This recipe entered the family’s repertoire at Zita’s request: on holiday with a friend and her family in 2016, eating super-healthy food, she sent word home that she was craving a home-made chicken katsu curry. An online Tesco recipe was my starting point and, with some adjustments, produced a dish that closely resembled what they serve at Wagamama. You can adjust further to create a great canape dish: slice the chicken into goujons before breading (or use chicken breast strips), and make a thicker sauce, suitable for dipping, by halving the quantity of stock.
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the sauce
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
5 cm piece ginger, finely grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp plain flour
600ml warm chicken or vegetable stock
60ml soy sauce
2 tsp honey
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp garam masala
For the chicken
4 skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half horizontally (to make two thin, wide pieces)
100g seasoned plain flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
150g panko breadcrumbs
50ml vegetable oil, for frying
150g pack cooked edamame beans
3 spring onions, thinly sliced, to serve
Method
1. For the katsu sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat, add the onion, ginger and garlic and sauté for three to four minutes until tender. Add the curry powder and stir until fragrant. Then stir in flour and cook for 1-2 mins. Gradually whisk in the stock, add the soy sauce and honey and simmer, whisking occasionally, for about 10 mins. Stir in the rice vinegar and garam masala. Allow to cool a bit, then whizz it all up in the food processor. Return to the pan and warm through before serving.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 (fan).
3. Dip the halved chicken breasts in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, making sure to shake off any excess in between. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken, turning occasionally, until golden (3-4 mins on each side). Transfer to a baking tray and cook in the oven until cooked through (5 mins).
4. Slice the chicken and serve with rice (Jasmine or Thai sticky rice, ideally), topped with katsu sauce and the edamame beans and garnished with spring onions
Years of Practice 