Have you ever been to Wagamama? I love it in there, and so does Miles. (Did you know Wagamama means 'selfish' in Japanese?! You do now!)

Last time I went I tried their Katsu curry, sadly this isn’t included in their gluten free menu which is a shame so I decided to make some for Miles that was gluten free, and it came out great!

For those of you that don’t know what katsu curry is, it is breaded chicken sliced up into bite size pieces with a bed of rice and a splash of thick curry sauce. Not a curry made out of chicken and cats... or was that just me?

So, I started to research how to make Katsu and came across a few different recipes suggesting using a Japanese curry stock which had honey and apple in it. Sadly I discovered this very stock had gluten in, but then I stumbled across this video and made a gluten free version of that! It was delicious and Miles liked it too! I’d even go as far as saying it was better than the glutenous version served at Waga’s!



To make the gluten free version you will need (serves two):

Katsu Sauce:

• 2 teaspoons olive oil


• 1 apple (cut into chunks)


• 2 teaspoons honey


• 2 onions (chopped)


• 5 garlic cloves (bashed)


• 2 carrots (cut into chunks)


• 2 tablespoons gluten free plain flour


• 4 teaspoons curry powder (I used medium heat)


• 600ml chicken stock


• 4 teaspoons gluten free soy sauce


• 2 teaspoons garam masala

Rest of dish:

• 2 chicken breasts


• Vegetable oil (to fry the chicken)


• 1 egg


• 150g gluten free flour


• 150g gluten free breadcrumbs


• 2 portions of your favourite rice (we used sticky rice)

Method:

1. Put the olive oil into a big saucepan or Dutch oven to heat up. Once warm add in the onions, garlic, apple and carrot and cook until they have softened just a little.



2. Add to the vegetables the honey, flour, curry powder, garam masala and soy sauce and give it a good stir.



3. Slowly add the chicken stock to the veg and spice mix, stirring continually to avoid getting lumps. Once you have added all the chicken stock, leave to simmer and thicken while you prepare the rest of the meal.



4. Prepare your rice, we use a rice cooker but if you don’t have one, prepare the rice with the packets instructions.

5. Now its time to prepare and cook the chicken. Pre-heat a deep frying pan with enough vegetable oil in it to cover half the width of your chicken.

6. While the oil is pre-heating take the gluten free flour, egg and breadcrumbs and put onto separate plates. Coat your chicken first in the flour, then the egg and then in the breadcrumbs.

7. Once the oil is ready, place the chicken into the frying pan, cook on both sides until the juices run clear and the breadcrumbs are nice and golden brown. Remove the chicken from the oil and drain on a plate covered with kitchen roll.

8. By now your Katsu sauce should be nice and thick (thick enough to coat a spoon) so, take a sieve and pour the sauce through the sieve into another saucepan. And it’s ready.

9. To serve I cut the chicken into chunks and put onto a plate, then I used a small bowl to mould the sticky rice into a dome, and then I covered the chicken and rice in the silky katsu sauce.





Delicious!