Thursday, June 17th, 2010
I try to stay away from too much fried food but every now and then I have a huge craving for fried chicken and I don't mean KFC. I like 'em breaded and fried, ever heard of chicken katsu? For those of you who didn't get that, I'm sort of a movie quoter. "I like 'em dead and deep fried, ever heard of Popeyes? You gotta love Chris Rock. I digress...so back to the katsu. Tonkatsu (pork cutlet) is the classic version of this fried and breaded meat, but I really like chicken katsu. I find that you can't really go wrong with chicken katsu and the meat tends to stay moist no matter how long you cook it.
This recipe is also a simple, no hassle and easy clean-up recipe. I don't bother dipping the meat into flour, eggs and then bread crumbs like a lot of recipes call for and this comes out crispier and doesn't get soggy even after it cools down.
Ingredients
3/4 cup of water
1 teaspoon of vinegar
1/3 cup + 3 tablespoons of flour
1 (1/2) pounds of chicken thighs
2 cups of panko bread crumbs
Canola oil
salt and pepper
1) Use boneless and skinless chicken thighs. The dark meat helps keep the meat moist. Make sure you trim off all the fat. Lay the chicken on a chopping board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them.
2) Use a meat tenderizer or a rolling pin or the bottom of a skillet and try to make the meat an even thickness so that it can cook evenly in a frying pan.
3) Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides.
4) In a mixing bowl, add the water and vinegar. The vinegar is what makes it nice and crispy. Don't add the flour to the water first.
5) Whisk in the four until you have a nice smooth batter.
6) Dip the chicken in one at a time and then dip into panko crumbs and press lightly on both sides.
7) Heat a hot frying pan. You don't need to use a whole bottle or even a half a bottle of canola oil to get a nice crispy chicken katsu. This way, you don't have to deal with the mess of disposing the left over oil. Add 1/4-1/3 a cup of canola oil to the pan and fry the chicken on both sides.
8) Fry both sides on med-low heat for 3-5 minutes on both sides until golden brown.
Serve with thinly sliced cabbage, rice and tonkatsu sauce and some sort of miso soup.
Use dark meat chicken and trim off all the fat.
Cover with plastic wrap.
This is what it looks like after it's tenderized.
Season with good sea salt and black pepper.
Make sure you add the vinegar to the water first.
The batter should stick to the spoon.
Set up your station so that it's dip, coat, lay down and on to the next.
Your chicken is ready to be fried.
You don't need a lot of oil. Use canola oil since it has a higher smoking point than other oils like olive oil.
When you put the chicken in, lay it down away from you so that the hot oil doesn't splash onto you.
Cook until you see the edges getting golden brown and then flip.
It should be nice and golden brown.
Serve with thinly sliced cabbage and tonkatsu sauce.
