Want delicious Japanese breaded chicken cutlets without deep-frying? Try my crispy and juicy Baked Chicken Katsu recipe with savory tonkatsu sauce. This lighter and healthier oven-baked method is so simple and easy, you‘ll want to make it tonight!
Both Chicken Katsu and Tonkatsu are popular Japanese recipes but if you avoid fried foods or don’t deep fry at home, today’s Baked Chicken Katsu (揚げないチキンカツ) is a total game changer.
This recipe is super easy, which makes it a perfect weeknight dinner. Since the chicken is oven-baked, you can enjoy these healthier Japanese chicken cutlets without any guilt.
Table of Contents
What is Chicken Katsu?
Just in case you haven’t heard of this dish before, Chicken Katsu is a Japanese version of fried chicken cutlets. Here are some of the characteristics.
- Chicken breasts are not pounded as thin as western-style chicken cutlets.
- Chicken katsu is coated with panko (パン粉), or Japanese breadcrumbs. They are white crumbs from Japanese milk bread (Shokupan) and they are lighter and airy.
- It is typically deep-fried, not shallow pan-fried (except for the home cook version).
- Served with a sweet and savory tonkatsu sauce, a thicker version of Worcestershire sauce.
Now if you want to substitute chicken with pork, you can try the deep-fried Tonkatsu recipe or the Baked Tonkatsu recipe.
5 Tips for Making Baked Chicken Katsu
Tip 1: Toast the panko
The most important tip to make the perfect baked chicken katsu is to toast the panko breadcrumbs first and then coat the chicken with the toasted panko. Why?
- The toasted panko gives the chicken katsu an even golden-colored crust. If you bake the chicken coated with uncooked panko breading, it is difficult to achieve a beautiful uniform color because the oven has hot spots. With the toasted panko, your baked chicken katsu will always look like the deep-fried ones.
- Toasting makes the panko extra crispy and crunchy. Toasting helps to remove any moisture in the panko and makes it extra crisp and crunchy.
Tip 2: Butterfly the chicken
Cooking juicy and moist chicken breasts can be challenging. Besides using organic chicken, I always make sure that the chicken pieces have even thickness. We’ll discuss more later.
Tip 3: Add oil to the beaten egg
Eggs and meat are like water and oil, so the batter and meat can potentially come off during or after deep frying. By mixing the beaten egg with oil in advance, the breading adheres to the meat, making it difficult to come off.
Tip 4: Use a wire rack
When baking the chicken, it’s important to use a wire rack so that the air circulates underneath the chicken. If you don’t have a wire rack, you may want to flip the chicken halfway to make sure the bottom side is also cooked through.
Tip 5: Don’t overcook the chicken
Chicken breasts can get dry easily when you over bake them as it has less fat (than chicken thighs). Measuring the internal temperature of the chicken is the best way to prevent this issue.
Once the temperature reaches 160ºF (71ºC) for 15 seconds or 165ºF (74ºC) instantly, you must immediately take out the chicken from the oven.
I highly recommend getting an instant-read thermometer such as this Thermapen from ThermoWorks.
Ingredients for Baked Chicken Katsu
- Chicken breast
- Salt and pepper
- Flour (cake flour or all-purpose flour)
- Egg
- Panko (Japanese bread crumb)
- Cooking oil
How to Make Baked Chicken Katsu
- Toast the panko until golden brown and let cool.
- Butterfly the chicken breast (or use the Japanese “Kannon Biraki” method) and season it lightly with salt and pepper.
- Coat the chicken with flour, beaten egg, and toasted panko.
- Lay the chicken on a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet.
- Bake at 400ºF (200ºC) for 25-30 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 165ºF (74ºC).
How to Butterfly the Chicken Breast (Kannon Biraki)
Chicken breasts are uneven and when you wait until the thick part of the chicken is cooked through, the thinner parts of the chicken are already overcooked, resulting in dry meat.
To prevent this from happening, it’s important to make sure the chicken breasts are even thickness. You can pound the meat with a mallet or you can butterfly (and pound) the chicken.
Typically, to butterfly the chicken breast, you would slice it in half horizontally. In Japan, we have a different way to butterfly the chicken, and this special cutting technique is called Kannon Biraki (観音開き).
Kannon Biraki – Japanese Cutting Technique
With a sharp knife, score the chicken breast lengthwise along the top center line, cutting about halfway through the thickness of the breast; do not cut completely through. Then, turn the knife parallel to the cutting board and slice the chicken breast from the center toward the left side (or the right side, if you’re left-handed) to make it evenly thin.
Stop before you cut all the way through the edge; then, open it like a book. Imagine we’re creating a French door here. Rotate the breast 180 degrees and butterfly the second side in the same manner from the center toward the left (if you hold the knife in your right hand), creating another “door.”
The term “Kannon Biraki” comes from the resemblance of the French-style hinged double doors that open to the front/back. This type of door was used for the Kannon Bodhisattva statue, and Biraki is the noun form of the word hiraku, meaning “to open” in Japanese.
