This air fryer tonkatsu recipe gives you all the flavor of homemade tonkatsu without any deep frying! My tonkatsu recipe makes the crispiest crust while keeping the pork inside super juicy. With the air fryer, homemade tonkatsu is just that much easier!
What is Tonkatsu?
Tonkatsu is a very popular Japanese dish. It’s a pork cutlet breaded with panko and deep fried. In fact, any Japanese food that gets breaded in panko and then fried falls under the category of “katsu.” When you’re talking about specifically pork, then you call it tonkatsu. Many other cuisines from around the world have similar fried cutlet dishes – from schnitzel to chicken parm. Speaking of which, I totally did not know what a schnitzel was until after college. When I found out, the first thing I said was, “Oh, it’s just a German katsu!” So I guess you can tell what my point of reference for European foods is.
Tonkatsu vs. Tonkotsu
Now that you know what tonkatsu is, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, stop going to ramen restaurants and ordering “tonkatsu broth.” I know they are very similar in spelling, hence the confusion. But there is no such thing as tonkatsu broth. When talking about ramen, you’re talking about tonKOTSU, not tonKATSU. Tonkotsu refers to pork bone broth. The “o” in tonkotsu is pronounced like a long “o,” just like in “udon.”
Have you just now realized you’ve been pronouncing udon wrong too? Boy, this post is full of educational material, innit?
What Cut of Meat to Use for Tonkatsu
Typically, tonkatsu in Japan uses pork tenderloin (hirekatsu) or pork loin with a strip of fat (rosu katsu). At my local Japanese market, I typically see hirekatsu, which is sold already sliced perfectly sized for making tonkatsu.
With breaded and fried (or air fried) pork, it’s hard to go wrong. Just know that you’ll probably want to adjust your cook time by plus or minus a few minutes depending on how thick of a cut you get.
The Trick for Crispy Katsu Crust
I’ve written about this in my other katsu recipe posts, but the trick to getting the best crust is to mix your eggs and flour PRIOR to dredging.
Other Japanese cooks use tricks like double dredging your meat or double frying. But I think simply creating a thicker batter prior to pressing on the panko works equally well and is WAY less work. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Air Frying Tonkatsu
The good thing about this air fryer tonkatsu recipe is that the ingredients are exactly the same as a deep fried one. So if you decide to go the traditional deep fry route, you don’t need to change anything! For air frying, I use 360 degrees F and adjust the time between 15-20 minutes depending on how thick your pork cutlet is.
One thing to keep in mind is that panko will not get a deep golden brown color in the air fryer. If having pale panko bothers you, simply pretoast the panko in a skillet over the stovetop prior to breading your pork. However, this step is completely optional and doesn’t affect the taste.
You can serve tonkatsu over rice with katsu sauce and cabbage salad. OR tonkatsu also goes really well with Japanese curry. It’s hard to think of a scenario in which tonkatsu does NOT taste good, so really, eat it as you wish!
Air Fryer Tonkatsu
Equipment
- Air fryer
Ingredients
- 1 lb pork loin or tenderloin or other pork cutlet
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
- salt and pepper
- oil spray
Instructions
- Wrap your pork in plastic wrap or put in a ziploc bag. Tenderize using a rolling pin or meat tenderizer.
- Optional step: Place your panko in a skillet and toast on stovetop on medium heat until panko turns golden brown (about 3-5 minutes).
- Mix eggs and flour in a shallow dish.
- Lightly salt and pepper your pork.
- Dip pork in the egg/flour batter, making sure both sides are well coated.
- Dip battered pork in the (cooled down) toasted panko, firmly pressing panko into the sides.
- Preheat air fryer to 360 degrees F.
- Place in basket, spray with oil spray, and air fry at 360 degrees for 15-20 minutes, depending on how thick your pork cutlet is. My pork that was about 3/4 inches thick took 18 minutes.
- Tonkatsu is commonly served over rice with katsu sauce (you can buy this at an Asian market) and cabbage salad.
Notes
More Japanese Air Fryer Recipes
If you liked this recipe, be sure to check out my other Japanese air fryer recipes!
8 comments
Great recipe! It was really easy, even for a cooking noob like me. I made this for my family, and they all liked it a lot 🙂 The breading was very crispy, but a little dry– I think this is because the panko I used was a little stale, though. Either way, thanks for sharing this!
Thanks for the feedback!
Did you use a dipping sauce with the katsu? There’s a katsu sauce that you can use, but I personally prefer to have it with curry.
Amazing recipe! Everyone loved how crispy the pork turned out! Thank you for the recipe!
I tried this as a first time air fryer and my kids loved it. Easy recipe and very juicy
My wife bought me an air fryer because she was concerned about my love for deep-fried foods like corn fritters and tempura. I decided I’d give TonkAtsu a try using the air-fryer instead of the traditional deep-fry approach. Taking the advice from other recipes for things like fritters and fries, I spritzed a bit of oil grapeseed oil on the exposed sides just before inserting the basket and still got a nice medium-brown toasty effect on the coating while consuming a lot less oil than a wok & oil drenching would provide. I even think the end results are a little bit juicier than deep-frying in oil. Great stuff, Kristen!
[…] I have an air fryer tonkatsu recipe that I quite like… but after eating such good tonkatsu at a restaurant, I started wanting to […]
I just made this for dinner and it was tasty! I have a gluten sensitivity so I used potato starch for the batter and gluten free panko. I’m not keen on tonkatsu sauce so I ate it plain with rice and Japanese coleslaw.