It was the week after the holidays and without Joep in the BUX kitchen to help me out, I had to come up with a recipe that was not too complicated to cook for 65 people. Frying the chicken and tofu for the vegetarians was a challenge but apart from that this chicken katsu curry was pretty easy to put together. The response was great, definitely a recipe to share with others! Here you go – enjoy –

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
150ml sunflower oil
1 large free-range egg, beaten
1 tbsp soy sauce
100g Japanese panko breadcrumbs
25g flour, seasoned
300g sticky rice, cooked, to serve
6 spring onions, thinly sliced, to serve
For the curry sauce:
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, very finely chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1⁄4 tsp chilli powder
1 tbsp tomato purée
500ml chicken stock
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp soy sauce
First make the sauce: Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a pan over a medium heat, add the onion and fry for 6 minutes before stirring in the garlic and ginger; fry for 1–2 minutes. Sprinkle in the curry powder, turmeric, chilli powder and tomato purée and stir to coat the vegetables.
Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a steady simmer. Cook for 8 minutes and then add rice wine vinegar, honey and soy sauce. Cook for a further 3 minutes until the sauce has thickened and then blitz until smooth with a hand-held stick blender.
Put the chicken breasts on a chopping board, place a piece of parchment paper on top and, using a rolling pin, bash the breasts to thin them to a thickness of about 2–3cm/ 3/4″ -1″.
Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Whisk together the egg and soy sauce in a wide bowl and put the breadcrumbs in a separate bowl. Remove the parchment paper and dip each breast in the seasoned flour, then in the egg mixture and finally, the panko breadcrumbs.
Fry the crumbed chicken in the oil for 5–6 minutes until golden brown and cooked all the way through. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper.
Slice the chicken and serve with the cooked sticky rice, spring onions and a generous amount of curry sauce.