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.
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Why My Recipe Works
- Good Japanese restaurant curry's comes from caramelizing onions and other aromatics. I build layers of flavors in this recipe, first by browning the chicken, then caramelizing garlic and ginger before going in with onions and carrots.
- The characteristic sweetness of Japanese chicken curry is created by adding fruit and sugar in most recipes. This version uses apple, which provides a nice sweetness and helps thicken the curry sauce. Be sure to choose a sweet variety of apple or your curry will taste sour.
- Japanese curry is usually thickened with flour and fat roux, but my version of homemade curry rice is thickened with vegetables and fruit, making it healthier than most.
- Kakushiaji (隠し味) means "hidden taste," and it's a cooking technique where you add a tiny quantity of a contrasting ingredient to improve the dish's taste. For this Japanese Chicken Curry I add cocoa powder. It may sound odd, but it's one of the secrets for getting an earthy depth of flavor, making it taste like it's been simmering for hours.
Convenience over Flavor
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 call this junk food, it's a comfort food I grew up on, and it 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 dozen 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.
The Secret to Making 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
Japanese Curry Powder
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 powder, such as S&B brand. You can usually find it at Asian supermarkets but Amazon also carries it. A fews years back I cracked the code for making Japanese curry powder from scratch using a curry spice set from Gaban, so if you're curious, you can read about it in this recipe, How to Make Japanese Curry Powder.
Recipe
Japanese Curry from Scratch
Equipment
- 1 Spatula
Ingredients
- 550 grams boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 14 grams garlic (~2 large cloves, grated)
- 14 grams fresh ginger (~½-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
- 1 tablespoon cultured unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Instructions
Why it works- Clean any large bits of fat or tendon from the 550 grams boneless skinless chicken thighs and cut into large chunks. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper and mix to distribute evenly.
- Heat the 1 tablespoon 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 14 grams garlic and 14 grams fresh ginger and fry in the oil until it's not sizzling as much and it reaches a rich caramel brown color.
- Add the 500 grams onion 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 ⅛ 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 3 tablespoons Japanese curry powder and sauté briefly until very fragrant.
- Return the chicken to the pot and then add the 3 cups low-sodium chicken stock, 300 grams carrots, grated ½ medium apple, 2 tablespoons chunou sauce, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 bay leaf. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce the heat. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the 350 grams 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 1 tablespoon cultured unsalted butter and 1 tablespoon all-purpose 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 ½ cup frozen green peas and bringing to a boil to thicken the sauce.
- Serve with hot rice, or on top of a bowl of udon.
Nutrition Facts
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Marc Matsumoto says
Hi ddarko, by "separate" do you mean the oil and flour literally separate or that you end up with clumps? If it's the later, this can happen if you add roux to a boiling liquid because the flour doesn't have a chance to disperse evenly into the liquid before it gels, leaving you with lumps of roux in your sauce. If you mean the oil and flour separate I'm really not sure what's going wrong as I've never seen this happen. The only thing I can think of is that the recipe you were following included too much oil relative to the flour so that the flour wasn't able to completely absorb the oil. I usually like to go with a flour:fat ratio of 1:1 by volume. I did take a look on Google, and while I see some people having the problem, there seems to be no consensus as to why it happens. Also, the questions are almost universally about roux for gumbo. I'm pretty sure roux for gumbo is prepared differently (you cook the roux much longer to get it dark brown). Perhaps this has something to do with it.
Hyperb0wl says
eh? isn't it common knowledge that a roux separating is one of the main difficulties of handling it? just go to google and type in "roux separate". i've had so many roux's separate on me i lost count. lol. where i can literally see the particles of flour and fat floating in whatever liquid it's in. roux's are a mystery to me. hot to cold, cold to hot, hot to hot, cold to cold, i'm never really sure what will happen when im dealing with a roux.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi ddarko, making a roux (vs adding fat and flour separately to the curry) has 3 purposes. The first is to toast the flour so it doesn't give your curry a raw flour taste. The second is to allow each particle of flour to absorb some of the fat so that the flour doesn't gelatinize on contact with the hot liquid causing lumps. The third is so the fat does not separate out from the liquid because the gelatinized particles of flour retain the fat rather than letting it escape back into the liquid. I've never heard of roux prepared with a proper ratio of fat to flour separating. I have heard of roux clumping, but that's a separate issue (caused by adding roux straight to a boiling liquid). This can be avoided by either adding the roux with the heat turned off, or tempering the roux by slowly introducing hot liquid into the roux and then dumping that into the liquid once incorporated.
