I have two Japanese recipes for chicken and pork that I always go to now. One is a baked chicken katsu, which is healthier and easier to cook than the deep fried version. The other is Tatsuta Pork served with a garlic sesame aioli sauce. This Tatsuta Pork recipe is super easy to prepare, and even easier to cook. It is a fried pork chop that has been coated with potato starch, and that has been marinated in mirin, soy sauce, and sake. With this recipe in your cooking repertoire, you have an alternative to Shake-n-Bake (though, I do love myself a good Shake-n-Bake pork chop).

I make Tatsuta Pork with a garlic sesame aioli sauce that is similar to a sauce you would get with chicken karaage, but without any heat. With the pork chop you really don’t want any heat in your sauce, it just tastes a bit weird next to the sweet and salty marinade and potato starch coating.

This recipe was adapted for kids from Tasty Japan’s Tatsuta pork recipe. I skipped the ginger, doubled the portions, half the sake, and made my own sauce instead of the kewpie mayonnaise as dressing.

Tatsuta Pork

A recipe worthy of a good pork chop, Tatsuta pork is the perfect mix of sweet and salty with a little bit of fried potato starch on the outside for crunch.

5 from 1 vote

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Servings

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Equipment

Ingredients

4 Pork Chops (thin)
4 tbsp Soy sauce
2 tbsp Mirin
1 tbsp Sake
1 tbsp Water
3 cups Vegetable oil height is half the height of your pork chop, so the amount of oil depends on your pan dimensions
1/2 cup Potato starch

Instructions

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Prep

Flatten pork chops with a wood spoon, mallet, spatula, really anything that gets the width of the pork chop thinner.
Beat the pork chops with the sharp edge of the knife on both sides. Do not cut the pork chops, just dent the pork chop to give the marinade a chance to get in the crevices.
Mix your soy sauce, mirin, sake, and water to prepare your marinade
Put the pork chops in a container and add your marinade to them. Put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Remove from the marinade after 30 minutes.
Coat the pork chops with potato starch. I do like to lay this on thick, because I think the batter makes it taste better.

Cooking

Fill your pan with enough oil that is half the height of your pork chop. You want the oil to come up to about half of your pork chop, this means that half of your pork chop will be submerged in oil and half will not. Heat up on medium heat.
Check to make sure the oil is hot enough for frying. I utilize a wooden chop stick or spoon and look for little bubbles around the edges to check. Feel free to utilize a thermometer though, the temperature should be 350 degrees.
When you reach the frying temperature lower the pork chop into the oil slowly. You want to fry about 1 minute per side per 1/4 inch of pork chop thickness. This means, if the pork chop is 1/2 inch thick, fry for 2 minutes per side. Always check to make sure your pork chop is cooked.
Serve with Garlic Sesame aioli and with rice.

Notes

If you undercook the pork, just zap it in the microwave for 1 minute to finish off cooking.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you want to make the Garlic sesame aioli, the recipe is as follows:

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

1 1/2 tsp of Garlic powder

1 tsp of sesame oil

Mix and you have a “can’t stop eating it” Garlic sesame aioli amazing.

Tatsuta Pork for Kids