Compared to the typical butterfly cutting technique, I find this Japanese butterfly technique more suitable for chicken katsu as it gives the typical “katsu” look. It’s up to you which butterfly methods you want to use.
Tonkatsu Sauce for Chicken Katsu
Tonkatsu sauce (some non-Japanese refer it as katsu sauce) is specifically used for all the katsu dishes. It has a tangy and sweet flavor, akin to Worcestershire sauce. The famous brand is the Bulldog Tonkatsu, which can be found at Japanese and Asian grocery stores.
I also have a homemade tonkatsu sauce made with simple ingredients of Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, sugar, and oyster sauce.
What to Serve with Baked Chicken Katsu
Chicken katsu is often served with a shredded cabbage salad, tomatoes, sliced cucumber, homemade or store-bought salad dressing, and tonkatsu sauce. To complete the meal, enjoy it with steamed white rice along with miso soup.
Japanese deep-fried foods are always served with shredded cabbage on the same plate. You can thinly slice the cabbage yourself with a sharp knife or use this cabbage slicer that I highly recommend! Serve with your favorite salad dressing like Wafu Dressing or Sesame Dressing.
If you make extra, you can repurpose the cutlet and make Chicken Katsu Curry the next day!
Other Katsu Recipes
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Baked Chicken Katsu
Ingredients
For Toasting the Panko
- 1¼ cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
For the Chicken Katsu
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 lb, 454 g)
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell) (you may need another egg)
- ½ Tbsp neutral oil
For Serving
- tonkatsu sauce (or make my homemade Tonkatsu Sauce)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). For a convection oven, reduce the cooking temperature by 25ºF (15ºC).
To Toast the Panko
- Combine 1¼ cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) and 1 Tbsp neutral oil in a frying pan.
- Toast the panko over medium heat, stirring frequently, until golden brown.
- Transfer the toasted panko into a shallow dish and allow to cool.
To Butterfly the Chicken
- We‘ll butterfly 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts using the Japanese cutting technique called Kannon biraki (観音開き). With a sharp knife, score the chicken breast lengthwise along the top center line, cutting about halfway through the thickness of the breast; do not cut completely through.
- Then, turn the knife parallel to the cutting board and slice the chicken breast from the center toward the left side (or the right side, if you‘re left-handed) to make it evenly thin. Stop before you cut all the way through the edge; then, open it like a book. Imagine we‘re creating a French door here.
- Rotate the breast 180 degrees and butterfly the second side in the same manner from the center toward the left (if you hold the knife in your right hand), creating another “door.“
- Cut the butterflied breast in half down the center. Now you have two pieces. Butterfly the remaining chicken breast in the same manner. Then, using a meat mallet or rolling pin, pound the chicken cutlets to an even thickness, about ¼–½ inch (6 mm to 1.3 cm).
- Season both sides of the chicken cutlets with Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
To Bread and Bake the Chicken
- In a shallow dish, whisk together 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell) and ½ Tbsp neutral oil. Place ¼ cup all-purpose flour (plain flour) in another shallow dish. Line up these two dishes along with the dish of toasted panko to prepare for breading the chicken. Tip: By adding oil, the meat and breading won’t detach from each other while cooking and the juice and flavor from the meat will not escape easily.
- First, dredge each chicken piece in the flour and shake off any excess. Next, dip the floured chicken piece into the egg mixture and coat well on both sides.
- Finally, coat the chicken with the toasted panko, pressing firmly to ensure the panko adheres to the chicken. Set aside. Repeat this process with the remaining chicken cutlets.
- Put the breaded chicken pieces on a wire rack placed over the rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 400ºF (200ºC) for about 25–30 minutes.
- When the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165ºF (74ºC), it‘s done cooking. Remove from the oven and cut into ¾-inch (2 cm) slices.
To Serve
- Serve with a shredded cabbage salad (I use this cabbage slicer), tomato wedges, and cucumber slices, along with my Japanese Sesame Dressing or your favorite salad dressing. Drizzle tonkatsu sauce over the Chicken Katsu to enjoy!
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month. To reheat, bake at 350ºF (180ºC) for 15–20 minutes for baked katsu that was thawed in the refrigerator overnight, or for 30 minutes if heating directly from frozen. Check that the inside is warm before serving.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on October 27, 2013. It’s been updated with new images and more helpful tips on September 26, 2022, and republished on July 12, 2023.
Tried it and loved it. I toasted the Panko more cause I like it that way. Thank you. Baking is a much better option.
Hi Joyce! Yay! Thank you so much for writing your kind feedback! Yeah it’s mess free, and healthier! (But I can’t help… I love the deep fried taste and texture no matter I need to deep fry myself. :D)
I just cooked had this alongside some miso soup and I have to say it was one of the best home made meals I have ever had!
Hi Jordan! AWESOME! Great job making it! Thank you for trying my recipe and for your kind feedback. You made my day! 😀
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Hi Sonny! I added your email to my mailing list. If you prefer to unsubscribe, you can do so by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of newsletter when you receive it next time. 🙂 Thank you!
