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Usually I modify recipes or follow them very loosely but this was too perfect my only change was using shallots. It was so good even my picky dad liked it. Never had katsu coat so neatly as well.
★★★★★
– Laurie
Which Japanese rice bowl deserves the top spot? My vote might go to katsudon. Well, at the very least, it’s certainly the most decadent.
My version brings a cutlet fresh out of the oil, a slightly sweet broth and soft, silky egg into perfect balance. The king of rice bowls, made the very best way.
Katsudon
Recipe Snapshot
- What is it? Katsudon starts with tonkatsu, a Japanese breaded pork cutlet. It’s cooked with onion in sweet-salty broth, surrounded by barely set egg and served over rice.
- Flavor profile: Each bite contrasts a crisp upper crust with the broth-soaked underside. Sweet broth gives way to a salty finish, with silky egg and pork-kombu umami beneath it all.
- Why this recipe works: Dashi from kombu (dried kelp) alone, without bonito (a fish), lets the pork’s umami shine. Setting the whites first and the yolks in residual heat keeps whites firm, yolks runny.
- How to make it: Soak the kombu while you fry the pork. Simmer onion in seasoned dashi, add soy sauce and katsu, then the whites followed by the yolks. Slide everything onto rice.
- What to expect: Plan on 15 minutes of prep, 20 of cooking and 30 of hands-off soaking, about 65 minutes total. It’s easy, but timing matters most once the katsu enters the broth.
What Is Katsudon?
Katsudon (カツ丼) is a Japanese rice bowl topped with fried pork cutlet and onion simmered in a slightly sweet soy sauce broth, held together with egg. The name combines katsu, short for katsuretsu, the Japanese rendering of the English word cutlet, and don, which means both a deep bowl and the food served in it. To me, as a Japanese cook, “katsudon” means this pork and egg bowl.
You will find it throughout Japan, from soba shops and diners to bento shops and convenience stores. Because katsu also sounds like the Japanese word for “win,” katsudon is a good-luck meal before an exam or something important.
The version held together with egg is generally said to have begun at a soba shop in Waseda, a Tokyo neighborhood, during the middle of the Taisho era in the late 1910s. According to the shop’s story, a student suggested using leftover cutlets in a dish resembling an egg-over-rice bowl. The shop simmered them in soba broth and added egg to hold everything together. Written accounts disagree on the year, so treat it as the shop’s own story of its beginnings rather than a confirmed date.
Egg isn’t part of every katsudon. In Fukui, Komagane in Nagano, Aizu in Fukushima and several other places, the local version is sauce katsudon, a cutlet dressed with Worcestershire-style sauce and served over rice. Some towns add cabbage, and Yanaizu in Aizu even lays cabbage and a fluffy omelet on the rice under the cutlet. Nagoya’s miso katsudon uses a sauce made with dark Hatcho miso, while Okayama’s demi katsudon comes with demi-glace and boiled cabbage. These sauce versions developed separately from the egg version. Egg is the usual expectation when you order katsudon, but the name alone doesn’t guarantee it.
My approach comes down to the broth and the eggs. I use kombu alone for the dashi instead of the usual kombu-bonito blend. Pork supplies inosinate, a source of umami, so I let the meat provide it. Bonito adds that same kind of umami and I thought would clash with the pork a bit. Kombu contributes a different kind, glutamate. That small adjustment lets the pork flavor come through clearly. I also separate the eggs before cooking. I prefer runny yolks, but adding whole eggs sets the yolks too firm for my taste. Instead, I cook the whites under a lid first, then add the yolks, cover again, turn off the heat and let the heat remaining in the pan finish them.
Pork Cutlet Bowl Ingredients
- Boneless pork chops: I use the same pork here as I do for tonkatsu. Boneless rib chops are my first choice, followed by boneless center-cut loin chops. For rich-tasting katsu, choose chops with fine white streaks of marbling and leave the outer fat attached. At a meat counter outside Japan, look for thick-cut chops, 3/4 to 1 inch thick, then pound them to an even thickness for tonkatsu. Avoid bone-in sirloin chops. They come from the hip end and are difficult to fry evenly. Bone-in center-cut chops are unsuitable too for the same reason.
