Egg Katsu, a Panko-Fried Egg, Goes Viral. Here’s the Method

A fried egg in a breadcrumb shell has spread across social media this fall, and the cook behind one of its most-watched versions did not expect it.

Lisa Kitahara, a Japanese Canadian recipe developer, runs the Japanese cooking site Okonomi Kitchen. She describes herself as a crispy-texture person who loves eggs. She once tried to bread and deep-fry watermelon. It did not work. Her egg katsu recipe, by contrast, uses two ingredients and cooking oil. “I just thought the recipe was too simple,” she told The New York Times. Her Instagram video is nearing 10 million views, with another four million on TikTok, according to the Times.

The appeal is easy to see. The dish stars eggs. It is deep-fried. It looks familiar but carries a twist. And the video ends with a yolk spilling out when the egg is cut open.

Kitahara says she came up with the recipe on her own, though the idea may be older. According to the Times, katsu-style eggs first drew attention in Japan in 2013, when the Japan Poultry Association and the Japanese Egg Industry Association sponsored a contest for inventive egg dishes. Of 286 entrants, Kaori Kosugi of Hokkaido won the grand prize for her “Egg Fry.” The prize included a year’s supply of eggs.

Kosugi’s method called for coating a raw egg in panko, frying it until golden, and serving it with baby greens and a dash of soy sauce. The Times notes that, unlike a Scotch egg, the dish depends on contrast: a crunchy exterior, whites as tender as a poached egg’s, and a molten yolk.

The name draws on a familiar family of Japanese fried foods. Katsu is most associated with tonkatsu, the breaded pork cutlet. Furai, a term borrowed from the English word “fry,” covers breaded and fried shrimp, oysters and squid. Gyukatsu is steak that is crusted and flash-fried so the center stays rare. Even tomatoes get the panko treatment.

Yukari Sakamoto, a Tokyo food writer who leads market tours, told the Times she rarely deep-fries at home, because fried food is easy to find when eating out. “We are spoiled,” she said. She added that she had never come across eggs fried this way in a restaurant.

The likely reason, according to the Times, is the delicacy involved. The egg has to be handled gently so the yolk does not break, which makes large-batch cooking in a restaurant kitchen difficult. That same fussiness makes it a better fit for a home cook.

Kitahara serves it on its own or as a topper. She has put it on eggs Benedict, on garlic noodles, on Japanese curry and on mapo tofu. “It’s really hard not to like something that’s deep fried and golden,” she said.