Give Pork Tonkatsu A Little Extra Knife Work For The Best Result

Tonkatsu is a delightfully crisp, tender pork cutlet that's fried to perfection and complemented by a thick, savory brown sauce, usually comprised of soy sauce, Worcestershire and many other ingredients. This delectable deep-fried pork cutlet is made perfectly by first choosing the correct cut of pork, and by then doing some important, but simple prep work. The only pork cuts you should use for tonkatsu are pork loin or pork tenderloin. These fattier cuts bring the best moisture and flavor to the tonkatsu, but here's the trick: You must cut slits through the fat around the connective tissue of the cutlet to avoid curling of the cutlet.

Prior to dredging and coating your pork cutlet, make sure you have cutlets that are the right thickness. Cuts of meat that are too thick could be the mistake keeping you from perfect tonkatsu, so make sure your cutlet is between ¼-inch to 1/2-inch thick. You can pound them down with a mallet if needed. Here's where you want to employ some extra knife work and make two to three cuts through the outer fat, all the way down to the tissue of the cutlet. Cutting the fat results in a cutlet that will lay perfectly flat and not bow up. Cutlets or chops will curl because the meat contracts as it cooks, and if the fat has no give, it will contract as well. Once you've sliced through the fat, you're ready for some other easy preparation tips.

Aside from slicing through the fat cap of the pork cutlets, the key to a crispy pork tonkatsu is proper seasoning and cooking time. Before you do anything to your cutlets, salt them. In addition to seasoning the cutlets, salting helps to loosen the muscle proteins in the meat, and these salt-absorbed proteins hold moisture in the cutlet, resulting in the juiciest tonkatsu. Another important step in the preparation of cutlets is to pound them with a meat mallet. This process of tenderizing the meat is important in order to break up and loosen the connective tissues. Without this step, the cut of meat could be unevenly cooked, rendering it dry and chewy. You can also poke some holes in the cutlet using a meat tenderizer with needles to further break up the muscle.

When you're ready for dredging, take your cut and tenderized cutlets and run them through flour, egg wash, and fresh panko bread crumbs. Tonkatsu calls for panko, which is a flaky Japanese bread crumb that will provide the best results for an extra crispy exterior. But for an extra juicy interior, try double dredging. The thicker the coating on your cutlet, the better it will cook the pork to a proper interior temperature. You can also try double-frying, for extra crispy tonkatsu. The final result should be a beautifully flat cutlet ready to be sliced and served with cabbage and a flavorful homemade tonkatsu sauce.