Does your recipe call for panko? We have the low-down on Japanese-panko chicken strips bread crumbs, including when you can substitute classic bread crumbs.

My first experience with tonkatsu was eye-opening. I was in Tokyo with my family on a mission to eat as much ramen as humanly possible, but the hotel concierge told us we shouldn’t leave without a visit to Tonkatsu Maisen. So we took the train to Shibuya and ordered away. It reminded me of German schnitzel, but the breading was extremely crunchy—crunchier than any fried cutlet I’d ever had. When we got back to the hotel, I asked the concierge what made the pork so crispy.

Panko is a unique style of bread crumb used in Japanese baked and fried dishes. It starts with baking bread in a specially designed oven using electric current instead of heat. That produces a crustless white bread that’s soft and dense. The bread is then dried and ground into coarse flakes that are larger than regular bread crumbs.

They can also be used for fried food, but the result will be more bready than crispy. Substitutions These two types of bread crumbs are generally interchangeable, so don’t be afraid to use one instead of the other. Keep in mind that panko is crispier than classic bread crumbs, so it adds a different texture to the finished dish. That said, we love how surprisingly crispy you can make mac and cheese by topping it with panko instead of bread crumbs. After years of working in professional kitchens, Lindsay traded her knives in for the pen. While she spends most of her time writing these days, she still exercises her culinary muscles on the regular, taking any opportunity to turn local, seasonal ingredients into beautiful meals for her family.

The Spruce Eats: What Is Panko? Panko is a type of breadcrumb made from a special kind of white bread. It originated in Japanese cuisine but has become popular in Western cooking. Jolinda Hackett has written five books about plant-based cooking and has developed hundreds of vegan and vegetarian recipes.