In a country where you can get everything from hamburgers to lady’s undergarments out of a vending machine, it’s no surprise that home cooks have many convenient options when “cooking” a meal. For some dishes like Japanese curry (カレーライス – karei raisu), pre-made mixes have become the norm rather than the exception and a trip to the supermarket will reveal an entire section of boxed curry mixes.
These instant curry mixes usually take the form of bricks that look a bit like bulbous chocolate bars and are loaded with saturated fat, MSG and preservatives. But as much as I want to hate this junk food, it’s a comfort food I grew up on and could easily be called the national dish of Japanese home cooking. That’s why I’ve been working on my recipe for Japanese curry from scratch for the past 7 years. It may take a little more effort than using the packaged variety, but it doesn’t require any extra time, and involves only a handful of additional ingredients.
So what exactly is Japanese curry?
Like many foods in Japan, curry worked its way into the Japanese culinary repertoire from abroad. The prevailing theory is that the British introduced it as a cheap way of feeding troops en masse and that these soldiers brought their newly acquired taste for this un-Japanese blend of pungent spices home with them.
Today, curry has become a staple of the Japanese home, that’s enjoyed by people of all ages. It’s thicker and sweeter than most other curries of the world and has a depth of flavor that’s unique, thanks to an ample dose of caramelized onions. With big hunks of tender meat, carrots, and potatoes, it’s more like a hearty stew than a typical curry.
Ask any chef at one of the many famed curry houses in Japan, and they’ll tell you that the key to a really great Japanese curry is in the caramelized onions. The onions not only add a ton of umami and flavor to the curry, they also provide the characteristic sweetness without using sugar. For a more detailed explanation on caramelized onions, check out my post on caramelizing onions
Also, after years of experimenting with different curry powders and garam masalas, I’ve come to the conclusion that the most consistent way to get the right blend of spices is to use a Japanese curry power such as S&B brand. You can usually find it at Asian supermarkets but Amazon also carries it (see the widget below)
Units
Ingredients
For curry
- 550 grams boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 14 grams garlic (~2 large cloves, grated)
- 14 grams fresh ginger (~1/2-inch piece, grated)
- 500 grams onion (2 large onions, thinly sliced)
- 3 tablespoons Japanese curry powder (Japanese brand such as S&B)
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 300 grams carrots (~ 2 carrots, cut into chunks)
- ½ medium apple (peeled, cored and grated)
- 2 tablespoons chunou sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 bay leaf
- 350 grams potatoes (~2 medium potatoes cut into large chunks)
- ½ cup frozen green peas
for roux
- 1 tablespoon cultured unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Clean any large bits of fat or tendon from the chicken and cut into large chunks. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and mix to distribute evenly.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering and then add the chicken in a single layer. Let the chicken brown undisturbed (about 5 minutes). Flip the chicken and let it brown on the other side.
- Turn down the heat to medium-low and transfer the chicken to a bowl using tongs, making sure to leave as much oil in the pan as possible.
- Add the grated garlic and ginger and fry in the oil until it's not sizzling as much and it reaches a rich caramel brown color.
- Add the onions, and stir to coat with oil. Cover with a lid and let the onions steam until translucent and limp (about 10-15 minutes).
- Remove the lid, turn up the heat to medium and continue frying the onion, stirring constantly until it's reduced to about 1/8 of its original volume and it forms a shiny caramel brown paste (about 20-30 minutes). If the onion starts to stick to the pan before it's fully caramelized, try scrubbing off the stuck bits with a spatula. If that doesn't work you can add just a bit of water to the areas where things are sticking and then use the spatula to scrape.
- When the onions are fully caramelized, add the curry powder and saute briefly until very fragrant.
- Return the chicken to the pot and then add the stock, carrots, grated apple, chunou sauce, tomato paste, cocoa powder, salt and the bay leaf. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce the heat. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the potatoes, cover and simmer until the carrots and potatoes are very tender (another 15-20 minutes).
- In the meantime, make the roux by adding the butter and flour to a small saucepan over medium heat. Use a spatula to stir constantly until the bubbling subsides and the roux is a light brown color.
- When the potatoes are tender, taste and adjust salt to taste. If you like your curry sweeter, you can add some honey.
- Finish the curry by stirring in the roux and green peas and bringing to a boil to thicken the sauce.
