Tonkatsu (豚カツ, とんかつ or トンカツ, pronounced [toŋkatsɯ]; "pork cutlet") is a Japanese dish that consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet. It involves coating slices of pork with panko (bread crumbs), and then frying them in oil. The two main types are fillet and loin. Tonkatsu is also the basis of other dishes such as katsukarē and katsudon.

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese. (January 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Japanese article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 3,782 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at [[:ja:豚カツ]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|ja|豚カツ}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts Place of origin, Region or state ...

Tonkatsu

Place of origin	Japan
Region or state	East Asia
Main ingredients	Cutlet (pork fillet or loin), panko, cooking oil
Cookbook: Tonkatsu   Media: Tonkatsu

Close

The word tonkatsu is a combination of the Sino-Japanese word ton (豚) meaning "pig", and katsu (カツ), which is a shortened form of katsuretsu (カツレツ),^[1] an old transliteration of the English word "cutlet",^[2][3] which was in turn adopted from the French word côtelette.^[4]

Tonkatsu originated in Japan during the Meiji Era in the late 19th century, a dish derived from a French dish known as côtelette de veau, a veal cutlet coated in breadcrumbs and fried in a pan with butter.^[5]

European katsuretsu (loanword/gairaigo for cutlet) was usually made with beef; the pork version was created in 1899 at a restaurant serving European-style foods named Rengatei in Tokyo, Japan.^[6][7][8] It's a type of yōshoku—Japanese versions of European cuisine invented in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—and was called katsuretsu or simply katsu.^[9]

Either a pork fillet (ヒレ, hire) or pork loin (ロース, rōsu) cut may be used; the meat is usually salted, peppered, dredged lightly in flour, dipped into beaten egg and then coated with panko (bread crumbs) before being deep fried.^[10]

Tonkatsu is then sliced into bits and served, commonly with shredded cabbage.^[10][11] It is most commonly eaten with a thick Worcestershire-style sauce called tonkatsu sauce^[10] or simply sōsu (sauce), karashi (mustard), and perhaps a slice of lemon. It is usually served with rice, miso soup and tsukemono and eaten with chopsticks. It may also be served with ponzu and grated daikon instead of tonkatsu sauce.^[12]

Tonkatsu is also popular as katsukarē served on Japanese curry, or as katsudon, simmered with egg and broth, then served on a big bowl of rice; there is also katsu rice, which is pork cutlet served on rice topped with demi-glace sauce. Another popular variation, katsu sando or pork cutlet sandwich, is said to be originated from the Isen, a tonkatsu restaurant. In the 1930s, the manager of the Isen came up with the concept, then improved it by making the sandwich smaller so that its clientele of local geishas could enjoy it without wearing off their lipstick.^[13]

In Nagoya and surrounding areas, miso katsu, tonkatsu eaten with a hatchō miso-based sauce, is a speciality.^[14]

Variations on tonkatsu may be made by sandwiching an ingredient such as cheese or shiso leaf between the meat, and then breading and frying.

Variations of katsu other than pork:

• Chicken katsu (チキンカツ) or Tori katsu (鶏カツ), which uses chicken instead, often appears in Hawaiian plate lunches.
• Menchi-katsu (メンチカツ) or minchi katsu (ミンチカツ mince katsu), is a minced meat patty, breaded and deep fried.
• Hamu katsu (ハムカツ ham katsu), a similar dish made from ham, is usually considered a budget alternative to tonkatsu.
• Gyū katsu (牛カツ beef katsu), also known as bīfu katsu, is popular in the Kansai region around Osaka and Kobe.

In general, breaded and deep-fried foods are called furai ("fry"),^[15] such as ebi-furai (fried prawn)^[15] and aji-furai (fried horse mackerel), but fried meat such as pork, beef and chicken is referred to as katsu (cutlet).^[2] Katsu and furai differ from tempura, which is not breaded^[16] and typically fried in sesame oil.

In recent years, chicken katsu curry has become extremely popular in the United Kingdom,^[17] to the point that other varieties of Japanese curry and curry sauce are sometimes referred to as katsu erroneously.^[18]

Media related to Tonkatsu at Wikimedia Commons Tonkatsu at the Wikibooks Cookbook subproject

• Japanese cuisine
• List of Japanese dishes – a category of deep-fried dishes in Japanese cuisine
• List of pork dishes
• Schnitzel
• Dongaseu – a Korean dish derived from tonkotsu
• Escalope