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January 10, 2018

Homemade Tonkatsu Sauce

This tonkatsu sauce is a popular Japanese sauce for tonkatsu and other fried foods. It is easy to throw together and is tangy, rich, and perfect for dipping your favorite fried food! 

Spooning out some tonkatsu sauce out of a bowl, with worcestershire sauce bottle in the background.

Growing up, whenever we had chicken katsu, tonkatsu, or korokke, we always had the Bulldog brand tonkatsu sauce along with it. And you know what? I never liked it. *gasp* I know. My brothers would pour a bunch on, and I would just very lightly put a few drops on mine. Weird kid. I also didn’t like to dip my fries in ketchup.

Well, I dip my fries in ketchup now, but I like to make my own tonkatsu sauce.

This tonkatsu sauce is easy to throw together and is tangy, rich, and perfect for dipping your favorite fried food! 

Spooning tonkatsu sauce over a plate of korokke (Japanese croquettes).

This sauce is great because it’s made with ingredients that many people have on hand! Ketchup, butter, worcestershire sauce (can’t pronounce it, but I THINK I spelled it right, haha), soy sauce, and a little bit of garlic powder.

The ketchup base is a great canvas, and the worcestershire sauce adds a very *zingy* taste to it. Like, kind of tangy, kind of a hint of spicy… and the soy sauce brings a little oomph of umami.

Little girl holding a round korokke dipped in the tonkatsu sauce.

Tonkatsu sauce can be used for soooo many more things than just tonkatsu. Try it out next time with your favorite fried food! Or non fried food. I haven’t tried dipping veggies in it, but I could see it working! As you can see in the picture above, my 3 year old was loving it on her korokke!

Spooning out some tonkatsu sauce out of a bowl, with worcestershire sauce bottle in the background.
5 from 2 votes
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Tonkatsu Sauce

This tonkatsu sauce is easy to throw together and is tangy, rich, and perfect for dipping your favorite fried food! 

Course Side Dish
Cuisine Japanese
Prep Time 5 minutes
Servings 2
Calories 95 kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • 1 Tablespoon worcestershire sauce
  • 1 t soy sauce
  • pinch garlic powder

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl, melt the butter. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. If your ketchup, etc. are refrigerated, it may cause the butter to solidify and your sauce to turn grainy. If this happens, you can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to smooth it out. Serve with tonkatsu, chicken katsu, korokke, or even dip your fries in it!

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Filed Under: Side Dish

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kate says

    January 11, 2018 at 1:17 am

    It’s pronounced wuss (like puss) – tur – sheer.
    Sounds like a delicious dipping sauce, thanks for sharing the recipe ?

    Reply
    • Alisa says

      January 11, 2018 at 7:11 am

      Oooh okay! See, in Japan they pronounce it ooh-soo-taa so I have always just been saying it in a Japanese accent haha. Now I know, thank you!

      Reply
    • Kat says

      July 24, 2018 at 4:22 pm

      Unless you’re on the West Coast, it’s pronounced “wurst-” or “worst-ish-ear”.

      Reply
  2. Lisa says

    March 8, 2018 at 5:53 pm

    5 stars
    Easy & delicious! Will definitely make again. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Alisa says

      March 8, 2018 at 8:04 pm

      Thanks Lisa, glad you liked it!

      Reply
  3. AKIKO BUCHANAN says

    June 17, 2018 at 11:15 am

    i do or lot of my friends in Japan, we do simply use ¨´´ TONKATASU SAUCE¨´ with mayonnaise! This stuff works for everything. Ketchap + mayonnaise is very common to use !

    Reply
    • Alisa says

      June 17, 2018 at 12:59 pm

      I love ketchup+mayo! Over here we often call that fry sauce and it’s my favorite thing to dip fries in :D!

      Reply
  4. Jema-Marie Twin says

    August 11, 2018 at 6:26 pm

    5 stars
    Perfect for Chicken Katsudon! My first time making both of these recipes and they were amazing confidence boosters!

    Thank you 🙂

    Reply
    • Alisa says

      August 12, 2018 at 9:50 am

      Awesome, glad you liked it 🙂

      Reply
  5. Barbara Finucane says

    October 8, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    A question. Is this the sauce that is generally used for bar b que pork and fried shrimp etc. in restayrants.?

    Reply
    • Alisa says

      October 9, 2018 at 10:20 am

      Hey Barbara, it’s probably not, sorry!

      Reply
  6. MK_Ultra says

    June 9, 2019 at 5:36 pm

    Just a thought, just put it all, including the cold butter into a small non reactive pan or skillet on low heat, stir til combine and some what emulsified. Done. Chill in a small container, and pull from fridge an hour before you need it, and stir. This would be something I would, by default, put in a 1/4 tsp of citric acid also, to temper the spoilage and get a few more weeks to months out of, by leveling out the ph.

    Reply
  7. Leif Crowe says

    August 6, 2019 at 9:34 pm

    The British (who invented it) just call it Wooster sauce — the “oo” sounds like “wood” or ” wool. “. thanks for the recipe!

    Reply

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