Today we are looking at 2 very different ways to make a Japanese style chicken katsu curry – the emergency / bodged 3 ingredient one, plus the super crispy option that tastes slightly longer with an epic katsu curry sauce – lets’ go! These are by no means proper authentic, but taste good! In fact, some homes in Japan will regularly by a high quality roux mix to make their curry instead of our method!
Super quick version
Bake the chicken in the oven to package instructions. Just as it is about to be ready cook your rice in the microwave, then warm the sauce in a microwave proof bowl after the rice.
To serve, slice up the chicken into slithers, pour over the curry sauce and add the rice alongside. Now obviously this is super lazy, so you could pad it out with more vegetables or even just make the homemade sauce from the other version – so worth it!
Super good / crispy version
Make the sauce by frying the onion, carrot, garlic in the vegetable oil, stirring constantly over a medium heat for 10 mins, gently frying away. Add the flour, curry powder and stir to coat the vegetables, fry for 2 mins, stirring consistently, then add the chicken stock, add in a bay leaf, the sriracha, soy sauce and honey, bring this mixture up to a simmer.
You have the choice to simmer this right down to make it thicker or not simmer so much for a smoother sauce, you can also leave it chunky (how I discuss it in the video!), some recipes get your to pass the sauce through a sieve to discard the carrots etc, however I liked (and it tastes amazing!) whizzing up the vegetables with a stick blender to make a smooth sauce but still packed with the hidden vegetables! Whatever you do keep the sauce in a pan so you can keep warm for serving, it is also at this point to add in the garam masala and stir through. Just keep the sauce in the pan, warmed for now.
Start to cook your rice now, while it’s cooking away, slice the chicken into approx. 1 inch strips, add each strip to the flour, then the egg, then the panko breadcrumbs, rolling to cover all over, for extra crunch, dunk it back in the egg mix, then more panko breadcrumbs, aiming to cover any gaps. Repeat with the rest of the chicken strips.
Warm some vegetable oil in a deep frying pan, add in a small test slice of chicken coated in panko, to see if the oil is hot enough, if it gently sizzles and rises to the top, you are good to go, we want to fry the chicken pieces in a nice steady heat to ensure it is cooked through fully. Cook away until golden brown all over and then leave to rest on kitchen towel.
Serve the rice with the chicken and the sauce poured all over.