🍛 Japanese Chicken Katsu Curry

The other day we ordered some Japanese delivery from a local restaurant and I saw they had Chicken Katsu Curry on their menu, which surprisingly is pretty rare to find around here as to my knowledge it is a pretty popular dish.

While it did not disappoint it just didn’t hit the spot like I had hoped it would. When I worked at InMotion Hosting in Los Angeles we used to hit up a Japanese restaurant a couple of blocks from the office which had the best Pork cutlet curry, a dish I would often wake up in the middle of the night craving.

So now I was on a mission, I did a little research on Google to figure out how to go about making my own curry so I could recreate this dish but with chicken instead as the household doesn’t much care for pork.

I ended up picking up some S&B Golden Curry from Lotte market, and I was later told that many of the local Japanese restaurants use this same brand for their curry so that was a relief.

Overall this was a very simple recipe to recreate and didn’t take much time at all which was a plus.

• Prep Time 15 minutes
• Cook Time 30 minutes
• Total Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 Potato
• 1 Carrot
• 1/2 medium white onion
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1lb Chicken breasts
• 1 package of S&B Golden Curry
• 1 cup white flour
• 4 cups white rice
• 4 cups chicken broth
• Olive oil
• 1 egg
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 2 cups Japanese panko breadcrumbs

Process

When starting this meal, outside of making the rice I start with the curry so that by the time the chicken is done being fried, you will be ready to eat!

1. When making the rice I use my Instant Pot, using equal parts rice and chicken broth for more flavor. I also add in about 2 tbsps of olive oil.
2. After you have added the rice, chicken broth, and olive oil to the instant pot set it to pressure cook for 3 minutes.
3. Once the cooking has completed allow for natural release, which is about 20-30 minutes which should allow you plenty of time to start on the curry and finish the chicken.

Now on to the curry! This honestly is more or less as easy as cutting the vegetables, tossing them in a pot and boiling some water.

1. Peel the potato and cut into small cubes
2. Peel the carrot and also cut into small cubes
3. Cut the half of the medium white onion in half, and then those halves in half
4. add a thin coat of olive oil to a deep pot
5. add in the garlic, and cook on high for about 2 minutes
6. Add in the rest of the vegetables and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring often to prevent anything from sticking
7. Add 4 cups of water and bring to a boil
8. Allow the water to boil for 15 minutes then reduce to a simmer
9. Add in the S&B Golden Curry and allow it to fully dissolve.
10. Cover the curry and let it simmer while you prep the chicken

Now that the curry is on simmer you can begin to prep the chicken. Make sure to check on the curry giving it a couple of stirs during this process to make sure it is not burning and that all of the curry mix has dissolved.

1. Half the chicken breast into thinner pieces. If cooking for multiple people you have cut the pieces into two so you have more chicken Katsu to plate.
2. Place the pieces of chicken between saran wrap and use a meat tenderizer on each piece to make it thinner.
3. You will want to have three separate bowls ready, one with flour, another with an egg and a tbsp of water that you have whisked, and then lastly a bowl with the two cups of panko. You may require more panko so keep the package aside in case.
4. Place each piece of chicken one at a time into the flour, and shake off any remaining flour.
5. Now dip the flour-coated chicken into the egg wash, letting any excess egg wash drip off.
6. Move the chicken into the panko crumbs and evenly coat
7. You can either set the chicken aside on a place while repeating this process or directly start frying the chicken.
8. When frying the chicken in the vegetable oil, depending on the thickness its usually 3-4 minutes per side