Creamy Chicken Katsu Noodles
This is comfort food in its very best clothes. Creamy, savoury and saucier than your nan’s best bit of gossip 😱
Jump to recipe
Aprons optional, enthusiasm encouraged
Method
- Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and pan-fry until golden and cooked through. Rest a few minutes before slicing (so they don't go stringy and weird).
- Roast the chopped carrots and spring onion tops at 200°C for 25–30 minutes.
- Heat the garlic-infused olive oil in a saucepan and add the asafoetida. Stir in the roasted vegetables, curry powder, turmeric and coriander.
- Sprinkle over the plain flour and cook for 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in the chicken stock and coconut milk. Simmer for 5 minutes, then blend until silky smooth.
- Bloom the gelatine in the cold water. Stir it into the hot sauce with the soy sauce and miso until dissolved. Do not let the sauce boil.
- Cook the egg noodles and edamame separately. Briefly sauté the red pepper if you're using it.
- Toss the noodles with the sauce, then fold through the red pepper and edamame.
- Top with sliced chicken, purple cabbage, carrot ribbons and sesame seeds. Serve immediately.
A little kitchen cleverness
Why this recipe works
Roasted carrots make a naturally sweet, colourful base for the curry sauce without needing to use a tonne of curry powder.
A modest amount of light coconut milk brings creaminess without making the bowl overwhelmingly rich.
Miso, soy and gelatine add savoury depth and body, helping that silky vegetable sauce cling to every noodle like a cat to the one person in the house who is violently allergic.
Your body gets the casting vote
Make it work for you
Coconut milk, curry powder, soy, miso, edamame, red pepper and spring onion greens all have the potential to divide opinion, both at the dinner table and in a sensitive stomach. Keep your first portion moderate and reduce or omit only a topping you already know is troublesome; the main recipe amounts are tested as written. If sesame is not your friend, leave it off your own bowl without ceremony.
For now, later, or tomorrow’s smug lunch
Serving, storage and reheating
Serve immediately while the noodles are glossy and the chicken is juicy. Cool leftovers promptly, refrigerate within 2 hours and eat within 2 days.
Reheat once until piping hot, adding a splash of water or stock. For best quality keep cooked noodles separate from the sauce when preparing ahead. Freeze sauce and chicken separately for up to 2 months; cook fresh noodles after thawing.
