Chicken Katsudon is a new way to enjoy chicken katsu with a thick eggy sauce that adds incredible flavor to the chicken and rice. It’s a flavorful dish that’s perfect for lunch or dinner!
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Chicken katsudon is a Japanese comfort food dish that combines crispy, golden brown katsu chicken with a mouthwatering egg and sliced onion sauce, all served in a large bowl of white rice.
It’s a simple dish that is packed with protein from the eggs and chicken but also bursting with umami flavors from the onions and kashi sauce. It will leave you full and satisfied
When you look at the recipe you may be confused. It calls for deep frying a crispy piece of chicken, chicken katsu, but then you pour the entire piece of chicken into the sauce to cook.
Don’t worry! This recipe cooks very gently which allows the breading to stay put on the chicken, soak up plenty of flavor from the sauce, and give a little fried flavor back to the dish as well.
Chicken katsudon is a dish that looks complex but actually comes together so easily and makes the perfect lunch or weeknight meal. It also is a great dish to use up leftovers with and combine two popular Asian recipes by making Chicken Katsu Curry Recipe.
Recipe Origin
There are so many versions of where and when katsudon was invented. Katsu chicken and katsu pork were invented during the Meiji era when Japanese chefs were encouraged to add more Western influence to their dishes.
Since then, this delicious fried cutlet of meat has been used in several different dishes. It is often enjoyed on its own with some katsu sauce, placed on top of a Japanese Curry Recipe for katsu curry, and used in this Chicken Katsudon Recipe.
The story told most often about katsudon is that it originated from a shop near Waseda University.
Some say it was a shop owner who was trying not to let leftover tonkatsu go to waste who first made katsudon with some help from a student at the university.
At the time tonkatsu was a Western delicacy and when some guests did not show up to a fancy banquet where it was set to be served, the chef hated to see the food go to waste. A regular at the shop, the student, suggested making it into an egg rice bowl and katsudon was born.
It was sold to students at the university for lunch for years and eventually spread all over.
The name, katsudon, is a combination of the Japanese words, katsu and “don” from the Japanese word donburi, which is given to any rice bowl meal. Traditional katsudon is made with fried pork cutlets but fried chicken is a popular choice as well.
Why Make This Recipe
- Use Leftover Katsu Chicken: If you made a big batch of chicken katsu, don’t let any of that crispy goodness go to waste! Use it for this recipe and enjoy all the flavor it brings to the dish. If you haven’t made chicken katsu yet, give this chicken katsu recipe a try!
- 15-Minute Meal: Once you have all of the ingredients, this dish comes together in under 20 minutes! It’s perfect for a busy evening.
- Taste of Japan: This delicious dish is so simple to make but has all the flavor of traditional Japanese cuisine. If you can’t make the trip to Japan, this dish will certainly take your taste buds there!
Ingredients
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the recipe at the bottom for quantities.
- Dashi Stock: Dashi Stock is a vegetarian stock made by adding water to dried shiitake mushrooms. You could substitute chicken stock or beef stock but dashi stock will give the most authentic flavor. You can use Instant Dashi as an easy ingredient.
- Mirin: Mirin is a type of rice vinegar. If you can’t find mirin, you could also use cooking sake.
- Sugar: You can use white or brown sugar for this recipe
- Yellow Onion: You could also use white onions
- Chicken Katsu: Already cooked. For this recipe, you want your Katsu already sliced (not too thin, not too thick)
- Rice: Japanese Short Grain White Rice
- Mitsuba or Green Onions: Mitsuba is a Japanese wild parsley that adds great flavor to this dish but it is completely optional! My local Asian market did not have it, so I substituted green onions for color!
Tools:
- Small Pan or Donburi Pan
How to Make This Recipe
Step One: Create The Sauce
Add the Kashi ingredients into a small pot. Turn it into a boil and let it simmer, covered, for 3-5 minutes.
Add the sliced onions, cover, and cook until the onion turns translucent.
