Japanese Chicken Katsu Curry with Rice

i love japanese food, so going to japanese restaurant with my other half or with my friends either for sushi, teppanyaki - its a dear treat to me. Chicken katsu curry is my favourite main meal choice if sushi is not all i'm eating.  So finding this recipe give me the challenge to recreate it and have it at home.
It is a lot of work making the curry from scratch, but it was well worth the experience!

Serves 4
Preparation time: 30min
Cooking time: 50mins

Ingredients:

4 large skinless chicken breasts
200g plain flour
4 eggs, beaten
300g panko breadcrumbs (use ordinary breadcrumb if panko can not be found)
500ml groundnut oil
Steamed rice to serve.

for the vegetable curry
2Tbspn butter
1/2 large onion, chopped
110g carrots, boiled & chopped
110g potatoes, boiled & chopped

for the katsu curry sauce:
2Tbspn butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
3 granny smith apples, chopped
300ml boiling water
2 bananas, sliced
2Tbspn honey
1Tbspn tumeric powder
1/2 tspn hot Madras curry powder
2tspn Tomato ketchup
450ml Chicken stock
500ml boiling water
2tspn cornflour (blended with a little cold water)
1Tbspn Salt
1Tbspn Ground black pepper


Method:

Curry sauce

1)First make the katsu curry sauce. In a large saucepan, heat together the butter, garlic, onion and apple, mix together and fry briefly.
2)Add in boiling water, then the banana, honey, turmeric, Madras powder and ketchup. Bring the sauce to boil.
3) Add in the stock. Mix together the remaining water with the cornflour. Add to the curry mixture with the salt and black pepper.
4)Cook for 20 minutes, stirring now and then.
5)Strain the sauce into a bowl. Cover with foil and keep warm in the oven.

Chicken
6) Cut slashes in each chicken breast fillet.
7)Coat the chicken breast fillets first in flour, then beaten egg then breadcrumbs.
8)Heat the vegetable oil for deep-frying in a wok or deep fat-fryer.
9)Deep-fry the chicken breast fillets one at a time in the vegetable oil for 3-4 minutes until golden and crisp. Remove the chicken breast fillets with a slotted spoon or frying basket and drain on kitchen paper and keep warm in a warm oven.

Combine everything
10) Meanwhile, prepare the vegetable curry. Heat the butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Add in the onion, carrot and potatoes and fry for 2-3 minutes until the onion has softened.
11) Pour in the reserved katsu curry sauce and cook for 4-5 minutes, bringing to the boil.
12)Slice the chicken into even strips and serve with the vegetable curry and steamed rice.


Happy Cooking!