Healthier Katsu Chicken
I bought some Katsu chicken off a food truck recently, which inspired me to make my own version. I particularly like this version because it is healthier than the more traditional recipe and suitable to eat as a family, my kids loved it. I haven’t eaten a lot of Japanese cuisine. The only other time I had some Japanese food was in a Japanese restaurant in London. I can’t remember what the dish was called, but it was chicken thigh meat in a tasty sauce. But I don’t like thigh meat, so would not choose this again.
I also remember having a green tea ice cream, which had the type of flavour which you initially didn’t like, but something compelled you to taste some more until it was all gone. I wish I hadn’t though as I got a terrible migraine the next day, which I suspect was the caffeine in the green tea ice cream, I am sensitive to caffeine so try to only have it in small amounts, I promise I had no alcohol that evening :). So all in all my first impressions of Japanese food was not all that great. However, I loved the Chicken Katsu I bought and I would like to experiment a bit more with Japanese food because I think it contains a lot of interesting flavours.
This Chicken Katsu recipe uses chicken breast and is suitable for the whole family. Katsu Chicken is a type of Japanese breaded chicken. The word ‘Katsu’ meaning cutlet in Japanese refers to meat that’s been pounded thin before being cooked. The chicken is floured and put in egg and Panko breadcrumbs before being deep fried.
In this recipe, I have replaced the Panko breadcrumbs with seeded brown bread but toasted it in the toaster first to give it an extra crunch. I shallow fried it with a little olive oil, instead of deep frying and used whole grain toasted breadcrumbs instead of panko breadcrumbs, which I thought worked really well. I also adapted the sauce and added some avocado for an extra nutritional boost. You could also bake the chicken in the oven if you prefer, but I find it dries the chicken out a bit too much and the flavour isn’t as good.
If you like a hotter version you can add some more chilli flakes to make a hotter sauce, but this was just the right amount of heat so that my kids could eat it too.
I served this with brown wholegrain rice and green beans, but this would also work well with a lower carb cauliflower rice, or with some seasonal veg or salad on the side without the rice.
Do you have a version of Katsu chicken? I would love to hear about it, please leave a comment below.
Healthier Katsu Chicken Curry ( serves 4)
Ingredients
4 Chicken Breasts
2 slices of wholegrain bread
1 egg
2 cups of plain flour
1 large chopped spring onion (for garnish)
2 cups of plain flour
For the Sauce
1 large Onion
2 Garlic Cloves, peeled and chopped, crushed
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
1 tbsp of olive oil
a pinch of chilli flakes
1 tbsp of plain flour
1 tbsp mild curry powder
300ml Chicken Stock
2tsp honey
1 tsp dark soy sauce
½ peeled avocado
Method
- Chop the onion, and add the grated ginger and garlic to a pan with some olive oil. Add a pinch of the chilli flakes and warm up the spices gently over a medium heat for about a minute, add a little water if the spices start to stick to the pan.
- Add the flour and curry powder and stir around.
- Add the chicken stock and stir to make sure everything is well combined.
- Add the honey and the soy sauce, and leave on a low heat for a few minutes, set to one side
- Chop up half an avocado and place in a blender with the sauce from the pan.
- Blend together until smooth
- If adding rice put the rice on while you prepare the chicken.
- Place the bread in the toaster and crumble into breadcrumbs, place in a small bowl.
- Butterfly the chicken breast by opening out and flattening a little with a rolling pin.
- Season the chicken and set to one side.
- Get three small bowls and place whisk the egg and put in one bowl, the cups of plain flour in the other bowl and get your toasted breadcrumbs, placing each bowl next to each other.
- Dip each chicken breast, firstly in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs, trying to ensure that each piece is evenly coated.
- Get a large frying pan with some olive oil, and place the chicken in the pan, once the oil is hot, cook the chicken until brown and no pink remains in the centre of the chicken.
- If adding rice, serve with rice, heat up the sauce and place the chicken on top.
Place the chopped spring onions on top. Enjoy with salad, rice or vegetables or cauliflower rice.
This Recipe was adapted from SortedFood
https://www.sortedfood.com/recipe/1217
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