Easy Sushi Tonkatsu Sauce Recipe To Flavor Your Rolls
Authentic tonkatsu sauce can be hard to make because it uses a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables to get the acidity and sweetness, but luckily there’s an easier way to make it.
This tonkatsu sauce has been adapted to fit sushi especially well with the perfect flavor balance.
You can use this recipe to make tonkatsu sauce at home for your sushi rolls.
Check out our new cookbook
Bitemybun's family recipes with complete meal planner and recipe guide.
Try it out for free with Kindle Unlimited:
Read for freeIn this post we'll cover:
Tonkatsu Sushi Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup ketchup
- 1½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin (Japanese sweet wine)
- 1 tsp ginger grated, fresh
- 1 small garlic clove minced
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl and thoroughly stir until you’ve made a homogenous mix.
- Let the mix sit for 30 minutes in the mixing bowl for the flavors to blend until you get the right taste of the tonkatsu sauce.
Cooking tips
Be sure to cut the ginger and garlic cloves into very small pieces. They have to be almost absorbed into the mix without chunks.
If you can’t cut them that small, you can always use a blender to cut them up even further and make a smooth, even sauce.
Substitutes & variations
If you don’t have some of these ingredients, you can always substitute them:
Worcestershire sauce substitute for tonkatsu sauce
Using soy sauce as a Worcestershire sauce substitute will give your sushi a more salty flavor, but this recipe already calls for soy sauce, so the best substitute to get a little extra umami is to use oyster or fish sauce.
I recommend using 1/2 of the amount of these sauces instead of Worcestershire sauce to still get a nice flavor balance.
Mirin substitute for tonkatsu sauce
You can use rice wine as a mirin substitute, but the flavor will be slightly different. For a more authentic sushi taste, I recommend using sake.
Sake is also a great choice if you don’t have any other rice wine on hand because it’s usually easy to find at most liquor stores.
If you’re adding sake or rice wine, just add a little extra sugar to compensate for the lack of sweetness.
If you don’t have any of these things, you can always skip the mirin, and the sauce will still turn out great.
How to use tonkatsu sauce on sushi
If you’re using this sauce on sushi, I recommend adding some wasabi to the roll. This will give it a nice kick and bring out the flavors of the sauce.
You can also use this sauce as a marinade for chicken or pork before you cook it. Marinate the meat for a few hours in the sauce and then cook it however you like.
Conclusion
Tonkatsu sauce is a great way to add extra flavor to your sushi rolls. Give it a try next time you’re making sushi at home!
Also read: this is my list of sushi sauce names that are perfect for every roll!
Check out our new cookbook
Bitemybun's family recipes with complete meal planner and recipe guide.
Try it out for free with Kindle Unlimited:
Read for free
Joost Nusselder, the founder of Bite My Bun is a content marketer, dad and loves trying out new food with Japanese food at the heart of his passion, and together with his team he's been creating in-depth blog articles since 2016 to help loyal readers with recipes and cooking tips.
