Korokke Japanese Potato Croquettes

I’ve used a few culinary techniques I’ve learned over my years in the kitchen to make the filling velvety smooth and creamy with enough flavor to be eaten with a side of rice or shredded cabbage, or stuffed into a roll to make a Korokke Sando.

Why This Recipe Works?

Boiling the potatoes with the skin on prevents them from absorbing too much water as they cook. Cutting the pork into a mince by hand provides a better texture than ground pork. The starch-thickened gravy helps emulsify the pork fat into the potato mixture, adding a creamy richness and flavor to the filling without making it greasy. Refrigerating the filling mixture overnight allows all of the flavors to meld while firming the mixture up so that it’s easier to shape and handle. I recommend splitting the recipe into 2 parts and preparing the filling one day and then shaping, breading, and frying the Korokke the next day.

Ingredients for Korokke

How to Make Korokke (Potato Croquette)

The first thing you need to do is boil potatoes whole. Make sure you scrub them well to remove any dirt, and add them to a pot before covering them with a few inches of water. Next, cover the pot with a lid and bring the water to a boil. Once it’s boiling, you can remove the lid and turn down the heat to maintain a gentle simmer; this keeps them from falling apart. Depending on the size of the spuds, they may take anywhere from thirty to forty minutes to cook through. For the pork, you want to mince it up by hand. I usually slice the block into ⅛-inch thick slices and then cut the pieces into ⅛-inch wide strips. Then you can turn the strips 90° and cut them into small cubes. Mix the oyster sauce into the pork to season it. To make the gravy, add the potato starch, chicken stock, salt, and white pepper to a bowl, and use a Microplane to grate in about ⅛ of a teaspoon of nutmeg. Ground nutmeg will work, but I find the fragrance is always better when it’s freshly grated. Whisk the ingredients together until the starch has evenly dispersed When the potatoes are done, remove them from the water and mash them. I usually just toss them into the hopper of a potato ricer. This makes it easy because you don’t need to peel them first, and it does a great job of mashing them smoothly. If you don’t have one, you can wait for them to cool enough to handle and peel them before using a potato masher or fork to mash them up. To make the filling, sauté the onions in a tablespoon of oil for about four minutes or until they start to brown. Add the minced pork and continue sautéing until the meat starts to brown around the edges (another 4-5 minutes). Stir the gravy mixture again and pour it into the pan. It will thicken into a paste quickly, so mix it into the pork and onions as fast as possible. Fold in the mashed potatoes until the mixture is uniform in color. Then you want to dump the mixture into a tray and flatten it out. Next, cover the surface of the mixture with parchment paper to keep it from drying out and let it come down to room temperature. Then you want to cover the tray and refrigerate it overnight to give the flavors a chance to mingle. To fry the potato croquettes, heat 2-inches of vegetable oil in a high-sided pot to 320°F (160°C) and line a wire rack with a few sheets of paper towels. Divide the rested potato mixture into eight to twelve equally sized blocks using a pastry knife. Then you want to shape each block into a round or oval patty that’s no thicker than one inch. Next, slap the patties back and forth between your hands to get rid of any air pockets or cracks in the Korokke, which can cause them to burst when you fry them. To bread the Korokke, prepare a bowl of flour, a bowl with a beaten egg, and a tray or shallow bowl with the panko breadcrumbs. The first thing you want to do is dust all of the patties with a thin, even layer of flour. Next, you want to coat one patty with an even layer of egg with one hand. Then you can transfer it to the panko and switch hands to cover it with the breadcrumbs. I usually like to scoop panko onto the patty and use a gentle squeezing and patting motion to ensure you have good adhesion of the panko with the patty. Repeat these steps for the rest of the potato patties. Once the oil is up to temperature, carefully lower the Korokke into the oil and deep fry them in batches until they’re golden brown and crisp (about 6 minutes). Be sure to flip them over periodically so that they brown evenly. Drain the potato croquettes well as you take them out of the oil and then transfer them onto the prepared cooling rack to continue draining.