Katsu Chicken

In March 2020, just before the whole world entered the Covid meltdown years, my sister Amanda and I visited London for our birthday break. On our first day we took a stroll down Portobello Road; I’ve always wanted to see it, ever since I read my first Paddington book, aged 6; ending up at the Portobello Market. As we wandered amongst the stalls, selling an eclectic mix of goods, our senses were assaulted by the spicy aromas from the numerous food outlets wafting between those stalls, tempting our tastebuds. Our mouths watering, we realised we were beginning to feel a little peckish since we hadn’t eaten much that morning. As we wandered on, perusing menus as we went, we happened upon a food truck selling Katsu chicken wraps. I had never had Katsu chicken, indeed I’d never really come across it so it was completely new to me. Never one to shy away from new experiences I decided that this was going to be my lunch. And very tasty it was too, so much so that once I was home I set about looking up the recipe. Of which there are many variations.

My first attempt at making Katsu chicken came when my mother ordered a catering bag of panko breadcrumbs by mistake so gave me a load to try out. The chicken turned out fine but the sauce was a complete disaster. It was thin and runny and looked like a dose of diarrhoea. It tasted OK though. To make matters worse the Katsu chicken made by my granddaughter, aged 13, for her mum and brothers a few weeks later was really good. Time to take up the challenge once more. The thing I’ve noticed with recipes for Katsu sauce is that they range from a fairly short list of ingredients to ones as long as your arm with all sorts of complicated steps to make the stuff. I chose this simple one from Wagamama since it had the fewest ingredients; always good when I have run out of nearly everything; and was simple to make. Obviously, I tweaked it to our taste, reducing the curry powder from 2 heaped tablespoons to 1 generous teaspoon, and rather than sieve the sauce and chuck out the onions I bunged the lot in the blender and whizzed until smooth. The recipe instructions say to deep fry the chicken but I cooked in the air fryer, much healthier. 

I did ask Lils to come round and try it. She gave me a thumbs up. 

For The Sauce

For The Chicken

For the sauce

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan
2. Add the onions, garlic and ginger. Cook until onions have softened. 
3. Add the turmeric and curry powder, stir well to combine. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 30 seconds. 
4. Add the flour, combine and cook for 1 minute, stirring continuously. 
5. Slowly add the stock and mix well. 
6. Add the coconut milk. 
7. Add the soy sauce and sugar. 
8. Add salt to taste. 
9. Simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes. 
10. Once cooked blend until the sauce is smooth and reserve until required.

For the chicken

1. Slice the chicken breasts lengthways.
2. Place the flour, egg and panko breadcrumbs in separate dishes.
3. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour, dip into the egg and coat with the breadcrumbs.
4. Place in the air fryer set to 200 for 15 minutes or until crisp and golden and the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with the Katsu sauce and boiled rice.