I absolutely love this dish, but do you know the nutricional facts for this dish?
Saw your recipe. Ecerything was excellent! Easy to make and tasted great!
I am looking to food prep for the week, do you recommend freezing the cutlets cooked or uncooked? How long should they be thawed? I am so excited to make this 🙂
The recipe is delicious, only thing is I would update this with a different picture. The picture has chopsticks sticking upright in the rice and it can come off disrespectful. Still chopsticks is what japanese people use for the dead/deceased. Just to not come off as a little insensitive because this is a japanese recipe, I would update the picture used. Thanks.
This recipe looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it. I have used several of your recipes in the past and they never disappoint!
Only question – we usually get these very thick pork chops from Costco (like 1 1/2 in thick or more). What would you recommend in this case? I see your cut is very thin. Should I cut them in half maybe? I don’t want to mess this up! lol
For this a thinner piece or one pounded out, cut if to large, would work best as your pan frying it and the time to cook a larger piece would need time in the oven and may end up burning the crust if you do not correctly time pan frying vs cooking in the oven. Otherwise you can toss in your oven, check for a recommended temp for pork in the oven I assume most would be at 400, and do as this recommends just substituting the cooking method.
This looks so good, but since i’m not allowed to have pork, what can i use instead?
You can do this with chicken or beef. I have used Spam.
This is a favorite of ours! We pounded out the chops before dredging them as that’s how they look in the photo and cut the cooking time down slightly. Pretty perfect!
Took a while to find tonkatsu sauce but once I did…hoo boy!
It was really good. Thanks for sharing.
A simple but excellent recipe! I dislike eggs so after dredging the pork chops in flour, I dipped them in milk. I also used a preheated air fryer to fry which cut the oil used to almost nil! Oh, I live in the sticks and had to find Bull Dog Tonkatsu sauce on Amazon, about $6. Still delish and no egg taste 🙂
That sounds interesting with the air fryer method. Could you explain a little more how you did it. I have one but am not proficient in using it.
Are those sliced banana peppers as garnish?
No, it is green onions. 🙂
First, this was NOT an easy recipie. More mess then its worth. The pork chops came out good. As for the sause, i went to 4 different stores, could’nt find it anywhere. So I used the sause recipie that was on here, it tasted like pure ketchup. Id make the chops again, if i feel like making a HUGE mess, but ill find a different sause
Hmm, I can say it can get messy. But like any coated fried foods there’s really no way around the mess. Let’s face it, cooking was never really a “clean” job. If you were to try to make tonkatsu again and want to make the clean up a little easier I suggest you line your countertop with some parchment paper or something to keep your breading station on. As for difficulty, all you’re actually doing with this is triple dipping a piece of meat and throwing it in some hot oil. Not to be negative or anything but technique wise this recipe is on the easy side. Also if your sauce taste like only ketchup, I recommend using a lesser amount of ketchup maybe increasing the amount of Worcestershire sauce.
This was amazing! I just tried the method of patting the steaks with paper towel and getting to room temperature before cooking. Used coconut oil and made the sauce as another commenter suggested. Yum.
Super duper yummy easy and thank you for sharing
Made this tonight and it was very tasty — pretty much reminded me of my MIL’s (and now my) schnitzel recipe which she always made with pork. Found a Tonkatsu sauce recipe and it was pretty tangy, it was ok but didn’t use much. But a nice , delicious meal, thanks for the recipe.
Thank you for your feedback Kell!
Can you use an oven instead of pan frying?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Can I use olive oil or avocado oil?
I recommend using vegetable or canola oil.
Thanks for this extra information. I never buy corn oil but use canola as my regular cooking oil. I want to try this recipe even though my track record with pork chops is not great!
Use Avacado oil. Olive oil has too low a smoke point and will destroy the healthy omegas by overheating them. Plus cooking in EVOO is a waste of money. It’s used to flavor things. Not fry them.
My husband is a Japanese food lover and recently I am learning how to cook Japanese cuisine, believe me, your blog amazed me!