Menchi katsu is traditional Japanese food and it is also a Yoshoku (western style Japanese food). It’s a patty of ground beef covered with panko and deep-fried, so the inside is juicy and the outside is crispy. We eat this by itself or with soy sauce or katsu sauce, and since it is fried dish, we also eat it with a lot of vegetables.
I sometimes forget some of my favorite foods because I have so many of them! Recently, I had Menchi Katsu, some call ground beef katsu, and I remembered how much I love this food. You probably have heard of Tonkatsu before (I introduced my Tonkatsu recipe in this blog too), and Menchi Katsu uses the same cooking process. The difference is Menchi Katsu has ground beef and onion inside of the golden crispy skin.
My mom makes homemade Menchi Katsu whenever she has time, but we also order it at a local Menchi Katsu store which we’ve gone to for decades. So today I introduce my Menchi Katsu recipe from my mom and inspired by the store.
What is Menchi Katsu?
Menchi Katsu is made from ground beef with diced onions covered with panko then deep fried. The outside is golden brown and crispy, and the inside is juicy and warm. This is categorized as a Yoshoku, western-style Japanese food, which is a famous style of food in Japan. I am one of the many people who love western style food.
Menchi Katsu is also said covering version of Hambagu. So the process is similar to the Hambagu and then cover with panko and fry.
But why no needed egg when making Menchi Katsu?
Classic Hambagu recipe uses eggs when making patties. If Menchi katsu is just covering and frying version of Hambagu, then why there are so many Menchi Katsu recipes don’t use egg for patties?
Hamburg inevitably lose its juices when grilled. But if you use egg, it ties Hambagu patties so juices doesn’t go away. Menchi Katsu is covered with flour and panko, It hold juiciness so it doesn’t go away. So if you add egg to Menchi Katsu patties, It could hold Juiciness, but more likely the patties get hard and lose juiciness instead.
So it depends on recipes, but In my opinion, no adding egg for Menchi Katsu is good.
How do you eat Menchi Katsu?
You can eat Menchi Katsu by itself. It fills you up and is great as a snack. But this is a deep fried food, so I recommend you don’t eat too much and when you do, you should add some vegetables on the side.
Also, if you want to add some extra flavor you can add katsu sauce, mayonnaise, or soy sauce. This totally depends on what people prefer. I personally love to eat it with katsu sauce.
Super tasty so you have hard time stop eating!
The tips to make the best Menchi Katsu
I will share my Menchi Katsu recipe below but I want to share 2 tips to make the best Menchi Katsu.
- Use fresh onion
- Freeze patties before covering
- The order for covering is flour-egg-panko
My tips are simple, but to make the best Menchi katsu, these points are so important!
Some similar dish as Menchi Katsu
I also recommend the dish that are so similar to Menchi katsu!
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Menchi Katsu
Ingredients
- 300 g Ground pork
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 200 g large onion Please prepare fresh onion!
- 1 Tablespoon water
- 1 Tablespoon panko for mixture
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 cup neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, rice bran, canola, etc) to fry
For covering
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour or add as much as you need
- 1/2 cup panko or add as much as you need
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Mince the onion into 0.2 inch chunks. Don't mince small.
- Use a small microwave safe bowl and add the minced onion. Wrap it and microwave for 3 minutes. Then, open the wrap and cool it down.
- In a medium bowl, add ground pork and salt and kneel until you get stickiness.
- In the bowl, add microwaved onion, panko, salt, water and black pepper. Then knead well.
- Divide the mixture into 4.
- This mixture is loose but make a circle shape and while making circle, toss in order to release air inside the ball. Put it on a silver pan.
- After making all the patty, put the silver pan in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, dip the patties into flour first and dust with extra flour.
- Then dip in the egg mixture bowl and brush off any excess.
- Then, cover them in panko.
- Heat the oil to 320°F (160°c). When the oil hits this point, gently put two in. Cook two at a time otherwise the oil's heat drops dramatically. Fry for 4 minutes each side.
- Move to a wire rack to drain excess oil. (Or paper towel)
- Let's serve! It is super juicy and crispy. I recommend you eat when it's still warm!
What should I do the leftover oil? Let me know.
Thank you so much for commenting about that! Here is the way for leftover oil.
In Japan, there are a lot of chances to use oil in our meals, so we keep cooking oil in a container with a strainer. Using this, you can reuse oil for deep frying 2-3 times! If you search ‘Oil Container with Strainer’ on Amazon, it will show up!
If you toss the oil, there are 3 ways that I can introduce (recommend).
1. Prepare a bag (Ziplock or plastic bag) and drain the oil into the bag. Close tightly so that it won’t leak.
2. Use a paper towel or news paper to absorb the oil.
3. Add katakuriko to solidified oil.
Do one of them above. Then,
Throw away with other garbage 🙂
Please drain oil to the sink. It will be the reason to clog and bad for environment. I hope this answer helps you!
I was worried how sticky and soft before deep-frying. But It went so well! Juicy juicy
I understand how much you got worried when making the patties haha But I am glad you made it successfully!
We enjoyed. Always surprise us how amazing Japanese foods are. Next Korokke!
Thank you! Japanese food is amazing 🙂 Let me know how it goes with korokke as well!
Love your recipe! I have been using your recipes for a couple of months so far. My husband found your gyudon recipe and that was amazing. We tried this recipe recently. I didn’t know this meal but oh my god it was good!
Thank you for the sweet comment! I am so happy you enjoy what I love. I will keep sharing my recipes, so please give me feed back when you try other recipes:)
I made this after making Karaage in this blog. Amazing recipes.
Thank you! I am so glad you are happy using my recipes 🙂
Hello!
Throughout the introduction, you say that a menchi katsu is made of ground beef and your keyword in the recipe says “beef, deep-fry” but on the recipe itself, it says ground pork. I want to make your recipe soon and don’t know which to buy. I know you can mix beef and pork in a menchi katsu but it doesn’t seem like you are using both in this recipe. Hopefully you see this and can clarify. Thank you so much!
Hello Yuri san! So sorry for the late reply. It is my mistake that I left the keyword ‘beef’ in the article. I updated the recipe a few times and apparently I didn’t go through and update the article. I now prefer only using ‘ground pork’ for Menchi Katsu! Thank you for pointing it out!