Turn leftover bread into crispy magic with this easy panko breadcrumb recipe! These light, crunchy cumbs are perfect for topping casseroles, coating fried foods, or adding a crispy finish to almost anything.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights
- Flavor: With a mild, toasty flavor and lots of crunch, this versatile panko recipe can be seasoned to fit your recipe!
- Skill Level: Beginner-friendly with just one foolproof baking step.
- Recommended Tools: Make quick work of crumbling the bread with a food processor.
- Serving Suggestion: I love using these as a crispy topping because the larger flakes provide a more defined texture and crunch to your dish, or in place of regular bread crumbs whenever possible
- Freezing: Store cooled panko bread crumbs in a resealable plastic bag in the freezer for up to 6 months.
What is Panko?
Deleted: Panko are Japanese breadcrumbs, and the word is derived from (pan, “bread”) and (ko, “flour, powder”).
They are essentially a type of bread crumb, made without the crust, that results in a lighter, airier texture that absorbs less grease and stays crispier for longer than regular breadcrumbs.
This makes them perfect for fried foods, because they tend to absorb less oil during frying, resulting in a lighter and healthier dish.
How to Make Panko Bread Crumbs
- Remove the crusts and crumble the remaining bread.
- Add herbs or spices (optional) and dry bread crumbs in the oven.
- Let cool and store in an airtight container.
Panko breadcrumbs will keep for up to 3 months in an airtight container when stored in a cool dry place.
Our Favorite Panko Recipes
Did you enjoy this Panko Recipe? Leave a comment and rating below.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 loaf white bread
- herbs optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°F.
- Remove the crusts from a loaf of white bread.
- Gently crumble it into coarse crumbs either with your hands, or a food processor.
- Spread crumbs onto a baking sheet.
- Dry bread crumbs in the oven 7-10 minutes stirring after the first 5 minutes.
- Cool completely and store a cool dry place for up to 3 months.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Pantry
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Thank you for making this recipe available. It is such a pain have to go to the supermarket to buy panko crumbs and they are sometimes difficult to find.
If you take a loaf of basic white sandwich bread there is no “crumbling” it with your hands or blender if it is fresh and soft. It will turn all doughy. Do you let the slices dry out first? Also, you say “coarse” crumbs but in your photo they look like pretty fine crumbs. But overall, I’m not seeing how this is any different that “regular” breadcrumbs. I have always made them by oven drying chunks of stale bread and then crumbling it up after it was dry. So maybe it’s because you crumble it first, but again this won’t work with fresh/soft while sandwich bread.
If it is processed too long it will turn doughy. With just a couple of pulses, it’ll turn into crumbs. I blend fresh bread crumbs frequently for all kinds of recipes!
Great recipes thanks
I actually just used the crusts, and the panko still turned out very well! I even forgot the crumbs were in the oven, and so they dried out for 15-20 minutes, and although they were quite brown, they weren’t burnt. Very forgiving recipe! Panko was crisp and light and delicious.
So happy to hear that, Valerie! Glad this recipe worked so well for you.
Great help, tnx!
the Japanese term “ko” meaning “made from”＞I am afraid this is wrong. In Japanese, Ko means flour or powder hence it is a compound word of パン (pan, “bread”) + 粉こ (ko, “flour, powder”).
From a Japanese lady.
Thanks,
Thank you for the information and for clarifying this information. We have updated this to reflect the correct origin of the word.
cool
But this isn’t really panko. Panko is made by “baking” bread dough with an electric current to give it its signature structure (and avoid creating a crust), this is just breadcrumbs with extra steps, admittedly producing a larger crumb variety but still of regular breadcrumbs.
I’m somewhat confused as to how this recipe differs to regular breadcrumbs? Unless I’ve been making Panko all my life when i thought i was just making breadcrumbs… hmmmm ?¿¿?
Also, how is this lower in calories & higher in fibre ?? etc etc?
TIA
Suzi
The differences are that the crusts are removed and the bread is crumbed before drying. This allows for larger crumbs which in turn adds more crispiness to dishes.
Because the crumb is larger, slightly less packs into a measuring cup (there is a bit more air space) making them have fewer calories per cup. According to the USDA, 1 cup Panko has 395 calories while 1 cup regular bread crumbs has 427 calories.
Hope that helps!
I’ll take your word for pan meaning bread in Portuguese. However, the term panko derives from the Japanese term “pan” or パン meaning bread, and you were right about “ko” meaning crumbs, so fair play there. Nothing against Portuguese as a language or nationality, just found your pseudo-definition sorta weird because the phrase is fully derived from Japanese.
Thanks for sharing Sam! That is good to know :)
Sam – A bit of semantic. ;-) To clarify the matter, the Japanese word ” パン粉 ” (panko) derives from the French word “panure” (v. “paner”), or “breading” in English. The difference being that “panure” is specifically dedicated to cover (meat, fish, poultry, etc.) with bread crumbs before baking or frying, as opposed to “chapelure” (tinier breadcrumbs) that are used for stuffing, as a filler for meat loaf, for example. “Panure” (breading) is rougher than “chapelure” (thinner breadcrumbs).
Similarly, Japanese “shabu-shabu” is the phonetic equivalence of the French expression: “ça bout, ça bout” (“It’s boiling, it’s boiling” in English) brought to Japan by French sailors who visited Japanese ports in the mid-20th century.
Many modern words in Japanese are borrowed from foreign phonetic expressions, i.e., ライター (raitā) (“lighter”) in English. Unfortunately, the letter “L” doesn’t exist in Japanese, Thus Lolita become Rorita and lighter becomes raitā.
To alleviate further confusion, did you know that a dog’s barking sound in Japan is: “bokan, bokan” (yes, true indeed), French is: “wouf wouf”, and English is: “arf, arf”. Go figure !
I love your recipes and how easy and relatable to my family they are. Thank you so much for creating this great website!
Thanks Sandra! So glad to hear these recipes are a hit with your family :)
“I love to substitute regular bread crumbs for panko whenever possible, such as when making burgers or breading chicken dishes.”
I think you mean the other way around.
Thank you!
SOUNDS GREAT BUT WAS WONDERING IF YOU COULD USE WHEAT BREAD INSTEAD? i AM NOT SUPPOSE TO EAT WHITE BREAD. THIS IS IN CAPS BECAUSE i CAN’T READ IT IN LOWERCASE SORRY
Wheat bread will work just fine in this recipe!