Step Two: Add the Chicken and the Egg
Once the onions are translucent, add the sliced katsu into the pan. Pour the beaten egg mixture around the edges of the katsu.
Cover and cook for about 2 minutes until the eggs just start to set.
Step Three: Assemble Your Bowl
Pour over your rice and top with Mitsuba or green onions if desired. Enjoy!
Researched using Adam Liaw, Champ’s Japanese Kitchen, iankewks, and farahjeats
How to Cook Dashi
To cook the dashi, put 1 tsp of dashi powder in 2 cups of water. Bring the water to a boil, then add the dashi powder.
Stir until the powder dissolves, then measure out the necessary amount of dashi stock.
Expert Tips
- Be careful not to overcook the dish. You want the eggs to be soft and tender, not at all hard.
- This dish is very similar to the Japanese dish oyakodon. The difference is it uses katsu chicken, rather than boneless chicken breast, which adds a bit more flavor to the overall dish.
- Some chefs top katsudon with peas. Give it a try!
- This popular Japanese dish is traditionally made with a pork cutlet but katsu chicken is just as delicious. I’ve also seen it made with chicken tenders to make it even easier.
- When I made this recipe, I did not think that one egg was enough for my preference, though this is the traditional amount used. I actually ended up adding a second egg, which suited my preferences better.
FAQs
Katsu refers to any piece of fried meat, covered in panko breadcrumbs. It is usually served with a katsu sauce. Katsudon is a chicken cutlet rice bowl and has the addition of the eggy sauce.
Katsudon is delicious and has plenty of protein but it wouldn’t be considered healthy. The fried meat adds a lot of extra carbs and fat to the dish and the katsudon sauce is also full of soy sauce.
Chicken Katsudon Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Kashi Sauce Ingredients – Sauce Base for Katsudon
- ⅓ cup dashi stock
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 tsp granulated sugar, more or less to taste
Katsudon Ingredients
- ¼ yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 1 Chicken Katsu , sliced (not too thin, not too thick), already cooked
- 1 egg, beaten
- Rice, cooked according to package instructions
- 2 sprigs Mitsuba, Japanese parsley or green onions, optional
Instructions
- Add the Kashi ingredients into a small pot. Turn it into a boil and let it simmer, covered, for 3-5 minutes.
- Add ¼ of an onions – sliced, cover, and cook until the onion turns translucent.
- Once the onions are translucent, add the sliced katsu into the pan. Pour the beaten egg around the edges of the katsu.
- Cover and cook for about 2 minutes until the eggs just start to set.
- Pour over your rice and top with Mitsuba or green onions if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
- Dashi Stock: Dashi Stock is a vegetarian stock made by adding water to dried shiitake mushrooms. You could substitute chicken stock or beef stock but dashi stock will give the most authentic flavor. You can use Instant Dashi as an easy ingredient.
- Mirin: Mirin is a type of rice vinegar. If you can’t find mirin, you could also use cooking sake.
- Sugar: You can use white or brown sugar for this recipe
- Yellow Onion: You could also use white onions
- Chicken Katsu: Already cooked. For this recipe, you want your Katsu already sliced (not too thin, not too thick)
- Rice: Japanese Short Grain White Rice
- Mitsuba or Green Onions: Mitsuba is a Japanese wild parsley that adds great flavor to this dish but it is completely optional! My local Asian market did not have it, so I substituted green onions for color!
- Be careful not to overcook the dish. You want the eggs to be soft and tender, not at all hard.
- This dish is very similar to the Japanese dish oyakodon. The difference is it uses katsu chicken, rather than boneless chicken breast, which adds a bit more flavor to the overall dish.
- Some chefs top katsudon with peas. Give it a try!
- This popular Japanese dish is traditionally made with a pork cutlet but katsu chicken is just as delicious. I’ve also seen it made with chicken tenders to make it even easier.
- When I made this recipe, I did not think that one egg was enough for my preference, though this is the traditional amount used. I actually ended up adding a second egg, which suited my preferences better.
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