Korokke aka Japanese Potato Croquettes. Crispy potato cakes coated in panko crumbs deep fried in hot oil. These Japanese croquettes are vegetarian.
Popular Japanese Street Food
A popular Japanese dish that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It is served with a delicious dark tonkatsu sauce or Kewpie mayo. A tasty western-style food turned Asian sold at select Japanese convenience stores. In Japan, there are specialty shops that only sell this tasty street food.
Japanese Korokke are very similar to the French Croquette, except in Japan they usually throw in curried ground beef into the mashed potato mixture. There are variations of korokke like the curry korokke, kabocha korokke, kani cream korokke to other meat croquettes, but I'm sharing a vegetarian korokke with onions and different seasonings!
Easy to make
This delicious korokke recipe is really easy to make and there's nothing challenging about it! I share step by step visuals on how to make this tasty potato korokke.
You are bringing a pot of cold water to boil. Boil potatoes over high heat until fork tender. Meanwhile sauté the onions until they are cooked. Next in a large bowl, add the onions and potatoes along with the seasoning ingredients. Use a potato masher to mash everything into like you would with mashed potatoes. Then divide the korokke mixture into equal portions and roll them into potato patties or in oval shapes.
In 3 separate bowls, add cornstarch to one, beaten egg to another, and Japanese bread crumb to the last. Coat each piece in cornstarch, egg, and panko bread crumbs in that order. Then deep frying them in any neutral oil like avocado oil or vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Transfer them to a wire rack or paper towels to drain excess oil. Serve with sauce of your choice and enjoy!
Ingredients
You will need the following korokke ingredients:
- Yellow onion: You can also use white onion for this recipe too.
- Avocado oil: Or sub with any neutral tasting oil, such as grapeseed oil, vegetable oil or canola oil.
- Yellow potatoes: We are using yellow russet potatoes but this would also work with white potatoes too. Any starchy potatoes will work for this recipe.
- Black pepper
- Garlic powder
- Salt
- Eggs
- Cornstarch: Or feel free to replace with potato starch, tapioca starch or all-purpose flour.
- Panko breadcrumbs: This is not your usual breadcrumbs. It's a flakier and lighter breadcrumb made of white bread shavings. The outside of korokke becomes super crispy thanks to this breadcrumb.
Optional:
Curry powder: Typical Japanese seasonings for croquettes. You can add this to your potato mixture.
Tonkatsu sauce:
- Vegetarian stir fry sauce: Most Asian grocers and online retailers carry this ingredient. The best one is by a brand called Lee Kum Kee. It's basically a vegetarian version of Oyster sauce.
- Vegan Worcestershire sauce: Or sub with normal Worcestershire sauce if you're not vegetarian. This adds a lovely acidity to the tonkatsu sauce.
- Sugar: This is needed to balance out the salty flavors from the stir fry sauce.
- Ketchup: This adds tanginess to the sauce.
How to make Korokke
Peel your potatoes and quarter them. Boil potatoes for 15 minutes until fork tender. Strain in a colander and place them into a large mixing bowl.
Meanwhile, fry your diced onions in 1 tablespoon of oil until soft and translucent. Place into the mixing bowl.
Season your potatoes and onions with salt, garlic powder, black pepper and curry powder (optional).
Mash the potatoes and onions together and mix well.
Divide the potato mixture into 8 equal portions.
Roll them into oval shaped balls and place them in the fridge for 15 minutes (do not skip this step or you will have a difficult time coating them).
In three separate bowls, add corn starch to one. In the second one, beat two eggs. Lastly the third bowl, add panko breadcrumbs.
Coat each ball in first cornstarch until evenly coated. Then coat in the egg and lastly cover with panko breadcrumbs.
Heat your 2 cups of oil over medium heat. To test if it's ready, place a wooden chopstick and look for bubbles. If you spot bubbles, it's time to deep fry.
Deep fry 3 minutes, flipping over halfway until golden crispy brown. Enjoy with tonkatsu sauce (recipe below).
FAQ
Below are frequently asked questions about this recipe:
Can I use any kind of potatoes?
Yes! I suggest any starchy potatoes like yellow russets or white potatoes. Sweet potatoes may be a bit too mushy and may end up falling apart when you go to create the oval shaped balls.
Can I add other ingredients to this mixture?
Yes! This potato korokke can be a foundation for you to add other ingredients and I share some ideas below if you're vegetarian or not:
- Ground meat like ground pork (or pork mince), ground beef, or ground chicken
- Bacon
- Shredded cheese
- Ham
- Spam
- Carrots
- Shiitake mushrooms
- Green onions
- Corn
Would I be able to make this in the air fryer?