- Kombu (dried kelp): Kombu is the only ingredient I use to make the dashi. Any variety is fine if the label says “dashi kombu” or “for soup stock.” Dashima, the Korean kelp available at Asian grocers, also works. When we surveyed Japanese home cooks living abroad, one respondent who had lived in Nevada and Arizona said they buy kombu online.
- Yellow onion: Choose an ordinary yellow onion, the type a Japanese recipe refers to when it simply calls for onion. Simmering mellows its sharpness into sweetness, which flavors the broth as it cooks.
Substitution Ideas
- Kombu → Korean dashima: Dashima is almost the same seaweed, making it the closest substitute. Replace the kombu with an equal amount.
- Kombu → Kombu dashi granules: Use the original amount of water and stir in granules according to the package directions. Without a soaking step, the broth is ready immediately.
- Kombu → Leave it out: You can still make the bowl without kombu, although you will miss the glutamate umami it contributes. A YouTube viewer who couldn’t get kombu reported enjoying the dish even after leaving it out.
- Chinese-style chicken bouillon powder → Western-style chicken or vegetable bouillon: Both powders and granules work, though Western-style herbs and spices will give the broth a different aroma. The additive-free Youki chicken bouillon I use calls for 1 tsp per 200 ml. If yours makes a stronger broth at that ratio, use a little less, and if it makes a weaker broth, use a little more. Taste as you adjust.
- Yellow onion → Shallots: A reader reported using shallots in place of the onion, leaving everything else unchanged, and loving the result.
- Yellow onion → White onion: A US white onion makes a suitable replacement. Other than its color, it’s much like a yellow onion.
- Panko → Homemade breadcrumbs: For a coating that compares well with store-bought panko, make coarse crumbs by grating bread on a box grater or pulsing it in a food processor.
- Light brown sugar → White sugar: White sugar works well as a straightforward replacement.
- Japanese wild parsley (mitsuba) → Green onions: Finish the bowl with a scattering of chopped green onions.
- Japanese short-grain rice → Calrose rice: Calrose, a medium-grain rice sold at regular supermarkets, is a good alternative. Long-grain rice doesn’t suit this dish well.
- Pork katsu → Chicken or beef katsu: Use chicken katsu or beef katsu in place of the pork cutlet to make this bowl.
Substitutions that I don’t recommend:
- Bouillon cubes instead of Chinese-style chicken bouillon powder: Cubes are far more concentrated, so adding a whole cube as you would a spoonful of powder will leave the broth too salty.
Short on another Japanese pantry staple? My guide to Japanese ingredient substitutes covers the rest.
How to Make My Katsudon
Before you start (Mise en place):
- Slice the onion into thin wedges.
- Separate the eggs for the topping into 2 bowls, one for whites and one for yolks. Keep the coating egg whole.
- Chop the mitsuba.
To develop this recipe, I used a small 22 to 24 cm (9 inch) frying pan for two servings. For a neater finish, a 16 to 18 cm (6 to 7 inch) frying pan or an oyakodon pan, one serving at a time.
i. Leave the kombu in the water for 30 minutes to 1 hour, until soft and plump. Alternatively, put it in the fridge to soak the night before.
ii. While it soaks, prepare the rice.
i. Start heating the frying oil to 170°C/338°F.
ii. As the oil heats, make a few small cuts with the tip of a knife along the boundary between the pork’s fat and meat. This helps the cutlet stay flat as it fries. Pat the surface dry and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.
iii. Enclose the pork in plastic wrap, then use a meat mallet or rolling pin to pound it to an even thickness of about 2 cm (3/4 inch).
Pounding tenderizes the meat, and an even thickness helps it cook evenly all the way through.
i. In a shallow dish, whisk the coating egg with the oil and milk until smooth. Put the flour in a second dish and the panko in a third.
ii. Cover both sides of the pork with a thin, even dusting of flour. Check for bare patches, then pat away any excess.
A heavy layer of flour creates a gap between the pork and its coating, allowing the coating to peel off.
iii. Dip the floured pork into the egg mixture. Lift it out and allow the extra egg to drip away.
iv. Cover the pork generously with panko, pressing gently with your palm.
