Chicken Katsu Curry

Japanese Chicken Katsu Curry served over white rice with a glass of red wine. 

This is the perfect dish for the rainy weather in Southern California and the crazy cold and snow on the East Coast. It is total comfort food packed with flavor and heat to get you warmed up and it’s a fun dish to make if you’re sick of soups and stews but want the same hearty feel. 

Michael has made this a few times, and it gets better each time he cooks it. He grew up eating the curry where you melt the cubes and add some veggies and has mastered making it from scratch now. Keeping the yummy flavors and updating it for a healthier home made version. The warm, savory and floral curry flavor is so good, and the chunky vegetables make it really filling.

You can have it plain for a vegetarian meal served over rice, or make the whole meal with the crispy chicken for added flavor and protein. You can’t go wrong with fried chicken, especially when it has a crispy panko crust so I definitely recommend making the whole thing.

To start you need to make a curry paste/rue concoction. This is the base of the flavor and the thickening agent that builds the sauce. This is the part Michael used to have out of the box and I had never seen him make it before so it was cool to watch how it really builds the dish.

What you need for the curry: (serves 4)

• White flour … 1 cup
• Curry powder …1/4 cup
• Garam Masala … 1 tbsp
• Unsalted Butter … 1 stick
• Carrots … 4 large chopped up
• Onion …. 1 large diced
• Potatoes …. 1 bag of small potatoes (appx 10)
• Red Wine … 1.5 cups
• Tomato paste …. 3 tablespoons
• Mushrooms …. 1 package sliced
• Ginger …. 1.5  tablespoons diced
• Chili paste or sriracha …. To taste, appx. 2 tablespoons
• Salt and Pepper to taste

• White rice for serving … 4 cups cooked

For the chicken katsu:

• Chicken breast …. 4 large
• Egg … 3 beaten
• Flour …. 1 cup for breading
• Panko bread crumbs … 1.5 cups for breading
• Wooden mallet
• Saran wrap
• Avocado Oil or Frying Oil …. 3-4 cups

How to make it:

1. In a large pan, add 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter over low heat.
2. Mix curry, flour, and garam masala in a bowl and add to melted butter.
3. Mix flour mixture thoroughly with the butter until it mixes into a thick paste/dough and takes a round shape.
4. Remove the mixture and set aside.
5. Wipe out the pan and add 2 tablespoons of butter.
6. Dice onion and add it to butter. Cook until translucent.
7. Add tomato paste and mix well, this will cook and begin sticking to the pan so make sure to be stirring constantly.
8. Pour in wine and mix well.
9. Add mushrooms and let simmer. The mushrooms add a great savory and umami taste.
10. Chop up carrots and potatoes into medium chunks and finely mince ginger.
11. Add all three into the pot and add some water to cover the vegetables.
12. Add curry paste mixture into the pot and break it up well to work it into the wine and water base.
13. Add salt and pepper and sriracha to taste.
14. Cover and let it simmer over low heat until the vegetables are cooked.

To make the chicken katsu:

1. Start by pounding the chicken breasts into about inch thick pieces.
2. Lay saran wrap on a counter, place chicken on top, add another layer of saran wrap over the chicken and begin to pound out with a wooden mallet.
3. Add flour into a small bowl, add beaten eggs into another bowl and panko crumbs into a third bowl.
4. Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Coat chicken in flour, dip into egg mixture and finish by coating in the breadcrumbs.
6. Heat oil in a frying pan until it is glossy and adding a crumb bubbles and floats to the top.
7. Place chicken in for about a minute on each side, flipping when golden brown then setting on a baking dish.
8. Add salt to fried chicken while it is hot.
9. Place chicken in oven to finish cooking, about 10-12 minutes.

To plate it:

1. When the chicken comes out and sits for a ocupe minutes, slice it into thin strips.
2. Plate a serving of white rice as the base, then pour over curry.
3. Top with the chicken strips and serve with a glass of red wine to compliment the flavors and bring out the wine in the dish.
4. You can add pickled ginger on top too.

Enjoy!