Yes, I would suggest lightly spraying them with oil and spraying the air fryer basket with oil. Air fry at 400 F for 17-20 minutes flipping over halfway.
Can I make these in bulk and freeze them?
Yes! Before deep frying them, wrap each piece in plastic wrap and store them in a freezer friendly bag. They will last up to a month. Deep fry from frozen. No need to thaw.
What kind of condiments would you pair with this dish?
- Tonkatsu sauce
- Ketchup
- Japanese or kewpie mayo
- Sour cream
Other Asian Potato recipes you may like!
If you enjoyed these Korokke, you may like these other potato recipes:
Gamjajeon (Korean Potato Pancakes)
Gamja Jorim (Korean Potatoes)
Kimchi Potato Potatoes
Korean Potato Salad
Potato Onion Waffle
Asian Sesame Smashed Potatoes
Chinese Spicy Sour Potatoes
Vegan Cajun Spice Potatoes
I hope you give my Korokke a try and enjoy it!
If you enjoyed my recipe, please leave a star rating and share it with your family and friends or on social media! Take a picture of your re-creation and make sure to tag me @ChristieAtHome in your feed or stories as I would love to see it!
Christie
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Vegetarian Korokke (Japanese Potato Croquettes)
Ingredients
- 2 cups avocado oil (or sub with any neutral tasting oil)
Potato Mixture
- 6 small-medium russet potatoes peeled and quartered
- 1 small yellow onion diced (or sub with white onion)
- 1 tbsp avocado oil for frying onions (sub with any neutral tasting oil)
- 2-3 tsp curry powder optional
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Coating
- 2 eggs beaten
- ¼ cup cornstarch (or sub with potato starch, tapioca starch or all-purpose flour)
- 1.5 cups panko breadcrumbs
Vegetarian Tonkatsu Sauce (serves 6 tbsps of sauce)
- 2 tbsp Ketchup
- 5 tsp Vegan Worcestershire sauce (or sub with normal Worcestershire sauce if not vegetarian)
- 3 tsp Vegetarian Stir Fry Sauce (or sub with oyster sauce if not vegetarian)
- 2 ¼ tsp white granulated sugar
Instructions
- Peel your potatoes and quarter them. Boil for 15 minutes until fork tender. Strain in a colander and place them into a mixing bowl.
- Meanwhile, fry your diced onions in 1 tbsp of oil until soft and translucent. Place into the mixing bowl.
- Season your potatoes and onions with salt, garlic powder and black pepper.
- Mash the potatoes and onions together and mix well. Then divide the potato batter into 8 equal portions. Roll them into oval shaped balls and place them in the fridge for 15 minutes (do not skip this step or you will have a difficult time coating them).
- In one bowl add corn starch. In the second bowl, beat two eggs. Lastly in the third bowl, add your panko breadcrumbs.
- Coat each ball in first cornstarch until evenly coated. Then coat in the egg and lastly cover with panko breadcrumbs.
- Heat 2 cups of oil over medium heat in a large pan. To test if it's ready, place a wooden chopstick and look for bubbles. If you spot bubbles, it's time to deep fry.
- Deep fry for 1.5 minutes on each side until golden crispy brown. Enjoy with homemade katsu sauce (recipe below).
Tonkatsu sauce
- In a small bowl combine all the Sauce ingredients together using a whisk.
These potato croquettes look so delicious! It's nice how they're meatless, too.
Your amazing Japanese Potato Croquettes undeniably serve up some of the most tempting potato comfort food imaginable. Yum!
I love all things potato and these Japanese potato croquettes look and sound fabulous! Love that they are vegetarian too!
When I was a kid we always went to this hole in the wall home cooked Japanese restaurant. We would always get potato croquettes and slather them in sauce. I was recently diagnosed with celiac and can’t enjoy many of my favorite Japanese recipes. We made this last night for our anniversary dinner using gluten free ingredients. I just about died of happiness. This took me all the way back to those lovely childhood memories. These were so incredibly fabulous.
Thank you Jillian for making my recipe! This comment truly made my day and I am so happy I could help provide this recipe for you to enjoy croquettes again!! It honestly brings me a lot of joy to read this 😊 have a lovely day! - Christie
Can you freeze these after you coat them in the Panko? Thank you!
Yes absolutely!
Very easy and delicious. I fried a double batch of these in the afternoon, took them to a family party and reheated in a hot oven for 10 minutes and they were perfect. I made two of them with gluten free bread crumbs for my daughter and everyone was happy. We enjoyed them with your tonkatsu sauce and kewpie mayo, thanks Christie!
You're very welcome Lulu! Glad your party enjoyed my recipe! Thanks for taking the time to make my recipe.
What I can use to replace eggs?
Hi there, you can use heavy cream as a substitute instead of eggs for coating. Hope this helps!