Crispy fried chicken and curry yuzu noodles
A crunchy, slurpy, spicy bowl of goodness for when life gives you chicken breasts
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Well hullo my dears! We are straight back down to earth after the dreamiest of birthday weekends/staycations/babymoons in London - which I’ll be talking about more in a forthcoming letter because there is much deliciousness to be shared, but first, I had to write to you with to share this staggeringly tasty midweek marvel recipe that I’ve been on the cusp of sending to you since I made it last week. Why the hold up? Well, as you can probably tell from the pictures, I wasn’t really intending on writing this up.
It was one of those recipes that evolved as I was making it, and diving in and out of my fridge to rustle up a post baby bedtime supper in a hurry. It’s most probably inspired in part by chicken katsu curry, curry laksa and yuzu ramen, but makes absolutely no claims about authenticity, and I can’t say I even glimpsed a recipe while pulling this together - I just went with the flavours I love and the ingredients available to me in my kitchen. The result though was something truly delightful: a fragrantly spiced, warming and pleasingly glossy soup base, beefed up by finely shredded sweetheart cabbage and topped with a golden crown of crispy, juicy fried chicken. It was pretty much perfect, but I would have liked to add some toppings as embellishments (suggestions of which I’ll get to if you keep reading) and to shoot this for you in the daylight. But in the name of saving energy levels - both mine and the electric meter’s -, ingredients costs and getting this to you without further delay, I decided it was good enough as it is. And so here she is! It’s a recipe that serves two, but could easily be scaled up to feed four by doubling the quantities.
Why it works
I’m plumping for this as a ‘Midweek Marvel’ (though feel free to cook it any night of the week!) - because, while it may look from the outset like quite an involved recipe, it’s actually pretty straightforward, and I marinaded the chicken in the time it took to prep the curry paste and cabbage, so hands on cooking time for this was about 30-35 minutes in total, which isn’t unthinkable after work. I also cook the noodles in the broth to save on washing up, which in turn enriches the sauce with the noodle starch, making it nice and glossy.
You know by now how much I adore a noodle soup, and this dish works especially well because the juicy fried chicken gets sliced up and served on top of a slick of rich, aromatic chicken and coconut broth bolstered by silky shredded cabbage - essentially getting doused with the pimped up curry gravy sauce and tangled with slippery noodles AND your veg, all in one bowl. I think this is actually quite a strong, dare I say sexy, contender to make for someone you really love on Valentine’s Day. The chances are, you may have many of the ingredients for this to hand at home, though admittedly - the yuzu may be a stretch - but we’ll talk about subs for that below.
Substitutions
If you don’t have chicken breasts, deboned thighs would be absolutely gorgeous here - so go for it. And if yuzu juice is something you don’t have to hand, lime, mandarin or grapefruit mixed with a little lemon juice makes a good substitution, as would blood orange, which is bang in season right now. If you’d like to source some yuzu juice but don’t know where to start, I would seriously recommend having a look at Wasabi Growers’ website (I used their salted yuzu juice which is actually on sale right now) and also Sous Chef, which has a whole section dedicated to yuzu!
Lazy garlic: I specified lazy garlic because I made this in a rush and was out of fresh garlic, so I ended up using a jar of Belazu’s incredible Flavour Hack roasted garlic paste which has a gorgeously sweet and mellow flavour. Also worth tracking down, though raw garlic will be fine as long as you cook it out when you sauté the paste. Use one clove of raw if that’s what you’re using.
Cabbage: I had some sweetheart cabbage from my veg box, but a couple of handfuls of shredded white cabbage, Chinese cabbage, bok choy or other leafy greens here would be fine, just make sure you cook them until soft and yielding and not poking up through the broth.
Breadcrumbs: if you don’t have panko, try using normal breadcrumbs but dry them out by spreading them out on a plate for a couple of hours before you cook.
Noodles: I love the Clearspring Udon Noodles for this, but given the nature of this recipe, use whatever you have - ramen noodles or egg noodles would be great too, just pay attention to cooking time when you’re cooking them in the broth.
Toppings!
Oh there are so many things you could top this with. I used some togarashi I had kicking about, but if you don’t have it, a scattering of black and/or blonde sesame seeds, a shake of crushed dried seaweed, a spoonful or two of chilli oil, or peanut rayu - some chopped coriander, some crispy dried shallots, a strew of pink pickled onion, a spoonful of slivered pickled ginger, a scattering of toasted pumpkin seeds - there are plenty of things you could add to take this up a level, so feel free to get creative. I really hope you love this, do let me know how you get on and if you’re going to try it.
The Recipe
Serves 2
For the Chicken Marinade