Easy Japanese Curry Recipe
So you've decided to make Japanese curry. Japanese curry is perhaps to most delicious curry around. However unlike Chinese and Indian curry Japanese curry requires precise quantities of water and curry roux in order to be thick and without lumps. But if you're like me you hate recipes that specify things in grams and liters and want to keep it simple without the use of excessively checking the quantities of your ingredients. That's where this easy Japanese curry recipe comes in! I'm going to teach you have to make multi-purpose Japanese curry in the most easy and simple of ways.
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 2 thick chicken breasts (or 4 thin chicken breasts)
- 1/2 a round onion
- A handful of green onion
- 2 carrots
- 4 big potatoes (or 6 small potatoes)
- 1 package of curry roux
- Vegetable Oil
- Salt and Pepper
Great Cookbooks:
Instructions
- Cut the carrots and onion into thin slices and the potatoes to bite-size pieces.
- Put the carrots, potatoes and onion pieces in a big pan. Add 1300ml (34oz) of water.
- Heat the water in the pan until they reach boiling-point and then simmer for 15 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and add the curry roux. Be sure to add one cube at a time, stir the water and allow it to dissolve.
- Turn the heat back on and cook for 10 more minutes on a low flame.
- While waiting for the 10 minutes prepare a fry pan.
- Cut the chicken breasts into bite-size pieces and sprinkle salt and pepper on them.
- Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into the fry pan and deep-fry the chicken breasts' pieces until they turn white (they do not need to be fully cooked).
- Add the fried chicken breasts to the pan with curry and vegetables (you should still be within the 10 minutes time).
- Cut the green onion into very small pieces and add to the pan.
- Simmer for 10 more minutes on a low heat to allow the breasts and green onion to fully cook.
Delicious additions that go with Japanese Curry
Rice – Serving the curry in a plate alongside rice is very common. The rice could be seasoned but I recommend leaving it blend and tasteless so that it absorbs the curry's taste without altering it in any way. Some like to add the rice on top of the curry, but a safer habit would be to split the plate into two, having one side dedicated to the curry and one to the rice.
Soba or Udon – Soba and Udon are names of noodles that taste great in oriental soups and in curry. Boiling them is fairly simple and you can put them in a bowl and pour the curry on them for a tasty noodle soup.
Hot peppers – Not satisfied with your curry's spicy level? Add the hot pepper of your choice to raise the heat. My advice is to add the pepper whole and removing it before serving the dish.
Recommended Curry Roux:
About curry roux types
Choosing your curry roux is perhaps the hardest, and most influential, decision you must make before starting to prepare the curry. I've tried an abundance of curry roux types and have discovered that Java Curry is by far the best curry roux to use. However, since taste is subjective, here are a few tips I highly advise you to follow while picking your curry roux of choice:
- Always make Japanese curry using Japanese curry roux. This one sounds obvious, but it isn't. The market is filled with Korean, Chinese and Indian curry powder. Never use those. Not only do they differ from Japanese curry in taste, they also tend to not melt well in hot water, resulting in curry lumps that will remain in your pan even after hours of cooking.
- Make sure your curry roux is easy to melt. It is essential that not lumps remain in your curry. Some curry roux (like Torokeru curry) use their curry's low melting heat temperature as their selling point.
- Add water according to the advised amount shown on the box. This recipe uses the water amount recommended on the Java Curry box, but other companies' recommended water level might differ.
- Heavens forbid stay away from American companies offering "Japanese" curry roux. Remember: you want to make Japanese curry here.
Curry trivia
- Curry can be eaten in the winter and the summer. In the winter the spiciness in the curry will heat your body; In the summer it will cause you to sweat, thus cooling you!
- Curry is often shown in anime series.
- Curry has natural preservatives and can stay good for more than a week. Some people actually say your curry will be tastier if you let it sit for a day before eating it.
- Japanese curry is spicier and thicker than the common Chinese and Indian curry.
- In Japan you can find Curry Pan ("curry bread") - a bun filled with curry inside.