Turkey Katsu with Mushroom-Curry Gravy

Everybody in my family is still traumatized

by the year that Uncle Paul undercooked the turkey.

That was in like 1994.

[whoosh]

[upbeat music]

Hey, I'm Chris Morocco from Bon Appetit Test Kitchen.

I'm gonna be making turkey katsu with mushroom-curry gravy.

This, to me, is kinda the ultimate holiday dish.

I'm gonna use a boneless turkey breast

and then I'm gonna do kind of a Japanese-style cutlet

that's gonna be breaded and fried.

So it's super, super crispy.

That is gonna be paired with a mushroom-curry gravy

and I thought it would kind of work really well

as sort of a holiday dish.

The twist being that instead of using a roux

to thicken the gravy,

I'm using Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.

That's gonna amplify the umami in the gravy,

but it's gonna do it in a really fast and easy way.

There's gonna be two garnishes.

One is just straight up cranberry sauce.

It brings acidity, it brings brightness.

Same thing with gravy. [whoosh]

The one thing that I wanna kind of get set up

ahead of time for my garnish, scallions.

We're gonna soak these in ice water.

It's gonna kind of deflame the scallion.

It's also gonna curl them up.

Kind of rough but small chop on these cremini mushrooms.

Garlic here.

[chopping]

A one inch piece of ginger here.

Thinner you can slice it on sort of that initial cut,

the easier it is to chop it fine later on.

[chopping]

Add that to our bowl with the garlic here.

This is kind of a more compact breast

from like a not super large bird.

I'm gonna kind of come at it at a bit of an angle.

Slice across the grain into some cutlets.

I'm gonna go and pound these afterwards

to just kind of even them out.

[pounding]

Take it from being about an inch thick

to closer to a half inch.

We're not going like crazy thin here.

[whoosh]

We're gonna do two tablespoons of olive oil.

Mushrooms first, want to be able to hear that sizzle

when the mushroom goes in.

For the most part, it's like when you're

trying to brown something, leave it alone.

I'm just gonna hit it with a little bit of salt.

Any pieces that are browning, you know, around the edge,

you can pull to the center.

I'm going to add the garlic and ginger now.

[sizzling]

At this point, we can do curry powder here.

We just want to make sure it blooms in that oil.

[sizzling]

So I'm just adding a 1.5 cup of water here

just to stop the cooking process.

This is kind of, you know, the moment where the soup

is totally transform this thinner sauce

into our beautiful, thick, rich, glossy gravy.

So I'm just gonna whisk it in here.

It's acting almost like, you know, an emulsifier.

Bringing all the elements together.

It's kind of wild how quickly

that transformation takes place.

You know, as soon as the Campbell's

cream of mushroom soup goes in,

the flavor just kind of starts to amplify.

Breading a cutlet, a three step process.

I'm going to make an egg wash

which is literally just beat an egg.

Just gonna whisk it together so it's really well integrated.

I'm gonna sprinkle somewhat liberally with salt.

I'm just gonna lay cutlets one at a time into the flour.

I'm gonna go into the egg,

lay it into the panko.

Alright, so everything's super well coated.

Can just go right back onto the sheet tray.

The katsu wants a little bit more

kind of gentler, more even heat.

Here's where I'm gonna be a little bit more generous

with the oil.

Two at a time.

So you want to hear that sizzle when you put it in.

[sizzling]

So we have nice active bubbling.

I want to make sure the interior

gets nice and cooked through.

That transition, you know, where it's going

from raw to cooked, kind of creeping up

the outside edge there and then boom.

[sizzling]

Great color on the second batch,

underside's looking great.

[whoosh]

Alright, sauce, by the way, looking really good.

About like the thickness of a good slightly thicker gravy.

These scallions, you know, they're kind of curly,

they're really crispy.

I'm just gonna slice into the cutlet

on a little bit of an angle.

[whoosh]

I know you're thinking, yeah, but you're putting

the gravy right on top of that kinda crispy cutlet,

but this is literally so crispy

that I'm not even worried.

Put some cranberry sauce right on there.

Then our scallion.

[whoosh]

I'm very happy with how this came out.

Gravy, which can be a multi-step, you know,

even multi-day process, if you want it to be,

turns it into something that happens

and honestly, 10, 15 minutes most.

You know, the power of the cream of mushroom soup

just to build up that savoriness and that intensity

and that umami flavor.

I'm honestly sort of still floored by how

we're able to get so much richness,

so much intensity flavor, and so much umami out of something

that cooked in maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

There it is, turkey katsu with mushroom-curry gravy.

I'm so here for this.

[upbeat music]