Hello Fresh - Chicken Katsu Review

Another review of a Hello Fresh Home Delivery meal.

I'm a huge fan of Japanese food and adore katsu, so this has a lot of potential. Though this has more calories than I'm really comfortable with. I ate sparingly during the day so I made sure I had lots of room left for an 800 calorie dinner.

OOOKAY...let's get this started.

First, prep the rice. Peel and mince the knob of ginger that for some reason managed to not appear in the ingredients photo above. Heat a "glug" of oil in a saucepan and add the ginger. Cook for a few seconds then add water, salt, and rice. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, put the green beans on a sheet pan with another "glug of oil" and salt and pepper. Put in a pre-heated oven and roast for 12 - 15 minutes.

Now open and dry off the chicken pieces. One thing I have an issue about with Hello Fresh is often their chicken breasts come out pretty mangled. Case in point here. One looks decent and the other is kind of shredded. Put the chicken in a gallon sized ziplock bag and pound thin. Honestly, this step was unnecessary because the chicken was already thin to begin with. Season well with salt, pepper, and the included garlic powder.

Once that is done, smear the sour cream lightly over the chicken and then dredge in a mixture of panko, cornstarch, and salt. Another criticism I have with Hello Fresh is they use a LOT of salt. Go sparingly. Once mixed, coat the smeared chicken breasts in the panko mixture. Heat a frying pan filled with about 1/2 inch of oil until a sprinkle of the panko starts to fry. Add the chicken and cook until golden all over, about 2 - 3 minutes per side. Then drain on paper towels.

Now things come together. Make the katsu sauce as instructed.

The beans and rice should be done. Plate the rice, green beans, and chicken topped with the katsu sauce and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

I'm not a food stylist. You want pretty go look at Bon Apetit. Final thoughts. Not our favorite. The sauce was a bit too much, the rice didn't have a lot of flavor and disappointed with the quality of the chicken. Though there weren't a lot of kitchen techniques required, you DO have to do a bit of deep frying which can be intimidating for a novice cook. The green beans were good and the chicken by itself was good. I mean, how wrong can you go with fried chicken? The clean up factor is high because there were several dishes to be washed as well as raw chicken and a lot of grease spatter. Final grade

Prep skill: Moderate - 3 out of 5 difficulty Clean up: High - 4 out of 5

Difficulty: Moderate - 3 out of 5

Taste: Low - not terrible, but won't get again. 2 1/2 out of 5