Japanese-inspired Chicken Katsu Curry in a wrap.

This doubles the carbohydrate effect for rugby playing teenagers that need to gain weight, while maintaining delicious flavour.

Volume of this recipe provides curry and rice for 4, with leftover sauce and chicken to make wraps for lunch the next day.

Ingredients (you’re cooking with leftovers in mind!)

• 4 large or 5 medium-sized chicken breasts
• Panko breadcrumbs (2 shop-bought packs. You need more than 1 pack, but less than 2)
• Flour (enough to coat the chicken)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon light olive oil
• 1 onion
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped into small chunks
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into small chunks
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 5cm piece ginger, grated
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 500ml chicken stock (use 2 x stock cubes)
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 grinds of black pepper

Method

Prepare your sauce first.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and when hot, add the onion, carrot and sweet potato. Cook slowly for about 7 min, with the lid on, stirring occasionally. Stir in brown sugar and let that caramelise slightly for about 2 min, and then add garlic and ginger and cook another minute.

Add both curry powders, cook while stirring to release the spice aroma for 1 min.

Add 2 tablespoons of flour, stir until it coats all the vegetables and then add the stock, soy sauce, salt & pepper, ketchup and honey.

Simmer on a low heat for 10 min.

Remove from the heat, and once cool enough to handle, blitz until smooth in a blender or with a hand held device.

Now prepare the chicken.

Cover the chicken breast with cling film or grease / wax-proof paper and flatten slightly by bashing it with a rolling pin. You want the breast to become even.

Prepare your ‘dipping station’ by taking 3 large plates and adding flour to the 1st one, beaten egg to the 2nd and panko breadcrumbs to the 3rd. Dip the chicken breast first into the flour, coating well all over, then into the egg and finally cover entirely with the breadcrumbs.

At this point you can choose to bake these in the oven, air fryer or deep fry in vegetable oil old-school style on the stove top. I choose oven-baked for ease as my air fryer is too small to cook all the chicken at the same time. To recreate the extra crispy coating when baking, spray some light olive oil spray over the chicken just before baking. 190 degrees celcius in a fan-assisted oven, about 18-20 minutes.

Serve with steamed rice (jasmine or basmati), some greens and your warmed up sauce.

Ideally, you will have leftovers from this meal, which is where the magic happens…

One of my teen’s favourite lunches is a Chicken Katsu Curry wrap, incorporating elements of the whole meal wrapped up into a flour tortilla, and dunked in the sauce for extra comforting flavour.