Katsudon is a popular Japanese rice bowl, Tonkatsu (deep-fried pork) and eggs cooked in a sweet and savory broth and placed over rice. It is a typical lunch dish you can get at casual restaurants everywhere in Japan. Udon noodle shops, small corner restaurants, and bento shops all have Katsudon on their menus.
What is Katsudon?
Katsudon (カツ丼) takes its name from two Japanese words: Katsu, short for Tonkatsu (deep-fried pork) and Don, short for Donburi, which means rice bowl. To make Katsudon, you need to prepare Tonkatsu first and cook steamed rice separately. Once you have Tonkatsu and rice, Tonkatsu is cooked with eggs in sweet and savory dashi-based sauce, and it’s served over steamed rice.
Key Ingredients of Katsudon
- Tonkatsu: pork loin breaded with flour, egg, and panko (bread crumbs), then deep fried. You can also use Chicken Katsu.
- Steamed Rice: you can use steamed white rice or brown rice.
- Onions: sliced green onions are added at the end of the cooking. In addition, thinly sliced brown onion can be cooked with the broth for more flavor and texture (as seen in the short video below.)
- Broth: combination of dashi broth, say sauce, sugar, sake, and mirin. Instant dashi powder can be used to make the dashi easily.
- Optional toppings: Nori seaweed or pickled red ginger can be added on top of the rice bowl for added flavor.
Katsudon in Japanese Police Dramas
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 🙂
Short Video
A full recipe video is also available in the recipe box below and on our YouTube channel.
More Donburi Rice Bowl Recipes
Katsudon Recipe
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
- Nori roasted seaweed (shredded (optional) )
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
Notes
24 Comments
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.
Dale,
I hope you like our Katsudon!
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.
Just wondering, how is this different from teriyaki sauce?
Teriyaki is thicker. We use Dashi broth with seasoning for this recipe.
I love japanese food and most of all my kids too.. I’m trying the recipe tomorrow 😄
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 🙂
Can i omit the dashi? I cant find any place that sells kombu or bonito flakes
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?
James,
you could use cooking Sake, or regular Sake for drinking too.
What! No onions???
What is Dashi? Where can I buy it? Thanks!
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.
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)
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!!
Frankie,
glad you liked our Katsudon recipe. We have other Donburi (rice bowl) recipes, try them too!
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.
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!
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.
Oooo god! Thank you, im decently trying this !
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!
I tried it and it’s perfect, highly recommended! 2 thumbs up!
Could I omit the Sake and Mirin? I’m making this for my sister and she’s underage.
I know this was posted eight years go, but for anyone else happening across it and wondering: when you cook with alcoholic beverages, the alcohol is burned off. The meal is safe.