As the pork fries, a little oil in the egg creates a thin film between the meat and coating. This helps the coating stick and seals in the pork’s savory juices. Milk protein encourages browning, giving the crust a deeper color and a little extra richness.
i. Test the oil with a pinch of panko. It should sink briefly, then rise quickly and scatter across the surface. If it remains on the bottom, let the oil heat longer.
ii. Carefully lower the pork into the oil. Leave it undisturbed for about 4 minutes, then turn it over and fry for about another 4 minutes, until golden brown.
At first, moisture escaping from the meat produces large bubbles and a loud sizzle. Smaller bubbles and a quieter sizzle signal that the pork has cooked through.
iii. Transfer the cutlet to a rack to drain.
The heat retained in the pork continues to cook the center while it rests on the rack.
iv. Slice the katsu into strips about 2 cm (3/4 inch) wide.
i. Put the dashi and its piece of kombu into a small frying pan, about 22 to 24 cm (9 inches) across. Heat over medium-low and remove the kombu as soon as small bubbles begin to rise.
ii. Stir in the mirin, light brown sugar and chicken bouillon powder until dissolved.
For convenience at home, I cook both portions together. If you’d like a neater, restaurant-like presentation, divide the broth in half and cook each serving separately in a 16 to 18 cm pan or an oyakodon pan, a small pan for cooking individual rice bowl toppings. It takes twice the work, but the broth stays deeper in the smaller pan and the egg sets slowly, giving each bowl a picture-perfect finish.
i. Put the onion in the broth and increase the heat to medium. Simmer until it reaches your preferred softness.
Make sure the onion is properly soft before adding the cutlet. As the onion cooks, it releases sweetness into the broth and deepens the flavor.
ii. Meanwhile, fill the serving bowls about two-thirds full with rice. Set them within reach, together with the separated yolks.
iii. Pour in the soy sauce and let it mix into the broth.
iv. Arrange the sliced katsu over the onion.
Once you can see the broth soaking into the underside of the cutlet, it’s time for the egg.
i. Beat the whites lightly, then pour them around the cutlet without covering its top.
Tip: Stop beating before the whites become foamy. Foamy whites cook into a fluffy, coarse texture rather than a smooth, tender one.
ii. Put the lid on and cook for about 1 minute, until the whites are roughly half set.
Don’t stir the egg while it sets. Stirring too soon disperses it into the broth instead of letting it set together.
iii. Lightly beat the yolks and pour them around the cutlet, just as you did with the whites.
iv. Replace the lid and turn off the heat. Leave the egg to cook in the pan’s residual heat for 1 to 2 minutes, until set to your liking. If you serve the yolks runny, use pasteurized eggs or pasteurized egg products.
Too long in the broth costs the katsu its crunch, and no soaking at all leaves it without the broth’s flavor. The egg needs the same attention. Too little heat leaves it raw, and too much makes it rubbery. Timing and watching the pan are everything!
v. Slide the katsu and egg onto the prepared bowls of rice. Add a little of the broth remaining in the pan and finish with the chopped mitsuba.
Tips for the Best Katsu Don
- Dry the pork before adding flour. After pounding, pat both sides with paper towels. Moisture makes the flour patchy, so the egg and panko lack a firm base to stick to. During frying, that loose coating can separate from the meat and slide off into the oil.
- Keep the frying oil hot. A cold cutlet cools the oil as it goes in, and adding more cutlets lowers the temperature further. If the oil is too cool, the coating takes longer to set and absorbs oil, making it heavy. If your pot is small, fry only one cutlet at a time. I honestly think frying is one of the easiest, most reliable cooking methods once you can manage the oil temperature.
- Have the rice bowls and yolks ready before adding the katsu. The part that needs your closest attention begins when the cutlet enters the broth and ends when you add the yolks and turn off the heat. If you spend that time looking for bowls, the crust continues absorbing broth and the egg continues cooking. To me, being ready comes down to planning before you start, more than cooking skill.
With the pork dry, the oil hot, the bowls and yolks ready and the onion softened first, you can get the katsu onto the rice while its top crust is still crisp.
