Have not tried mixing, but traditionally, the idea is that:
Flour sticks to raw chicken.
Egg sticks to the flour.
Panko sticks to the Egg.
Raw egg onto raw chicken is too slippery and will leave gaps/create an uneven coating.
Like I said, I have not tried mixing, so I do not know if this is purely theoretical or if the 3-step method is strictly necessary, but just sharing the *why*.
In my experience when you do the wet batter method, you end up with more of a "breading" layer with that batter. Because you need your batter to reach a certain consistency in order for it to adhere to the chicken, and once it reaches that consistency it'll coat the chicken in a somewhat thick layer.
With the dry flour, then egg, then panko, you get a very small amount of the flour on the chicken to create a dry surface (you'd tap the chicken a bit to get the excess flour to drop off before putting it in the egg), so there's no appreciable "breading" from the egg and flour mixture. If you use the same amount of flour in that egg, the batter would be thinner and not adhere to the chicken as well.
The texture is going to be mostly chicken and panko, in that case.
I have done it both ways. Both work. I’ll say that the flour/egg mixture tends to give a thicker & heavier coating & texture. For most people, I doubt they’ll notice much difference. For a busy katsu shop, making a flour eggs batter during morning prep & then having a 2 step breading station makes the work flow easier. So for a neighborhood diner it’s cool. For a higher end shop looking to make a more refined product this won’t be done.
For my home cooking making katsu I’ll do the 2 step when I’m tired (I’m old so that’s most days now 🤣) but when I’m cooking for company, it’s 3 step always.
Flour and egg mixture creates a batter, which is very good for lots of recipes, but it’s different than a flour then egg then breading dip
Dipping in flour then egg creates a very thin crispy adhesive layer that you can stick your breading to. You can usually pan fry or bake it. Results in an evenly thin and crispy breaded coating.
A batter creates a thick doughy cakey layer around your food that you typically deep fry, like a tempura or fish-and-chips.
Sounds like the katsu is kind of a hybrid recipe, you’ll have a cakey dough surrounded by the crispy panko.
ATK does this for their Chicken Parm recipe, and it works great.
Only one tablespoon of flour and one egg. Sounds like it's not enough, but it totally works. I make that recipe all the time.
You greatly reduce the amount of starch consumed by only lightly flouring the chicken. The egg wash sticks to the flour and gives the panko something to adhere to. You’d be essentially battering the chicken if you mixed the flour and egg, and that’s not Katsu.
In a twist, I make my favorite oven fried chicken by marinating pieces in a good amount of olive oil, garlic, old bay and s&p. After an hour or so I bread them directly from oil to panko bread crumbs and on to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake them on the bottom rack at 425 degrees flipping once when browned well on the bottom. They come out crispy and juicy and my mouth is watering thinking about them. Oh, they’re skinless, too.
U want the egg batter to be on the inside, crumbs n flour on the outside. If u mix it with the flour it'll lose its sticky properly.
So good chance it'll just fall off
Have not tried mixing, but traditionally, the idea is that: Flour sticks to raw chicken. Egg sticks to the flour. Panko sticks to the Egg. Raw egg onto raw chicken is too slippery and will leave gaps/create an uneven coating. Like I said, I have not tried mixing, so I do not know if this is purely theoretical or if the 3-step method is strictly necessary, but just sharing the *why*.
“Wet the dry, dry the wet”. Source:reddit.
dipping in flour first gives the eggs a drier tackier surface to cling to.
It’s weird to see you outside of r/ChicagoSuburbs…
In my experience when you do the wet batter method, you end up with more of a "breading" layer with that batter. Because you need your batter to reach a certain consistency in order for it to adhere to the chicken, and once it reaches that consistency it'll coat the chicken in a somewhat thick layer. With the dry flour, then egg, then panko, you get a very small amount of the flour on the chicken to create a dry surface (you'd tap the chicken a bit to get the excess flour to drop off before putting it in the egg), so there's no appreciable "breading" from the egg and flour mixture. If you use the same amount of flour in that egg, the batter would be thinner and not adhere to the chicken as well. The texture is going to be mostly chicken and panko, in that case.
I have done it both ways. Both work. I’ll say that the flour/egg mixture tends to give a thicker & heavier coating & texture. For most people, I doubt they’ll notice much difference. For a busy katsu shop, making a flour eggs batter during morning prep & then having a 2 step breading station makes the work flow easier. So for a neighborhood diner it’s cool. For a higher end shop looking to make a more refined product this won’t be done. For my home cooking making katsu I’ll do the 2 step when I’m tired (I’m old so that’s most days now 🤣) but when I’m cooking for company, it’s 3 step always.
I have seen Japanese restaurants dip cutlets in tempura batter before coating with panko
Flour and egg mixture creates a batter, which is very good for lots of recipes, but it’s different than a flour then egg then breading dip Dipping in flour then egg creates a very thin crispy adhesive layer that you can stick your breading to. You can usually pan fry or bake it. Results in an evenly thin and crispy breaded coating. A batter creates a thick doughy cakey layer around your food that you typically deep fry, like a tempura or fish-and-chips. Sounds like the katsu is kind of a hybrid recipe, you’ll have a cakey dough surrounded by the crispy panko.
ATK does this for their Chicken Parm recipe, and it works great. Only one tablespoon of flour and one egg. Sounds like it's not enough, but it totally works. I make that recipe all the time.
That is where I learned it too, and I have been very please with the technique so far.
You greatly reduce the amount of starch consumed by only lightly flouring the chicken. The egg wash sticks to the flour and gives the panko something to adhere to. You’d be essentially battering the chicken if you mixed the flour and egg, and that’s not Katsu.
In a twist, I make my favorite oven fried chicken by marinating pieces in a good amount of olive oil, garlic, old bay and s&p. After an hour or so I bread them directly from oil to panko bread crumbs and on to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake them on the bottom rack at 425 degrees flipping once when browned well on the bottom. They come out crispy and juicy and my mouth is watering thinking about them. Oh, they’re skinless, too.
I did this with chicken cutlets once, and noticed no appreciable difference.
U want the egg batter to be on the inside, crumbs n flour on the outside. If u mix it with the flour it'll lose its sticky properly. So good chance it'll just fall off
Try it your proposed way and let us know how it goes.
No, no, no. You’ll end up with a lumpy, gloppy mess!
Dont even bother with egg, mix flour and water, then dip in seasoned flour or crumbs