Buffalo Chicken Katsu

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast* cut into 1 1/3 inch wide strips
1 cup panko
1/3 cup corn starch
1 egg, beaten
salt
pepper
oil for frying

to serve:
blue cheese dressing
buffalo wing sauce (we like Anchor Bar)
celery sticks

Directions:

Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a large saucepan until very hot. Meanwhile, salt and pepper both sides of each chicken strip. Arrange the corn starch and the panko on separate plates. Dip each chicken strip into the corn starch, coating both sides. Dip in egg. Dredge in panko. Fry in oil, flipping when the bottom is golden brown, until the chicken is cooked through about 5 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towel lined plates. Serve with sauces and celery sticks.

*boneless, skinless thighs are good in this recipe too.

My thoughts:
My husband had a craving for buffalo wings and wanted to make them for tonight’s dinner. I am not a gnaw on a tiny bone kind of girl so he made a sort of Japanese-American fusion version of the classic bar food for me to eat instead. Similar to tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet), katsu is Japanese style fried chicken. Katsu is made with light and flaky panko instead of flour so you get a very crispy, crunchy crust with little effort. I love panko. It makes it so easy to make the perfect crisp chicken tender. I am a dipper not a douser so I like to serve it with the buffalo sauce on the side but you could certainly toss it with the (cooked) chicken fingers if you so desired.

7 Comments

  1. these look really good! everyone needs some fried food once in a while!

  2. Jessie Blum @ Eclectic Unions

    Ooh.. looks delicious! I’m absolutely going to try this.

  3. See my recipe for “fricken” chicken- a great way to have boneless chicken with the taste of buffalo wings. Warning: once you make them, you, too, will understand how it got its name!

  4. Hmmm. There’s a japanese restaurant near my home named Katsu. I always thought it was the owners name.

  5. Thank you for this and all of your other recipe posts and thoughts. I’m a lurker from Toronto who has finally come out to say “Thanks”.

  6. Thanks Josie!

  7. I made these the other night for dinner. I pan fried them for a few minutes on each side in just a little olive oil and then threw them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes…instead of the 1/2 inch of oil.

    They were super yummy! Thanks for the great recipe!