Katsu Curry

With fried chicken or sweet potato rounds

I’m a huge fan of Wagamama but on a student budget, eating out is very much a luxury. To get around this, I decided to recreate Wagamama’s famous Katsu Curry at home. I have tried this recipe a few times using a few different suggestions from the internet as their recipe was a closely guarded secret…
Recently however, Wagamama have published a recipe for Katsu on their Facebook page and so I tried again, adding a few extra bits to it – this is therefore their recipe with a few added extras.

The photos below show a few variations of the recipe (including a half eaten one…)

Ingredients:

Katsu sauce: serves 4-5 (appetite depending!)
2 medium onions – chopped small
1 garlic clove (or 1 tsp of lazy garlic)
2.5cm piece of ginger – peeled and grated
1 tsp of turmeric
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp of plain flour
300ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 can of coconut milk
1 tsp light soy sauce
My additions:
1 carrot – chopped very finely
1 small sweet potato – mashed

Chicken/Vegetables:
1-2 chicken breast or 2-3 large sweet potatoes (serves 3 or 4 depending on appetite)
2-3 tbsp flour
1 egg – whisked
Cornflakes – crushed – you will need enough to coat the chicken/vegetables
4-5 tbsp Vegetable oil

Method:

1. Chop the onion and garlic and place in a pan over a medium heat with approx. 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. Saute gently until they are soft.
2. Add the chopped carrot, ginger and spices. I use a hand blender to combine the curry at the end so the carrot can be roughly chopped. Stir gently for a few minutes to circulate the spices.
3. Add the flour and spread it over the pan to cook it out. I used a heavy bottomed pan to make sure the flour didn’t burn. This will only take a couple of minutes.
4. In the meantime, make up the 300ml stock then add to the pan. Allow it to simmer but not boil.
5. Add the coconut milk, stir everything together and then place a lid on the pan and allow it to gently simmer.
6. Whilst the curry cooks, the veg or chicken can be prepared.
7. After 20-30 minutes, the sauce should thicken up – the thickness of the curry depends on personal preference so if you like it runnier, cook it for slightly less time; if you prefer it thicker, cook it for a little longer to boil off some more of the moisture.
8. Add the mashed sweet potato and then use a hand blender to blend the curry until smooth. This step is optional, depending on personal preference.
9. Once the curry has reached the desired thickness and smoothness, it is ready to serve. It can be eaten with rice and fried chicken or vegetables, or added to other dishes.
   

Chicken:

1. Before starting the prep, I whisked the egg in a bowl, crushed the cornflakes in another bowl, and had a plate at the ready to lie the coated chicken on. I kept the flour in a small pot next to the chopping board that I could dip into as needed. When handling raw chicken, it’s good to have everything at arms reach to avoid contamination of anything else – if doing the fried chicken and vegetables in the same dish, make sure to coat the vegetables first to avoid cross contamination with the chicken.
2. Slice the chicken breast open along its length and lay it flat on a chopping board. (There may be a smaller piece of chicken on its underside that comes off easily – I removed this part and then sliced the main breast flat across the middle in two, giving 3 parts from each breast.) Repeat for each breast.
3. Sprinkle a little bit of flour over the chicken and use fingers to rub it in. The chicken should be very lightly coated in the flour and feel dry-ish to the touch, but no flour should come off of it when it is lifted. I shook each bit of chicken lightly to remove the excess.
4. Dip the floured chicken into the egg mix, gently shake off any excess and then place it in the bowl of cornflakes. The cornflakes should be crushed to a fine powder, with a few slightly bigger pieces left. Roll the chicken in the cornflakes until coated, then transfer to the plate.
5. I found that the cornflakes did not always stick to the chicken and so, if there are gaps leftover, sprinkle a few cornflakes onto the chicken whilst it is on the plate and used the back of your hand to press them on.
6. Repeat for each bit of chicken until all the pieces are coated.
7. Cover the base of a small pan with vegetable or sunflower oil and heat it over a medium heat for a few minutes. Once it is hot, place the chicken in the pan and cook for 5-8 minutes before flipping and cooking for a further few minutes. Make sure that the chicken is cooked fully before removing from the pan.

Vegetable Version:

1. Preparing the vegetables can be done by the same process as the chicken once they are cooked.
2. Start by peeling the sweet potato and slicing the potato into equal-ish sized rounds. You can use any vegetables that you want for this – Wagamama use aubergine, butternut squash and sweet potato however this can be changed to suit different tastes! Make sure to prepare enough sweet potato for the main dish plus a little extra to add to the curry.
3. Once sliced, boil the sweet potato for 8-10 minutes in a pan over medium heat until a fork can just go through them. Careful not to overcook the potato as it becomes very difficult to work with if it is too soft.
4. Once cooked, select the pieces that you’d like to be used for the main part of the dish and drain and cool it. Then, coat it in breadcrumbs following the same method as the chicken. The potato can be a little crumbly and fall apart so be really gentle with it.
5. Mash the remaining sweet potato and add to the curry sauce, stirring it through well.
6. Once coated, the sweet potato can be fried the same as the chicken, although it will only need a few minutes on each side to cook the batter. Once golden and crispy, remove from the pan and place on a piece of clean kitchen towel to soak up any excess oil.

Assembly:

1. Once the fried chicken or veg is ready, place on a plate with rice and pour the Katsu sauce across them both. Serve with a side salad and soy sauce, or just enjoy on its own.