Mini Katsudon © Judy Ung | Bebe Love Okazu
Mini katsudon is the epitome of a quick weeknight meal that will fool everyone into thinking you slaved over your stove for at least an hour or two.
I like to let my family think I’ve slaved over a beautiful Japanese meal once in awhile, even though I really haven’t. But they’re starting to catch on.
I guess you could say I’ve been having a hard time finding time to blog, writing for work, consulting for a new client, and of course, cooking and still being a full-time stay at home mom and now a volunteer mommy at kindergarten.
Yes, Bebe is officially an elementary school student and its hard to believe my once drooling, crawling, babbling Bebe is now a little girl who dresses herself (most days), walks to school, sometimes still asks her Daddy to carry her to school, can read, and is learning to write sentences and do math.
It’s a whole new world.
Translation: “Happy birthday, Snoopy. I hope you will have a good day.” And that’s a picture of a cake with birthday candle and lots of sprinkles in case you didn’t catch that. ;)
You see, this morning it was Snoopy’s birthday and we had a party for him and his family. Bebe woke up with a little cold so we’re staying home and relaxing today. She took a “family portrait” of her Snoopy family. She has potential to become a professional photographer.
Needless to say, with all the busy stuff going on, when we went to our friend’s home for a party recently and there was leftover chicken katsu for the taking in neat little take-out containers at the end of the evening, I didn’t hesitate to grab a few pieces as well as the offer to take home some steamed rice. My mind was already one step ahead thinking we could eat this for dinner the next night and I wouldn’t have to cook. Yay for me! But, my fabulous childhood bestie mentioned I could make katsudon with these leftover chicken katsu beauties, and I got to thinking I haven’t made that in awhile and it did sound great. So I ended up cooking, but only a little bit.
If you have leftover chicken katsu or tonkatsu (which is pork katsu), making katsudon is super easy. Its even easier if you’ve got leftover steamed rice, eggs in the fridge and a few basic Japanese pantry items already in stock.
The donburi sauce for these mini katsudon is the same donburi sauce I use for oyakodon (chicken and egg rice bowls). The recipe is available on my blog here.
I chose to make mini katsudon because we only had a few pieces of katsu to share but it was plenty for the three of us. I served these in regular-sized rice bowls, rather than the much larger donburi bowls I usually use when I make any kind of rice bowl dish. Hence, the reason I called these “mini”.
Here’s to hoping that I’ll be able to share more blog posts more frequently. For instance, how about a recipe post for homemade chicken katsu or tonkatsu (pork) which I have yet to share here?!? For the time being, here’s to hoping there’s leftover pre-made katsu in your future so you can make this easy katsudon.
Happy Labor Day weekend!
- 4 to 5 pieces leftover chicken katsu, per person
- 3 to 4 cups cooked brown rice
- 3 large eggs, 1 per person for this mini version
- ¼ brown onion, sliced
- 1 to 2 tablespoons homemade donburi sauce (recipe available on "Recipe" tab of my blog), per person
- Canola oil
- Green onions, sliced for garnish
- Special equipment: donburi pan
- Slice chicken katsu into medium size strips.
- Make donburi sauce and set aside. Recipe for donburi sauce is available on my "Recipes" tab of the blog.
- Pre-cook sliced brown onions in a pan with a little canola oil until translucent. Set aside.
- Heat donburi pan over medium heat. Place a touch of canola oil into the donburi pan and using a paper towel wipe the pan to fully coat it.
- In a small bowl crack one egg and gently mix with chopsticks. Don't over mix and create bubbles.
- Once the oil and pan are hot, add one mixed egg into the pan and spoon about 1 tablespoon of the donburi sauce over the egg. Place a few cooked brown onion slices and pieces of the chicken katsu in the egg and sauce mixture on the donburi pan. Allow the egg mixture to slowly cook until the tops of the egg starts to set.
- Place hot cooked rice in individual bowls. Slide the mini katsudon over the rice and garnish with sliced green onions. If desired, drizzle additional donburi sauce over the katsudon.
- Repeat process until all mini katsudon are made. Obviously, if you have more than one donburi pan, the cooking process will go faster. Alternatively, use a medium to large size non-stick pan and cook all eggs and chicken katsu together, and then cut the cooked egg and katsu, serving portions of the cooked egg and katsu over individual portions of rice. The latter technique is how my mom quickly makes donburi dishes for large groups of people.
All photos and content are © Judy Ung | Bebe Love Okazu. Please do not reproduce or copy photos or content without express written permission.