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!
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 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.
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!
Tonkatsu Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1 Tablespoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 t soy sauce
- pinch garlic powder
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Instructions
- 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!
It’s pronounced wuss (like puss) – tur – sheer.
Sounds like a delicious dipping sauce, thanks for sharing the recipe ?
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!
Unless you’re on the West Coast, it’s pronounced “wurst-” or “worst-ish-ear”.
Easy & delicious! Will definitely make again. Thanks!
Thanks Lisa, glad you liked it!
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 !
I love ketchup+mayo! Over here we often call that fry sauce and it’s my favorite thing to dip fries in :D!
Perfect for Chicken Katsudon! My first time making both of these recipes and they were amazing confidence boosters!
Thank you 🙂
Awesome, glad you liked it 🙂
A question. Is this the sauce that is generally used for bar b que pork and fried shrimp etc. in restayrants.?
Hey Barbara, it’s probably not, sorry!
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.
The British (who invented it) just call it Wooster sauce — the “oo” sounds like “wood” or ” wool. “. thanks for the recipe!