- Serve with hot rice, or on top of a bowl of udon.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Kasper, sorry for the slow response the roux is cooked for a longtime to brown the flour. This develops additional flavor for the same reason that toasted bread is more savory than untoasted white bread.
whenrainmeetssun says
The chunou sauce I find in the stores has high fructose syrup and modified corn starch. Is there a better alternative?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi whenrainmeetssun, you could use a mixture of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, but many ketchups contain HFCS as well, so you’d have to find one that does not.
Shane L says
Hi Marc, your recipe looks great. Would I be able to use this same recipe (but without putting the meat in it) and use it as a sauce over some chicken katsu? Also would it work if I blended the sauce? Keen to try this recipe for the first time this weekend.
Wendy Hirano says
Just finished making the curry from scratch. Of course, making something from scratch takes longer, so be prepared. My daughter is gluten-free so I used mochiko (rice flour) in the roux. It came out well. My daughter is also dairy-free, so using the non-dairy Smart Balance margarine worked out fine in the roux, too, to thicken the curry sauce. I used a cast iron pan to caramelize the onions so it came out darker. The taste was a bit stronger because of that so I just added some sugar to smooth out the taste. I also fried my potatoes before adding them to the curry, which took time. I think it helps the potatoes not to melt. I heard if you add a pad of butter/margarine to the potatoes, they don’t melt as much. I added some thin green beans to the curry to add more color. Well, we are about to eat, so it’s time for me to go! Thanks Marc for this good idea for curry!
William Lopez says
Ive had this page bookmarked for years and i remember this recipe called for beef, and i dont remember things like bay leaf, cocoa powder and other things. I remember curry was made separately by adding the curry powder flour, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup, until it turned into the paste, then was added into the pot later…I wish i could have the older recipe…
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi William, there was an old recipe but the results on that were less consistent. For instance garam masala tastes wildly different depending on the brand, so using a Japanese curry powder is a better option. Also by mixing the curry powder and ketchup into the roux, some people had problems with the curry powder or ketchup burning making their curry bitter. I’ve also found that adding the curry powder earlier on flavors the meat and veggies. As for using beef you can substitute beef for the chicken and just increasing the cooking time a bit.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Wendy, glad to hear you were able to make it work out with the substitutions and thanks for sharing the advice for other readers! Good idea to fry the potatoes first to keep them from melting. Personally, I kind of like the vegetables to all be melting into the roux, but this is totally a personal preference thing. Hope you enjoyed it!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Shane, yes you could make this to use as a sauce, but you’d want to use a rather concentrated chicken/beef/pork stock as the sauce gets a lot of flavor from the meat that’s added. Also, don’t see any problem with blending the sauce.
Damon says
Good recipe but would be nice to have a printable recipe without having all these pictures eating up ink.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Damon, thanks for the suggestion. The site used to have this function but we recently moved platforms and lost this ability. It’s high on my list of things to have my developer fix. In the mean time, I’d suggest cutting and pasting the recipe into a document editor and removing the photos before printing. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Julie says
Hi Marc, What could I use instead of the chunou sauce if I don’t have any of that?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Julie, you can do use a 50:50 combination of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.
Kings says
Thank you so much, after visiting japan I wanted to eat some more japanese curry. Now thanks to you, I can now eat more curry.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Kings, thanks for stopping by to leave a comment. I hope you enjoy it!
Rita C says
This was fantastic! “Ka-re” was my favorite of all the foods that my Japanese mother cooked when I was growing up, I would stand by the stove waiting for that final simmer of the potatoes and roux. On my own, I would make it using the store bought blocks but stopped after realizing all the chemicals in it. I have been looking for a Japanese ka-re recipe that was reminiscent of my childhood favorite and have found it here. Thank you SO much!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Rita, I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks for stopping by to share your story😀
Mindy says
this is a great recipe! I was looking for a homemade version of japanese curry, the bricks you can buy have SO much sodium in them. I like the convenience of having the paste and just adding water, so I made this recipe with everything but the water, vegetables, and meat. adding everything in the paste, including the roux, and instead of chicken stock I use chicken base paste, so I can have my own “just add water” version. made a double batch so I can keep some in the freezer for another time. 🙂
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Mindy, I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it! I’m not a fan of the roux blocks for the same reason.
Aisyah says
Hi I tried it today. I was absolutely craving this after my trip to Japan but I wanted a kare that I could cook more healthily as I have a 2yo. This was PERFECT! I cant believe that I got it tasting right this first time. THANK YOU
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Aisyah, I’m glad to hear I could help sate your craving! Thanks for taking the time to drop a comment😀