Panko

Panko bread crumbs in a bag

Baked panko crusted pork with pineapple sauce over udon

Container of panko bread crumbs typical of those available in U.S. health food stores.

Panko (パン粉) is a variety of flaky bread crumb used in Japanese cuisine as a crunchy coating for fried foods, such as tonkatsu. Panko is made from bread baked by passing an electric current through the dough, yielding bread without crusts, and it has a crisper, airier texture than most types of breading found in Western cuisine. Outside Japan, it is becoming more popular for use in Asian and non-Asian dishes, is often used on fish and seafood, and is often available in Asian markets and specialty stores. Increasingly, it is also available in many large supermarkets. Panko is produced worldwide, particularly in Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, Thailand, China, and Vietnam.

Etymology

The Japanese first learned to make bread from the Portuguese; the word "panko" is derived from pão (Portuguese for "bread") and -ko, a Japanese suffix indicating "flour", "crumb", or "powder" (as in toriko, "rice powder", sobako, "buckwheat flour", and komugiko, "wheat flour").