Chicken Katsu Curry

Friday 14 October 2011



Chicken Katsu Curry is a delicious Japanese curry that first caught on over here in the UK through the Wagamama restaurants. I have never eaten at a Wagamama, but I have heard that theirs is very, very good.



I have bought a packaged Katsu Curry kit at the grocery store though, and was instantly hooked. It was quite, quite delicious! I thought though . . . there has to be an easy way to make it yourself, without having to use a kit.



The other week I saw some ready to cook chiller meals of Katsu Curry in our local Morrisons. These ones had fresh peas, edamame beans and red onions included and I thought to myself . . . wow, that looks like it would be really tasty. I decided to come up with my own at home version. So I did a search online and came up with a recipe for a wickedly delicious sounding Katsu Curry Sauce via Simon Rimmer. I played with the ingredients a bit and came up with this.



A delicious curry sauce that is a wonderful mix of sweet and heat and spice. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded until tender, breaded with a mixture of seasoned flour, egg and panko, and then fried until crispy tender. Delicious edamame, peas and red onions heated through in the delicious sauce and then spooned over top of the tasty chicken breasts and served along side some sticky Japanese rice.



This was wonderfully delicious and something that I will make regularly I think! I'm not sure what my brother who lived in Japan for 4 years would think of it . . . I'm not even sure if it's authentic. I only know it's delicious, and that's . . . well . . . more half the battle as far as I am concerned, and really all that counts after all!!



*Chicken Katsu Curry*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

A wickedly wonderful Japanese curry in which chicken breasts are breaded and fried until crisp and then served with a delicious Oriental curry sauce spooned over top.

For the sauce:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp fennel seed
2 green cardamom pods
2 TBS vegetable oil
2 brown onions, peeled and sliced
2 small red bird's eye chillies
1 (400g) tin of chopped tomatoes (14 ounce)
1 inch piece of fresh ginger-root, peeled and finely chopped
1 TBS ground tumeric
9 fluid ounces of chicken stock
1 TBS honey
1 TBS Japanese soy sauce

For the Chicken and curry:
3 1/2 ounces plain flour, seasoned with some fine sea salt and
freshly ground black pepper (1 cup)
5 ounces Japanese panko breadcrumbs (about 2 cups)
2 large free range eggs
4 chicken breasts, boneless skinless
4 TBS vegetable oil
5 1/2 ounces frozen peas, thawed (1 cup)
5 1/2 ounces frozen edamame beans, thawed (1 cup)
1 small red onion, peeled and sliced

Cooked Sticky Rice to serve

Dry fry the spices in a hot skillet for several minutes, until very fragrant. Remove from the heat and grind to a powder with a pestle and mortar. Heat the oil in the same pan. Add the onions and cook, until golden brown, for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, chili, tomatoes, ginger-root and tumeric. Bring to the boil, add the chicken stock and then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 25 minutes. Blitz the sauce until smooth. Return to the pan and whisk in the honey and soy sauce until totally amalgamated. Keep warm.

For the Katsu curry place the seasoned flour and the bread crumbs into two separate shallow bowls. Beat the eggs together in a third shallow bowl. Place the chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic cling film and pound with a rolling pin to 1/3 inch thickeness without tearing the meat. Dust the chicken breasts with the flour, dip them into the egg and then roll them in the panko to coat thoroughly. Set aside for about 5 minutes.

Heat the oil in a clean frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add the chicken breasts and cook them until browned on both sides and cooked through, approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. Keep warm in the oven. Dispose of most of the oil. Add the red onion, peas and beans to the pan Cook and stir until the onion has begun to soften and the peas and beans are crispy tender. Stir the cooked vegetables into the curry sauce and heat through.

To serve, cut each cooked chicken breast through the middle diagonally and place onto a heated plate along with some cooked sticky rice. Spoon an equal amount of the curry sauce and vegetables over each. Serve immediately.



Over in The Cottage today, some delicious Chocolate Chunk Muffins!

11 comments

  1. So excited about the chicken katsu curry recipe! Having Japanese parents, it's a dish that I grew up eating in the US and Japan. Please don't worry about authenticity. Japanese curry is part of the yoshoku tradition of Westernized Japanese food, so it's always bound to have a mish-mash of cultural influences. I truly look forward to trying your take on this hearty, flavorsome dish. Cheers!

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  2. I have grown to love Japanese and Thai curries so. I have never had a Japanese curry with peas etc. We don't even have edamame in our shops. But somehow this is a recipe I will try.

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  3. That looks like comfort food to me.

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  4. Looks divine Marie and what a great curry too for National Curry Week......I can almost imagine what is tastes like......I must try this recipe, lots of ingredients but well worth it by the looks of it.
    Karen

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  5. what a divine & stylish chicken dinner!

    I love it, Marie!

    MMMMMMMMMM,...Lovely food!

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  6. Such a great recipe - sounds so delicious, I've never heard of a katsu curry - so glad you shared it!
    Mary x

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  7. these are lovely Marie, I know my friend Chris would love this as well.I also have my eye on those muffins,,

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  8. WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!!!!!! You've lived in England for the last ten years and have never eaten at WAGAMAMA?!?!?!?! OMG. GET THEE TO WAGAMAMA ASAP!!!! :D

    For serious though, I'm Canadian, and moved to England for one year from 2000-2001! We LOVED Wagamama. I STILL think about it, SUCH delicious, fresh sushi. They have a crispy fried seaweed that I've not been able to find ANY where else, and I've had sushi in New York, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary......

    That said, hi! I just stumbled across your blog tonight and loved the recipes so far! And when I saw that you moved to England the same year I did, I though, how cool! ;)

    When I went to London, people said the same thing, "oh the cooking is terrible there". It's really not. That's a leftover train of thought from 50 years ago, when English cooking was over-boiled vegetables and mush. Cooking has changed a LOT in the last 20 years there!

    Where in Canada are you from? (I was born in Regina, moved to Calgary at 18, and lived there for the past 10+ years except for that one year in London. My husband and I just moved to Kelowna, BC this summer.)

    Take care, and happy cooking! :) I look forward to reading more of your blog!

    ^_^

    Nickie

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  9. I have never heard of a Japanese curry before, but looking at some of the comments here, I must have been living under a rock. LOL!

    We love all kinds of curry, so I thought I'd give this one a go and I am glad I did as I think it is going to become a regular meal here as it is so delicious! That sauce is really lovely and it's such an interesting way to serve curry. I didn't have any Japanese Sticky Rice, but I had Sushi rice, so I cooked that up instead. On the side we had some Eggplant dengaku and Japanese Pickles. We loved it all.

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  10. Oh your meal does sound lovely with the dengaku and pickles! Yummy!! This really is a lovely sauce with many applications. Its really lovely on fish too! Thank you so much for trying these older recipes Marie! You always make my day with your comments. If I had an award to give for the most faithful reader it would go to you! Thank YOU! xoxo

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Thanks for stopping by. I love to hear from you so do not be shy!


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