Case Details: “Aloha! I recently moved away from Ewa Beach and now am back on the Mainland… I miss my chicken katsu from L&L! How do you make it?”

I couldn’t find the L&L chicken katsu recipe on the web (though here is their lemon chicken recipe, courtesy the Star-Bulletin), but there are a bunch of other recipes for chicken katsu out there.

Here’s one from Hari Kojima (part of a recipe for Chicken Katsudon), and here’s one from Fireman Gifford Shon on Hawaii’s Kitchen (part of recipe for chicken katsu curry). For both of these, you have to scroll down the page a bit to find the actual recipe.

Sun-Ki Chai, the knowledgeable food geek of the Hawaii forum at eGullet, replies:

Ahh… the basic katsu recipe is very simple. Boneless chicken thigh goes into flour with salt and pepper, then egg wash, then panko, then gets fried. You can do extra things like marinate the chicken, but that wouldn’t be the real plate lunch version.

HawaiiAnswers.com reader Kalei, a Class of 1981 graduate of Aiea High School now living in San Diego, shares the following recipe from Shari Hamada, her “best friend since kindergarten”:

Chicken “Broke da Mouth” Katsu

  • Boneless amd skinless chicken (white or dark meat)
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 package panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
  • Flour
  • Garlic
  • Salt/pepper (to taste)
  • 1/4 cup water
  • Cooking Oil (I prefer canola oil)
  • Tonkatsu Sauce (if you don’t have ready made sauce you can always mix shoyu, katsup, and sugar together for a quick fix)

Start with three separate dishes or bowls. In the first bowl you will mix: Flour, garlic salt to taste (no be stingy), and salt and pepper. In the second dish: Scramble the eggs, water, and more garlic salt. In the third dish you will mix: Panko and even more garlic salt!

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Cut the chicken into long strips (this will help to speed up the cooking time). Dip the chicken into the egg batter. Then into the flour. Next back into the egg batter. And finally into the panko mix. Make sure all sides are coated well. Deep fry until golden brown.

Serve with white rice, two scoops mac salad and katsu sauce. Broke Da Mouth!

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