Thank you so much for this recipe!! I’ve been searching for a delicious, easy, baked crispy chicken recipe and none of them worked until yours last night. Everyone loved it! And the homemade tonkatsu sauce, too. I usually don’t care for the ones at restaurants because they’re too sweet, but yours was perfect! Excited to try your other recipes, too. Thanks again!
Hi CJ! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m truly happy to hear you liked my recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback! Hope you find more recipes that you like on my site. 🙂
Thank you for this beautiful recipe! We cannot get enough of it! Every one has been a success and this is no exception. Instead of panko breadcrumbs, we used cornflakes to make it extra crispy and gluten-free! Made it 2 times in one week already and I can’t wait to make it again! A perfect sheet pan meal for dinner!
Here it is: https://sprinkleofvanillasugar.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/30-minute-japanese-chicken-katsu-sheet-pan-gf-oil-free/
Hi Zoe and Mia! I’m so happy to hear you made GF free version with corn flakes! YUM!! I have GF recipe coming this month as well but instead of corn flakes it’s made out of rice. I will definitely try corn flake version as my kids will love the corn flavor crust. Thanks so much for your kind mention on your blog.
I love your recipes and videos.
I tried the tonkasu sauce. It’s probably my palete, but there’s a weird aftertaste. Maybe the ketchup?
Thanks and keep up the great videos and recipes!
Pattee
Hi Pattee! Thank you so much for your kind words. Hmm… could be additives in some of the sauce? Was the taste okay? Hope adjusting solved the problem…
Made this twice now within the first week of trying out the recipe! such a great way to cook and the chicken soaks the tonkatsu sauce so nicely (we just used the bulldog brand)
winner winner… chicken dinner.
Hi Deb! I’m so happy to hear you like this recipe! Thanks so much for making this recipe and for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi Nami,
Thanks for the recipe! I made this today. I felt like the panko was a little hard so that it hurt a little to swallow. Any tips on how to make the panko just a little crisp and not hard?
Thank you!
What kind of panko did you use? Japanese panko is very flat and flaky (thin and flat), so I think yours could be different panko? I wouldn’t say the toasted panko is “hard” even they are golden brown…
Hi Nami, I love your blog so much.
Can I toast the panko in advance and keep in refrigerator?
Hi Jia-Huan! Thank you so much for following my blog! Yes, you can. Make sure to keep it in a airtight container to keep it fresh. 🙂
Hi Nami, is it possible for me to bake a chicken katsu in a pan ? Coz i just make 1 portion. It will take more additional time if i bake in the oven
Hi Kenken! Sure you can deep fry or shallow fry (for one person, this is even easier). 🙂
This is a awesome recipe. thanks for sharing this ours turned out great…
simon
I’m so glad to hear that! Thank you for your kind feedback, Simon! 🙂
This is delicious! And healthy! Tastes great and I like browning the panko first.
Thank you Cleone! I’m so happy you liked it!!! Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Going to try this next week. Made the spam onigirazu this week for lunch and it was super easy n tasty. This looks like it’ll make a great onigirazu for lunch too. Thanks for the recipes!
Hi Luke! I’m so happy to hear you liked the spam onigirazu! Yay! Yes, I have chicken katsu onigirazu recipe too! Fun, easy, and delicious! 😉
https://www.justonecookbook.com/chicken-katsu-onigirazu/
I made this for the first time last night for my boyfriend! I was really surprised by how well it turned out. I have a question, should I flip the chicken breasts half way while they bake? The top side of my chicken came out crispy, but the panko on the bottom of the chicken was soggy, any suggestions? I love your blog, I’ve also made nikujaga using the recipe from this website and it came out really well! Thank you for posting all of these lovely Japanese recipes!
Hi Lisa! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your feedback.
I don’t recommend flipping it because always the bottom side looks too flat to serve and I want to save the good looking side. However, I learned that using the (oven safe) wire rack helps to ventilate the bottom side. I usually don’t have the soggy problem (often if you leave out the chicken for a longer time before popping into the oven, the moisture comes out (while waiting for the oven etc). So I recommend pop in immediately after you coated with panko. Don’t leave out the chicken for a long time. It causes wet bottom. So you can do both trick, and it shouldn’t be soggy. 🙂
Hi Nami, I was just trawling the comments to see if anyone’s katsu met with the same fate. I definitely popped the chicken into the oven immediately after coating, but the bottom still turned out soggy. Thanks for the wire rack tip, I will definitely try it out again.
Also, your recipe for homemade tonkatsu sauce is fantastic!
Hi Charel! Thanks for trying this recipe! Yeah, do use a wire rack. It will help the bottom to get crispier. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback!
Another winner. So easy and clean up is quick and easy. Chicken was moist and outside crispy. My whole family loved it paired with steamed green beans and fresh cherry tomatoes. I made the homemade sauce and we all loved it, but my husband and I opted for some Siracha and it was really good if you like a little kick. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
Hi Grace! So happy to hear you tried this recipe! He hee yeah Sriracha sauce sounds tempting too. 😀 Thank you for your kind feedback, Grace! xo