Name: Gyukatsu (Breaded Beef Cutlet, Rare Inside)
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 400 g beef; 0.5 tsp salt; 0.25 tsp black pepper; 4 tbsp plain flour; 1 pc egg; 100 g fresh panko; 1 L frying oil; 200 g cabbage; 1 tsp wasabi; 2 tbsp soy sauce; 0.5 tsp flaky salt; 3 tbsp sesame sauce

Ingredients

2servings

Beef
beef · sirloin or striploin, cut 2cm or thicker — one whole piece400 g
salt0.5 tsp
black pepper · coarsely ground0.25 tsp
Coating
plain flour4 tbsp
egg · well beaten1 pc
fresh panko · coarse and moist; lighter than dried crumbs100 g
frying oil · at least 4cm deep1 L
To serve
cabbage · shredded very fine and soaked in cold water200 g
wasabi1 tsp
soy sauce · to stir the wasabi into as a dip2 tbsp
flaky salt · a little on the cut face — the clearest way to taste it0.5 tsp
sesame sauce · optional: ground sesame with soy and mirin3 tbsp

Steps

Take the beef out of the fridge 30 minutes ahead. A cold centre will not warm through in 90 seconds of frying, no matter what.
⏲ 30 min
Shred the cabbage as finely as you can, soak it in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain it thoroughly. Do the rest of the prep while it soaks.
⏲ 10 min
Blot the beef dry and season both sides with salt and pepper. A wet surface turns the flour into paste.
⏲ 2 min
Coat: flour, then egg, then panko. Press the crumbs on with your palm and shake off what does not stick.
⏲ 3 min
Bring the oil to 180°C. A thermometer is the reliable way; failing that, a single crumb should rise and bubble briskly at once.
⏲ 8 min
Fry for 60-90 seconds. Deep gold on the outside is the finish line. Longer and the middle cooks through, at which point this is a beef tonkatsu rather than gyukatsu.
⏲ 1 min 30 sec
Rest it standing on a rack for 5 minutes. Carry-over heat moves the centre from rare to medium-rare in that time, and cutting now would empty it of juice.
⏲ 5 min
Slice 2cm thick. The cut face should be clearly pink; a thick grey band around the edge means 15 seconds less oil next time.
⏲ 1 min
Serve with a cast-iron pan or stone plate heated until very hot, so anyone uneasy about rare beef can sear their own cut faces for 10-20 seconds.
⏲ 3 min
Plate with the cabbage and set out flaky salt, wasabi-soy and sesame sauce. Try the first piece with nothing but salt.
⏲ 1 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

Sear it yourself on a hot stone. This is what the shops do: 10-20 seconds per cut face brings it to medium, which puts the doneness in the diner's hands. A small cast-iron pan heated for five minutes does the same job at home.
Katsu sando. Mustard butter on white bread, gyukatsu and sauce in between. Let it cool completely before cutting and the cross-section stays clean.
Sauces, in increasing order of how much they cover the beef: flaky salt, wasabi-soy, sesame sauce, demi-glace. With good meat, start at the front of that list.
Same breadcrumbs, opposite method to tonkatsu: pork has to be cooked through, so the cut is thinner and the time longer. Karaage is a useful third comparison in frying.

Tips

This method is for whole cuts of beef only. Rare beef is safe because the contamination is on the surface and 180°C oil deals with the surface. Minced, mechanically tenderised, or "formed" meat glued together from thin pieces has that surface on the inside and must not be eaten this way. Buy a piece cut from a whole muscle.
Under 2cm, rare is not possible. In the 90 seconds it takes to crisp the crust, a thin piece cooks through. The thickness is a condition of the dish.
Use fresh panko. Dried crumbs are dense: they make a thicker, harder shell and need longer in the oil to colour — the opposite of what a 90-second fry wants (deep frying).
Hold 180°C. At 160 the crumbs drink oil and go soggy; at 200 the crust burns while the middle is still cold (heat control).
Do not skip the 5-minute rest. Fried meat needs resting for the same reason grilled meat does (cooking meat and resting).
Refrigerate leftovers and reheat at 200°C in an oven or air fryer for 3 minutes — accepting that the centre cooks through and the rare middle is gone.

The basics behind this dish

Cooking basics →

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