Hyperb0wl says
ok, that makes sense. but are you saying your particular roux didnt separate or that roux's in general dont separate? because if you ment in general, that would be a pretty ridiculous statement considering that's all a roux is known for and I have personally had at least a dozen separate on me
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Ayumi, that's an interesting technique, but have you tried sautéing the onions and meat before? It will make your curry taste much better due to the Maillard reaction (which cannot be achieved through boiling). See this wikipedia article for an explanation of the Maillard reaction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
Marc Matsumoto says
ddarko, it's not separated. Roux does not separate. The texture is a mix of the onions, and crumbled potatoes, and carrots. I prefer my veggies melt-in your mouth tender, but this inevitable results in them crumbling a bit which is why the sauce is not smooth. If you want the sauce smoother you can puree your onion and not cook the potatoes and carrots as long.
jack says
Wow this is really simple (-:
I will try this tomorrow
Thanks for sharing ayumi •__•
Ayumi says
Hey guys usually when I cook pork curry for my dad (his a Japanese) I will always not saute the meat,onions,and other veg.
I prefer boiling the onions first then add my carrots and a little bit later I add the meat.
And when the meat is cook is when I add my curry sauce or bars and lastly I put my potatoes in.
Trust me guys you will love this 🙂
Hyperb0wl says
why is no one mentioning that this curry looks separated as f*#!? some of the graininess could be the apple, which i doubt, and i know curry seizes up very quickly as it cools, but regardless, i want a curry to presented to me that is mostly smooth. no offense marc, i love some of your food and would order your katsu-chocolate curry as my last meal before execution, but this pic is just ew.
Peter Oleif Petersen says
Great recipe, thank you. I will be trying this with my students later this week. I hope you don't mind, though, I am giving them a translated version with the link to this page.
labontegami says
Amazing. Can't wait for the leftovers this week! I used some okonomiyaki sauce I had, added some more apple to fruit it up. Yum. I think the key is getting the onion carmelized enough. I don't think I'll be able to go back to the curry bricks again. Thanks!
Akiko Otani says
I loved the improvements made in this recipe. Today was a curry kind of day, cold and snowing all day. I had to use what we had so I used a ripe pear instead of an apple and Worchestershire sauce instead of the chunou sauce. The curry was delicious! My kids loved it!
Gary Molotov says
what kind of apple would you recommend I usually eat green apples but those don't seems traditionaly Japanese
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Allen, this version is meant to be an improvement on the older version, which is why I replaced it. Was there something in particular that you preferred with the older version?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Joel, in Japan, curry is usually eaten with sweet pickles such as Fukushinzuke (daikon, cucumber, lotus root, red shiso, etc in a sweet brine), or rakkyou (an onion that's kind of like ramps picked in sugar and vinegar). Because they can be hard to find in the US, I usually serve it there with sweet gherkins or chutney.
Joel says
Hi Marc, I've made this recipe many times (or rather, the previous one at least), but I've been wondering what other accompaniments to serve with a Japanese curry, like pickles and such.
Love the site, and thanks in advance.
Ashley says
Made it a few days ago! Delicious! I think one thing we weren't doing was caramelizing the onions as much as you recommend above, and we also had a super rich homemade beef stock we used. I experimented this time and tried to replicate Japanese curry powder and think it turned out. Also improvised with apple cider vinegar (only a touch) because I can't eat tomatoes and with worcestershire sauce in place of chuuno sauce. So good; thanks again for sharing!
Allen says
You had a different version of your recipe until recently. Is there a was to still get to the earlier version?
Sherine says
Dear Marc, thanks for sharing your seven years' worth of work - really appreciate your identifying the specific brands for all of us. I used to give in to S&B's curry mix, or rather, the MSG in them. Not anymore 🙂 Great, great site!
liralenli says
Thanks for asking that, I had the exact same question...
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Melissa, good question. They're very similar with the main difference being viscosity. Tonkatsu sauce tends to be thicker than Chunou sauce. Any of these sauces will work for this recipe.
melissanolenkroll says
Hi, Marc. Love this site!!! Do you know the difference between Bull-Dog Vegetable & Fruit Tonkatsu Sauce and the Bull-Dog Vegetable & Fruit (Chuno) Sauce? And if so, what is your opinion on substituting one for the other? Thanks!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Ashley, thanks for the note! Nope I haven't heard of Yokosuka Navy Curry, but I'll try and see if I can find it the next time I'm at the store. As you might imagine, with all the curry places, shops have to do something unique to get noticed. This often includes unusual techniques or ingredients. I've seen everything from bananas to coffee being added for kakushiaji (hidden taste), and my own weird ingredient is cocoa powder.
Ashley says
Yum! Love and miss the ease of getting Japanese curry (when I lived in Japan...); I've only made it a few times since coming back to the U.S. and haven't quite got it where I want it yet, so I'll try this and see if it makes a difference! Thank you!
One type of Japanese curry I've been trying so hard to replicate is the Yokosuka Navy/Naval curry (よこすか海軍カレー). It's just a bit different (as are many curries, I know) and seems to include various other ingredients, but I haven't been able to nail down the flavor yet. Have you tried it, and if so, how easy do you think it would be to replicate?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi not_configured, to be honest, I've never really done a taste test so I can't say which is better, but I suspect you won't notice a difference in this recipe as the dominant flavor is that of the curry powder. The Chunou sauce is for sweetness and the blend of spices.
