I love chicken katsu curry. I mean, what’s not to love? Crispy chicken, curry sauce, a mountain of fluffy rice. It’s a perfect meal. I’d eaten it here in the UK but didn’t realise just how tasty it can be until we visited Japan last year. We ate it a few times during our three week trip and loved the Go Go Curry! chain found all over the country for its ticket machine curry, served fast food style to late night diners, business men, friends and family alike.
Hyper Japan is dedicated to showcasing all things Japanese here in the UK with festivals, events and more happening all year round. With Coronavirus restrictions this year, the festivals haven’t happened but they are running a series of online events to keep the Japanese spirit alive and last weekend I was invited to attend a zoom curry party with S&B golden curry sauces. It was hosted by Izumi Nakamura from Sozai Cooking School and Chef Avinash Shashidhara. and I was one of 15-ish party goers!
We heard from Izumi about the history of Japanese curry and Chef Avi showed us three fusion Indian-Japanese recipes using S&B’s golden curry blocks. Did you know that curry first arrived in Japan during the Meiji Era (1868 – 1912) from India under British rule? In the early 20th c it became popular with the Japanese Army and Navy and eventually found its way into popularity even being served in school cafeterias. Now, it’s eaten generally in three forms – as curry rice (sauce over rice), curry udon (sauce over thick noodles) and as a stuffed pastry. Japanese curry is sweeter than Indian curry and tends to be thick in consistency. Seeing Chef Avi use it in a lentil style dish and also as a curry puff was really interesting. I love fusion cooking!
Whilst we listened, we ate. We’d all been asked to cook something with the S&B Golden Curry blocks we’d been sent before hand and I went for chicken katsu, following this recipe from the S&B website. It’s easier than it looks so why not give it a try?
S&B golden curry chicken katsu
Ingredients (serves 2)
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 288ml water
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 2 S&B Golden curry sauce blocks
- 400g cooked rice
- 2 chicken breasts
- 15g plain flour
- 25g panko breadcrumbs
- Vegetable oil for frying
- Salt & Pepper to season
Method
For the sauce
- Heat a little oil in a saucepan and stir-fry the onions for around 5 minutes.
- Add water and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for around 15 minutes.
- Turn the heat off, break the S&B golden curry sauce mix (like giant stock cubes!) into pieces and add them to the saucepan. Stir until the sauce pieces are completely melted and then simmer for around 5 minutes, stirring often as the sauce thickens.
For the chicken katsu
- Lay out three bowls or containers large enough for the chicken breasts. In one put seasoned flour, the next a beaten egg and finally the panko breadcrumbs.
- Dip the chicken into the seasoned flour, shake off, dip into the egg and then the panko making sure it has a good coating.
- In a large saucepan, heat vegetable oil on medium high. Drop a few panko into the pan to check oil temperature and if they float to the surface and sizzle, you’re good to go.
- Fry the chicken breasts for 6-8 minutes, turning once or twice. Fry them until the panko becomes golden and check the chicken is cooked through before serving! If not, you could always finish in the oven. Drain well (I used kitchen paper).
- Place rice on a plate, top with your chicken katsu, then serve curry sauce over.
The end result
This golden curry sauce mix is delish, and very reminiscent of the Japanese curry flavours we had in Japan. It thickens as it heats which makes it a really easy dish to prepare and the chicken was cooked perfectly, despite my reservations that it might still be underdone in the middle. There are loads of recipes on the S&B website for this curry sauce – its really versatile. Some of the others on the zoom call had made curry with vegetables, beef and even tofu, all served either over rice or with noodles. In fact, one woman had used the sauce to top some homemade takoyaki! As I’ve said before, there is so much more to Japanese food than ramen and sushi! And for me, golden curry chicken katsu is right up there!
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PS. Since getting the kittens, I’ve come to appreciate that even easy tasks like setting the table take longer! Still, with a face like that, how could I be angry with little Jiji?
I love katsu curry so much! Also a huge fan of Hyperjapan and S&B!
What a great opportunity that zoom call was! I wish I could attend something like that. It is such fun to do that with friends as well. Nowadays I cook with my friends and chat through zoom as well. It beats eating dinner alone!