Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (2024)

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Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (1)

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Katsudon is Tonkatsu (deep-fried pork) and eggs cooked in a sweet and salty broth and placed over rice. Don (donburi) means a bowl, and Donburi dishes are a popular kind of casual rice dish in Japan. Because you have to prepare Tonkatsu first, it is a little bit of work involved since you cannot cook everything in one pan. Katsudon is a hearty dish compared to other Japanese food because Tonkatsu is breaded and deep-fried, but the taste is so good that you will not mind the extra calories from the oil. Besides,since deep-fried Tonkatsu is cooked in tasty broth and is crunchy yet juicy, you may not notice the grease at all (well, maybe, just maybe, calories might stay in, or near, your tummy).

Katsudon was once portrayed as a hearty, soul food in Japanese culture. A typical scene for it was in TV detective dramas: a criminal gets interrogated by a tough detective intensely first, and then the detective asks if the criminal wants to have Kastudon. While they eat, the detective asks how the criminal’s mother is doing in his home town in the country, and as you may guess, the criminal confesses with tears. That’s a pretty old fashioned drama, and we don’t see it much today (fortunately?), but Katsudon was the symbol of tasty and warm food that can melt even the coldest part of a criminal’s heart 🙂

Just like Oyakodon, Katsudon is a very typical lunch dish you can get at casual restaurants. Udon noodle shops, small corner restaurants, and bento shops all have this tasty dish. If you don’t want to deal with a lot of cooking oil at home, it is much easier to eat out or buy Katsudon from stores. However, a lot of us here are outside Japan and may not have good Japanese restaurants nearby who serve tasty Katsudon. So once again, we can make it at home! And it really is not as difficult to make as you might think.

We didn’t here, but you can add sliced brown onion and cook in the sauce before adding Katsu and eggs if you like. Also the recipe below is for one person because it is easier to make individually, but you can multiply and make a bunch at once in a bigger pan when youservefor your entire family.

Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (2)

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Katsudon Recipe

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: donburi, katsu, rice bowl

Servings: 1 serving

*Links may contain ad. #CommissionsEarned

Ingredients

  • 1 Tonkatsu
  • 1/4 cup Dashi
  • 1 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 Tbsp Sake
  • 1/2 Tbsp Mirin
  • 2 eggs
  • green onions chopped (optional)
  • Steamed Rice
  • roasted seaweed Nori, thinly sliced

Instructions

  • Cut Tonkatsu into strips, set aside.

  • In a small frying pan, add Dashi, soy sauce, sugar, Sake, and Mirin, and cook at medium heat until it boils. Reduce heat to low-medium.

  • Add cut Tonkatsu to the sauce in the pan. Beat egg(s) in a small bowl and pour over the Tonkatsu. Cover and cook for 1 minute. Sprinkle chopped green onions if you like.

  • Slide Tonkatsu and egg(s) with sauce over rice in a bowl.

  • Sprinkle sliced Nori on top.

Video


DonburiTonkatsu

Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (4)

About JapaneseCooking101

Noriko and Yuko, the authors of this site, are both from Japan but now live in California. They love cooking and eating great food, and share a similar passion for home cooking using fresh ingredients.Noriko and Yuko plan and develop recipes together for Japanese Cooking 101. They cook and shoot photos/videos at their home kitchen(s.)

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  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (8)

    Dale

    October 25, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    This is the best instruction I have seen for authentic tasting Katsudon in 40 years. When I was in Kamiseya my friends and I practically lived on ramen noodles (not the dried grocery store stuff) and katsudon. It has been a favorite of mine and I search out Japanese restaurants everywhere I go to try their versions. I’ve made it at home for decades but I see in this recipe the parts I have been missing. I can’t wait to make it.

    • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (9)

      Noriko

      October 26, 2014 at 9:24 pm

      Dale,
      I hope you like our Katsudon!

    • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (10)

      Chris Topping

      September 2, 2016 at 3:41 pm

      Finally a recipe for Katsudon I too was introduced to this out side the front gate of KaniSeya. I hope I can do justice to this outstanding dish. Thank you for the trip down memory lane.

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (11)

    Vg12th

    January 12, 2016 at 9:03 am

    Just wondering, how is this different from teriyaki sauce?

    • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (12)

      Yuko

      January 17, 2016 at 7:23 pm

      Teriyaki is thicker. We use Dashi broth with seasoning for this recipe.

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (13)

    Ivy To Chip

    February 3, 2016 at 7:08 am

    I love japanese food and most of all my kids too.. I’m trying the recipe tomorrow 😄

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (14)

    Harken

    February 12, 2016 at 4:44 pm

    Made this last night for my girlfriend, after just recently coming back from a trip to Japan. Tasted exactly like the Katsudon we had out there. Thanks so much! Perfect 🙂

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (15)

    lance

    February 17, 2016 at 5:16 am

    Can i omit the dashi? I cant find any place that sells kombu or bonito flakes

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (16)

    James Mark

    February 27, 2016 at 3:07 am

    Hi! I like all your recipe and I just eant to ask if cooking sake is the same thing you use in all of your recipes?

    • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (17)

      Noriko

      March 2, 2016 at 7:22 pm

      James,
      you could use cooking Sake, or regular Sake for drinking too.

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (18)

    roy rickets

    March 27, 2016 at 6:22 pm

    What! No onions???

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (19)

    Grace Pagtanac

    March 30, 2016 at 8:43 am

    What is Dashi? Where can I buy it? Thanks!

    • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (20)

      Andy Gray

      October 21, 2016 at 1:45 am

      It’s a fish broth. This site has instructions to make it, or if you’d like you could buy a stock powder of it on Amazon.

    • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (21)

      MUERTO

      December 16, 2016 at 12:52 am

      Is kombu and bonito flakes…. boil a pice of kombu, and when is boiled turn off the fire and put a hand full of bonito flakes, live it for a couple of minutes and drain… the juice is dashi…

      8 cups of water.
      Pice of kombu as big as a sheet of paper or little bit less.
      Hand full of bonito flakes.
      (Make it less)

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (22)

    Frankie

    August 17, 2016 at 9:03 pm

    Love! Love! Love! Made this tonight and the whole game family loved it! Hubby, 3 young boys and al even the baby girl loved it!! Hubby asked me to make this again soon. Definitely going into my recipe notebook. Hubby said it taste just like what he gets at authentic Japanese restaurants. Thanks for sharing!!

    • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (23)

      Noriko

      August 19, 2016 at 11:54 am

      Frankie,
      glad you liked our Katsudon recipe. We have other Donburi (rice bowl) recipes, try them too!

    • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (24)

      Andy Gray

      October 21, 2016 at 1:44 am

      It’s a fish broth. This site has instructions to make it, or if you’d like you could buy a stock powder of it on Amazon.

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (25)

    SAM

    November 1, 2016 at 6:14 am

    Made this last night — taste was spot on! The dashi was so easy to make, and with the extra dashi we made miso soup from your recipe to serve with the katsudon; it made the perfect amount of soup for the four of us. Thank you so much!

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (26)

    Pato Conner

    December 13, 2016 at 4:36 am

    Like your recipe although I did not have sake so I doubled mirin to 1 Tbsp.
    My Mom used to make this for us when I was a kid over 40 years ago. She used sliced yellow onion cooked in the dashi broth until semi translucent. I have ordered this at restaurants in CA and they use onion too. Why no onion? Is it optional? Resting cutlet on top of cooked onions seems to keep cutlet from getting too soggy.

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (27)

    MUERTO

    December 16, 2016 at 12:41 am

    Oooo god! Thank you, im decently trying this !

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (28)

    Lauren

    December 22, 2016 at 11:23 am

    Thank you so much for your site! It’s so hard to find real Japanese food where we are (I was spoiled by friends and an excellent, small restaurant back home), and you all have helped bring these wonderful flavors back into my life! Thank you again for all you’ve shared. I love your website!

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (29)

    Sherry

    January 17, 2017 at 12:38 pm

    I tried it and it’s perfect, highly recommended! 2 thumbs up!

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (30)

    Destinee Vadnais

    January 31, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    Could I omit the Sake and Mirin? I’m making this for my sister and she’s underage.

  • Katsudon Recipe – Japanese Cooking 101 (2024)
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