Storage & Meal Prep
Fridge: Refrigerate cooled fried cutlets in an airtight container for 2 days. Make the finished bowl when you’re ready to eat, since reheating firms up the runny yolks.
Freezer: Wrap fried cutlets individually and freeze for up to 1 month.
Meal prep: Fry the katsu ahead, or use leftover tonkatsu.
Reheating: Place the cutlet on a rack in an oven or air fryer at 180°C/350°F and bake until it’s crunchy once more.
What to Serve With Katsudon
- Silken Tofu Miso Soup
- Zaru Soba with Dipping Sauce (Chilled Soba)
- Spinach Ohitashi (Spinach in Dashi)
- Quick Napa Cabbage Pickles (Hakusai no Asazuke)
Pork Cutlet Bowl Troubleshooting
A reader reported that the bowl tasted a little too salty. Both the soy sauce and chicken bouillon powder contribute salt. If your bouillon is stronger than one made at “1 tsp per 200 ml,” the same spoonful can make the broth too salty. So can reducing it in a wide pan, which concentrates the salt from both seasonings. Since you add the soy sauce after the onion has softened, taste the broth at that point. If it’s already salty, use less soy sauce.
A 22 to 24 cm (9-inch) frying pan holds the broth in a shallow layer, so water evaporates quickly. Too much heat or too long a simmer can leave very little broth by the time you’re ready for the egg. If the liquid is running low and the onion is still firm, pour in a splash of water, reduce the heat and continue simmering until the onion is soft.
I avoid this problem by separating the whites and yolks. By adding the whites first, you can cook them to your preferred doneness before adding the yolks. If they’re transparent and runny, they simply need more cooking time, or a higher heat if they seem to take too long.
More Japanese Katsu Recipes
- Chicken Katsudon Rice Bowl
- Katsu Sando Pork Cutlet Sandwich
- Menchi Katsu Ground Meat Cutlet
- Japanese Chicken Katsu Curry
Now that you can keep a cutlet crisp on top while broth soaks into its underside, find its next plate in my Japanese Katsu Recipes.
Did You Try This Recipe?
I would love to hear your thoughts!
💬 Leave a review and ⭐️ rating in the comments below. 📷 I also love to see your photos – submit them here!
Katsudon (Japanese Pork Cutlet Bowl)
Equipment
- Japanese-style fryer
- Stainless steel cooking tray with wire rack
Ingredients
For the Katsu
- 2 boneless pork chops about 150 g each, thick-cut rib chops are best
- salt and pepper
- 4 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- 1 tbsp whole milk
- 50 g panko breadcrumbs
- cooking oil for frying
Katsudon
- 5 g dried kelp (kombu)
- 150 ml water
- 1 small onion yellow, about 100 g
- 50 ml mirin
- 1 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 tsp Chinese-style chicken bouillon powder
- 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 2 portions cooked Japanese short-grain rice
- Japanese wild parsley (mitsuba) or chopped green onions
The ingredient brands and tools I trust are in my Japanese pantry guide and my cooking tools guide.
Can’t find certain Japanese ingredients? See my substitution guide here.
Instructions
Make kombu dashi
- Place 5 g dried kelp (kombu) in 150 ml water and soak for 30 mins to 1 hour or until the kombu has rehydrated. You can do this the night before and store in the fridge for meal prep.
Katsu
- Preheat cooking oil to 170 °C (338 °F). While you wait, prepare the pork. Make incisions in the fatty parts of 2 boneless pork chops to prevent curling, pat the surface dry and sprinkle both sides with a few pinches of salt and pepper.
- Pound the pork chops until about 2cm (¾ inch) thick all over.
- Crack 1 egg into a wide shallow container and add 1 tsp cooking oil and 1 tbsp whole milk. Whisk until combined.
- Prepare two more containers, one with 4 tbsp all-purpose flour and one with 50 g panko breadcrumbs.
- Coat the pork with flour on both sides, and brush off any excess.
- Next, dip them into the egg mixture, then lift and let the excess drip off.
- Finally, coat with a generous layer of panko and press the surface lightly to secure them.