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks, mon! No plans to release a cookbook (at least not on paper), but you guys will be the first to hear of it if I ever do:-)
not_configured says
I'm sure this recipe will become a family favorite. Which chunou sauce would you recommend, Bulldog or Kagome? Or another brand? Thx!
monnie says
Love this site. I hope you'll come out with a cookbook!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Y-y, thanks for your nice note! Chunou sauce is basically worcestershire sauce with a bunch of fruit in it, which makes it sweeter and more viscous. You could make something similar by mixing worcestershire sauce and ketchup.
marikoanwen says
Hi Marc
I absolutely love your recipes - every one I try is just *spot on* in flavor and authenticity, thank you for this amazing blog!
I'd like to find an alternative to the bulldog (chuono) sauce - would be great to find a breakdown of alternative ingredients if possible.
Thank you!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Mtheartist, you could make it in a crockpot, but to get the flavor you'll still need to caramel use the onions and brown the meat on the stove. You'll also still need to make the roux separately.
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Mtheartist says
Wonder if there would be a way to make it in a crock pot.
Noboru says
regarding msg and ramen packets, pls bear in mind not to let it heat over fire as it will release toxic out in huge amount. so turn off direct heat, put them in and mix before serving.
Noboru says
I tried, though it is not exactly the taste that i get outside(maybe cause i lack some ingredients). But it is definitely great. I mix and match any flavors i wanted (as long as it is save), and it is simply amazing.
Thank you so much, marc~
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Aneopa, while it's possible to freeze it, I would not recommend it because potatoes take on a spongy texture when they're frozen and defrosted.
Aneopa says
Hi, is possible to frozen the finalized curry? I`m thinking im make this advnce and just heat up in morning and put over the rice
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Dantalian, I don't know what first class flour is. Can you describe it?
Dantalian Disward says
is first class flour ok?
anil says
Thanks I'll order it, and let you know how it goes.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Anil, regarding the garam masala, I blend my own as well with cumin, coriander, turmeric, fennel, cayenne pepper and fenugreek. But I like my Japanese curry spicy. If you want a really Japanese tasting Japanese curry, use S&B brand curry powder.
As for the butter, it adds richness to the sauce, but you could use any fat. Ghee or rendered chicken fat would both work well, plain vegetable oil won't taste as good but will work as well. I hope that helps!
anil says
Hi, I am about to make this recipe this week. I love japanese curry, I've eaten premade curries, as well curry udons, in Yokohama, I now want to make one from scratch.
Two questions puzzle me, what kind of garam masala ? Each indian family has their own blend of spice mix which is called garam masala. Should I be using any special premixed brand ? Second, is butter essential, or can I use substitute ?
Marc Matsumoto says
I use all purpose flour. I've never tried corn flour, which should work for thickening but you won't get any flavor out of it as it only contains starch.
Hoopsie says
Hi, Do I need any specific flour to make the Roux? Will plain flour be okay or should I use whole-wheat flour? Is corn flour an alternative at all to the Roux?
Kimi says
I made this with an Asian pear apple. Turned out really good! I'll be saving this recipe! Thank you!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Spenja, the number of servings will depend on how hungry the people you're serving are. For me, this makes about 6 servings. As for adding the tofu, you'd still caramelize the onions, and then add then add the tofu with the potatoes. If you're using tofu, you may want to substitute vegetable stock for the water.
Tete97 says
It sounds great and I plan to prepare it tomorrow but i have two questions :
1. How many servings is it ?
2. When should I add the tofu when I use it instead of the chicken ?
Thank you 🙂 your blog is amazing btw.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Donald, 1) ladle is a kind of large spoon used to serve soup. When used as a verb it means to use a ladle to pour something. 2) The liquid is the liquid from the meat and vegetables.
Donald says
The recipe is nice and easy, I'm not American but I speak English the problem is in the last paragraph I don't understand the part of " just Laddle two cups of liquid into the roux...", two questions 1: what does laddle means? 2: what liquid am I going to put into the roux? If someone could help me please I will be very grateful for it. Again thanks for the recipe, greetings Donald Reyes from Dominican Republic.
Curry Fanatic says
Hi Jen! You really should try it with the apple, it's the single most important ingredient in my opinion. If you want it to taste closer to the brick Curry that you're used you, you'll have to add MSG or other sodium-rich flavorings. Try a pinch of chicken bouillon or ramen packet and it will bring the saltiness closer to what you're used to. Happy cooking!
Jennifer Simon Reffner says
Hi Marc! Thank you for posting this. I am half Japanese and prego and had a hankering for kare rice but as I was cutting my veggies, I realized I didn't have any of the instant packs! This tasted pretty close. I omitted the apple and ended up adding sugar. It was still good.