Japanese · Authentic-ish Japanese
Chicken Katsu
502 kcal a serving, against 857 for the traditional version. That is 355 kcal off, or 41%, with 37.3g of protein. Serves 4. .
What the traditional version is
Chicken breast or thigh is pounded flat, dredged through plain flour, dipped in beaten egg, coated in panko breadcrumbs and fried in a half-inch of oil until golden. Slice it up and serve over steaming rice with shredded cabbage and a ladle of tonkatsu sauce.
What changed, and what each change costs
Thigh swapped for chicken breast fillets
Chicken breast brings more protein per bite and less fat, even if it's less forgiving and dries out if you so much as glance at it sideways.
What it costs you. You lose a bit of that softly yielding texture you get from thigh. Bite in quick before it turns into dust.
Panko toasted dry in frying pan, not deep-fried
Panko wants oil to brown, but if you toast it dry in a pan first, you get a golden crust that doesn't need a soak. All that frying oil stays in the bottle.
What it costs you. You miss the deep-fried shatter. Toasted panko is crispy, but it never quite hits the same note as hot oil. Your first bite is more crisp than crack.
Bake on a rack, not fry in oil
Oven heat cooks the chicken evenly and the rack means air gets under the crumbs, so they dry out properly. No need to flip or wrestle with hot oil.
What it costs you. Baked katsu is always a shade drier. It's also harder to kid yourself it's the real thing, but your kitchen won't smell like a chip shop for three days.
Rice cut by a third
Serving less rice saves you a load of starch with basically no loss - there's still plenty to mop up sauce.
What it costs you. If you want a mountain, just cook more. Otherwise, what's there does the job.
Sauce and shredded cabbage unchanged
If I take away the sauce, I might as well pack it in. The cabbage is already about as low as it gets.
What it costs you. The sauce is where half the sugar hides. Know what you're eating, don't pretend it's a salad.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 857 | 502 |
| Protein | 32g | 37.3g |
| Fat | 38.5g | 6.6g |
| Saturated fat | 8.4g | 1.7g |
| Carbohydrate | 91.7g | 69.6g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 3.7g | 7.4g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Japanese prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. gluten, eggs, soybeans, mustard.
The method is in the book
Baked katsu is the second-best option, but it's not fried. You still get plenty of crunch, and a lot fewer greasy crumbs lurking in your teeth. If you serve it straight away, the chicken's moist and decent. If you start faffing, it dries out. The catch: it's never going to be restaurant-perfect, but you save enough fat for pudding. The sauce is unchanged - that punchy, guilty, sweet mess - but I refuse to tinker, because then it's not katsu, it's purgatory.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Japanese, along with 48 more. It is not out yet. The swap kit is free in the meantime.