- Test the oil temperature with a crumb of panko, if it sinks a little, then rises at once and scatters, the oil is ready. Carefully place the coated pork into the oil and fry undisturbed for about 4 minutes on each side (8 minutes total) or until golden brown. When the bubbles and sizzle die down, they're cooked through.
- Transfer the katsu on a wire rack to drain the excess oil.
- Cut into 2cm slices and set aside for later.
Donburi
- Cut the onion into thin wedges.
- Pour the kombu dashi into a saucepan and heat on medium low until small bubbles start to appear. Remove the kombu, and add 50 ml mirin, 1 tbsp light brown sugar, 1 tsp Chinese-style chicken bouillon powder.
- Mix until the sugar and bouillon have dissolved, then add the onion and increase the heat to medium. Simmer until the onion is softened to your liking.
- Add 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu) and stir to evenly distribute, then lay the sliced katsu over the top.
- Separate the whites and yolks of 3 eggs into two bowls.
- Whisk the whites and pour them around the pan, avoiding the top of the katsu.
- Cover with a lid and steam fry the eggs for about 1 minute or until half cooked.
- Lightly whisk the egg yolks and then pour them around the pan, again avoiding the top of the katsu.
- Cover with a lid once more and turn off the heat. Finish cooking the egg in the residual heat until it reaches your preferred firmness.
- Divide 2 portions cooked Japanese short-grain rice between serving bowls and top with the katsu and egg mixture. Drizzle a tbsp of leftover sauce in the pan around the katsu in each bowl and garnish with Japanese wild parsley (mitsuba). Enjoy!
Easy to follow, turned out great. Thanks
Thank you for your comment and rating 🙂 Glad you liked it!
I loved all the detail you put into this recipe. It really made my dinner party a success. The only thing I changed was tripling the onion because we really like onion.
Thank you so much! I’m glad you and your guests enjoyed my recipe, I’m also happy to hear that you could easily adjust it to suit your tastes. Thank you for the generous rating too!
Is there something I can substitute for the chicken bullion? I am allergic to chicken….
Sorry to hear about your allergy, vegetable stock powder would also work in this case. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Made this for my wife just last night, right before her very important test, partly cause Ive wanted to make it for a while, but well, it seemed like the perfect opportunity
We eat Oyakodon quite often,since it’s both delicious, cheap and easy to make in the middle of the week, and while this is slightly more labour intensive, it wasjust as easy! Loved the way the sauce was made, since I’ve made it in a pot before, and tried in a pan this time, really made it more syrupy!
Thank you!
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. Katsudon is the perfect dish to eat before a test, I hope your wife aced it!
I have made this twice now, and it’s delicious. I like the explanation of the name, the origin of the dish, and your personal experience with it. You do a fantastic job on this on this and the other recipes you share. I’ve tried a few others and they are just as good. Thank you for presenting all of this.
Thank you so much for your kind words. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the content and recipes, it means a lot!
usually i modify recipes or follow them very loosely but this was too perfect my only change was using shallots – was so good even my picky dad liked it
never had katsu coat so neatly as well
Hi Laurie,
Thank you so much for making this recipe! I’m so happy to hear that you guys enjoyed it! 🙂
Yuto
It seems that in step 5 (Make the katsu broth), you may have missed mentioning the addition of 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. I noticed you included it in the video, so I just wanted to point it out.
Hi Vinh,
Thank you for your comment! You’re right, I did miss mentioning the soy sauce in visual walkthrough section! I’ve fixed it in the description. I really appreciate your feedback!
Yuto
This is one of my fave dishes since childhood. I tried your recipe and found it to be a bit too salty. The balance of sweet and salty makes this dish.
Thank you for your feedback!
Amazing katsudon recipe. I used to make this recipe all the time, I can’t seem to find any old screenshots from when i used to make it, but this recipe seems different! i swear i used to add a teaspoon of tsuyu sauce to the onions and cooked the onions slightly differently. Was it just my own version? Am i just crazy? is it the madela effect??
Hi Isabella,
Thank you! Haha, you’re not! The recipe did used to include tsuyu sauce a while ago. I ended up reworking it because tsuyu can vary quite a bit between brands and types (concentration level), so I wanted to make it more consistent for everyone. Glad you’re back making it though! 🙂
Yuto