Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen S230 Minutes

Chicken Katsu Curry

Name: Chicken Katsu Curry
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients: 4 boneless chicken thighs; Salt and pepper; 60g plain flour; 2 large eggs; 120g panko breadcrumbs; 500–700 ml neutral oil, for frying; For the curry sauce:; 1 tbsp neutral oil; 2 medium sized onions, finely diced; 3 cloves garlic, minced; 2 cm piece of fresh ginger, grated; 1/2 apple, peeled and finely grated; 2 tbsp plain flour; 2 tsp Japanese curry powder or mild curry powder; 600ml water; 3tbsp light soy sauce; 1 tsp dark soy sauce; 2tsp Worcestershire sauce; 2tsp tomato puree; 2 tsp sugar; Pinch of salt; To serve:; 600g cooked Japanese short grain rice; Takuan Japanese pickled radish (optional); Beni Shoga Japanese pickled ginger (optional)

Eva PauFrom the series · Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen S2

30 min totalServes 4Easy

Chicken Katsu Curry

Time30 min

Serves4

SkillEasy

ShowEva Pau's Asian Kitchen

Method

In a hot pan, add the oil and when hot, add the onion and apple and cook for 8 - 10 minutes until lightly golden and soft.

Add the garlic, ginger and stir fry for 1-2 minutes.

Sprinkle in the flour and curry powder, stirring constantly for 1–2 minutes then gradually add the water, stirring well to avoid any lumps forming.

Use a hand blender and blitz the sauce for 2-3minutes until really smooth. Add the light soy sauce, dark soy, worcestershire sauce, tomato puree, sugar, salt and simmer over a low heat for 2-3minutes,

To prepare the chicken katsu, place the chicken between two sheets of baking paper and use a rolling pin to gently bash the chicken evenly to a thickness of about 1cm.

Season both sides with salt and pepper then place the flour into a bowl. Beat the eggs in a second, separate bowls and place the panko into a third bowl. Coat each piece of chicken in the seasoned flour then dip in the beaten egg and finally, coat in the panko breadcrumbs. Set aside.

Heat 1 1/2inch of oil in a deep sided frying pan or wok until it reaches 175 C. Fry the chicken for 4–5 minutes per side, until golden and cooked through then remove to drain on kitchen paper.

To serve, place a mound of steamed rice on each plate and slice each chicken katsu thinly. Spoon some of the hot curry next to or over the rice and top with sliced katsu. Serve the pickled radish on the side.

Cook's notes

I always use white onions in pale sauces like this so they blend right in. Cooked, the flavour is almost the same as purple — but raw, purple ones pack more punch, so save those for salads.
Peel fresh ginger with a teaspoon — the skin scrapes straight off with hardly any waste.
Any variety of apple works except a Granny Smith, which isn't sweet enough to do its job here.
Get the oil to 175C and hold it there — no thermometer? Drop in a piece of bread; it should sizzle and colour briskly. Too cool and the panko drinks up oil, too hot and it browns before the chicken cooks through.
For gluten-free or homemade panko: tear up a loaf, blitz to coarse crumbs, crisp on a tray at 150C for 8–10 minutes, cool, then crush them fine with a rolling pin in a ziplock bag. They keep in the freezer, ready any time.

Serve with Steamed Japanese short-grain rice is the natural bed — and a fun fact from the show: all Japanese rice is what we call sushi rice, those fat sticky little grains. Takuan pickled radish or sweet-sour Fukujinzuke on the side cut the richness. For a vegetarian version, mash cooked sweet potato into patties and bread them exactly the same way.

Make ahead & storage Keep the sauce and fried chicken apart in the fridge for up to three days; the sauce reheats well and thickens, loosen with a splash of water. The crumbed chicken is best eaten fresh, but leftovers crisp up again in an oven or air fryer rather than the microwave, which softens the coating.

30 MinutesAsian

Recipe by Eva Pau · From the series Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen S2 · Photography © Appetite Media
Published 13 July 2026 · Updated 15 July 2026