Chicken Katsu Sando (チキンカツサンド)

A cutlet sandwich looks like a small engineering project until you make one. Then it shows its honest nature: bread, cabbage, sauce, one crisp piece of chicken. The sandwich asks for attention, not ceremony.

The one detail that decides it is thickness. Pound the chicken evenly and the meat cooks before the panko darkens, staying juicy under a pale-gold crust. Leave one end thick and you'll overcook the thin side while waiting for the thick side to catch up. This is not difficult. It's only unfamiliar, and the mallet is doing the teaching.

Use shokupan, Japanese milk bread, if you can. Its soft square crumb holds the cutlet without fighting it, while shredded cabbage gives the sauce somewhere to settle. Tonkatsu sauce is sweet, sharp, and dark enough to flatter the fried crust, but don't drown the sandwich. Nothing hidden. The chicken should still taste like chicken, the crumb should still speak under your teeth, and the plate should have room around it.