Crispy Katsu Sandwich Recipe: 3 Tips for Making Katsu Sando

A katsu sandwich, called “katsu sando” (カツサンド) in Japanese, is a popular Japanese sandwich that turns tonkatsu, a golden brown, fried pork cutlet, into a simple, satisfying on-the-go meal. Katsu sandos are equal parts creamy, spicy, and sweet—thanks to butter, hot mustard, and tonkatsu sauce—with an irresistible clash of textures from pillowy slices of milk bread and crisp panko breading.

Each component of katsu sando brings something important to the final sandwich:

• Katsu sauce. Tonkatsu sauce brings a range of savory-sweet fruit flavors to the mix. Thanks to its extensive ingredient list and production process, it’s usually store-bought. However, you can achieve a similar effect with a blend of Worcestershire sauce, sugar, soy sauce, mirin, and ketchup.
• Milk bread. Japanese-style katsu sandwiches are made with thick slices of shokupan, a brioche-style milk bread. You can make your own shokupan or find it in most grocery stores.
• Mustard. Whether whole-grain Dijon mustard or spicy Japanese-style karashi mixed with a bit of butter, mustard provides heat and cuts through the rich, fatty flavor of the meat and soft bread.
• Pork cutlet. The star of the sandwich is tonkatsu, a pork cutlet coated with airy panko breadcrumbs and deep-fried until crackly and crisp. The cutlet is crunchy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside.

Adjust the amount of mustard and tonkatsu sauce to find your ultimate katsu sando, and keep these basic tips in mind.

1. 1. Use panko for breading the cutlet. Panko bread crumbs, which are made from fine flakes of crustless white bread, absorb less oil than sandier Italian-style bread crumbs—resulting in a deeply crunchy, never soggy tonkatsu crust.
2. 2. Use a thin pork cutlet. A big, thick cutlet might look stunning in a sandwich, but it’ll be tougher to eat. Before breading and frying, slice particularly thick pork chops in half, or pound until thin.
3. 3. Weigh the sandwich down before cutting. This simple step will help the sandwich filling adhere to the bread, making for a neater cut (and neater bite) with less spilling out the sides.