Give Your Next Katsu Sandwich The Nashville Hot Chicken Treatment

If you love Japanese food, you're already accustomed to spicy condiments like wasabi, Karashi mustard, and chili oil. Yet, if you wish there was a straightforward way to incorporate your favorite American hot sauce into the mix, you may want to give your next katsu sandwich a bit of Tennessee-style heat. Whether you're used to making chicken katsu don or tonkatsu (also known as pork cutlets), katsu is a Japanese dish consisting of fried panko-covered meat cutlets or vegetables served over rice. Traditionally, katsu is topped with tonkatsu sauce which is made up of various fruits and vegetables, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar. When the crispy meat is served between two slices of white bread it becomes a delicious katsu sando — so why not try making a Nashville hot chicken katsu mashup? 

The Nashville hot chicken sandwich was born in the 1930s and thanks to Nashville's Prince's Hot Chicken, remains a southern classic. This one-of-a-kind sandwich is made with spice-loaded, battered fried chicken and served on toasted buns with sliced pickles. What makes a Nashville hot chicken sandwich unique is the spicy, oil-infused paste added to chicken after frying. With a few adjustments, you can transform traditional chicken katsu into tasty sandwiches with a hot Tennessee twist. One big difference between Nashville hot chicken sandwiches and katsu sandwiches is how the chicken is fried. With a few simple tweaks, your next katsu sandwich can easily become a spinoff of Nashville's hot chicken delight.

Traditional Nashville hot chicken sandwiches are typically prepared by dredging bone-in chicken pieces in seasoned flour more than once while intermittently dipping chicken in a combined mixture of raw egg and hot sauce. Instead, simplify this process by following a traditional katsu recipe and use butterflied chicken breasts or boneless thighs. Moreover, since katsu is prepared using both flour and panko bread crumbs, adjust your Nashville hot chicken recipe to accommodate both ingredients. Make a breading station of three separate plates or bowls with flour, egg, and panko in each.

Beyond salt and pepper, add extra seasoning to flour with cayenne pepper and garlic powder. Add some splashes of your favorite hot sauce to the raw egg, including a bit of oil. This way, your chicken's panko breading won't stick to the base of your pan when frying (this doesn't apply if you are deep-frying). Then simply dredge cutlets first in flour, then egg, and lastly in panko, pressing the flaky mixture into the meat and shaking off any excess crumbs.

Unlike flour which is made of ground wheat, panko is made of light and airy white bread crumbs. Because these breadcrumbs are quite delicate, they can burn fairly easily. Make sure to keep a close eye on your chicken during the frying process. You may even want to use a meat thermometer as an added precaution. Once chicken cutlets are crispy and golden, you're ready to build delicious Japanese-inspired Nashville hot chicken sandwiches.

When your chicken is done frying, it's time to cover deep-fried cutlets in Nashville hot chicken's signature spice-filled sauce made from select seasonings and leftover fry oil. For this you combine the fry oil with spices like cayenne, chili powder, garlic powder and paprika, plus brown sugar. If you can't take the Nashville heat, mix mayonnaise with sweet pickles and hot sauce and nix the spicy oil. To make this Nashville-inspired katsu sandwich live up to its Asian roots, you can also opt for Kewpie mayonnaise which is a Japanese brand of mayo made with egg yolks only.

Once you decide on condiments, you're ready to build your sandwich. Secure an entire loaf of shokupan or Japanese milk bread and cut your own slices for the perfect katsu chicken sandwich. While Japanese milk bread is somewhat similar to American white bread, milk bread is sweeter and has a softer consistency. You can find Japanese milk bread (and Kewpie mayonnaise) at most Asian grocery stores.

To prevent your fried katsu sandwich from becoming overly mushy, you may want to add a light spread of butter to the interior of your bread slices. Add shredded lettuce or a whole cabbage leaf and you're ready to enjoy. Pickles, which are commonly on Nashville hot chicken sandwiches, would taste great, too.