Instant pot Japanese chicken curry with secret ingredient
Lunch is solved on a busy weekday with this easy instant pot Japanese chicken curry.
Servings 6servings
Prep Time 15 minutesmins
Cook Time 15 minutesmins
Equipment
pressure cooker or instant pot
Ingredients
3bigwhite onions cut into wedges see notes
2mediumcarrotssliced into bites size
3mediumpotatoesYukon better than russet for this, cut into quarters
2clovesgarlicminced
1tspgingerpaste
750gboneless chicken breastscut into see notes
1tbsp.oilany neutral oil for cooking
For the curry sauce:
4cupschicken unsalted stocksor water or vegetable stock , see notes
1pack Japanese curry roux220-230g find the one I used in the article above, see notes
1tbsp.light soy sauce
1tbsp.ketchup
1pieceof high quality dark chocolate15 g find the one I used in the article above, see notes
For serving:
Japanese steamed white riceor any short grain rice on your choice
Instructions
STEP 01: Prepare your veggies
cut and prepare all your veggies. Mince and prepare your ginger and garlic. And cut your chicken into bite size pieces.
STEP 02: prepare the curry
set your instant pot into “sauté” mode. When the pot is hot, add the oil and add the onion and stir, after a minute add the ginger and garlic and mix until you start to smell the garlic aroma. Add the chicken pieces and stir until mixed well with the onions. Add the carrots and potato and mix.
Add the chicken broth and mix all together, then use your wooden spatula to press down all the veggies and chicken into the liquid.
Bread down the Japanese roux into smaller blocks and place on the top of the mixture. DO NOT MIX THE ROUX WITH THE MIXTURE. The roux should be placed on top otherwise it will sink and burn on the bottom of the pot.
STEP 03: Cook the curry
Cover the pot and lock the lid, set the steam release handle to sealing and set the pot to “meat/stew” program for 15 minutes. Let it naturally release the pressure after done cooking for 5 minutes, and then quick release the remaining pressure until the steam nozzle drops.
Unlock the lid and add the ketchup, soy sauce and chocolate and mix everything very well until all the chocolate, and remaining Japanese roux is dissolved.
STEP 04: Serve the curry
Serve on individual plates over steamed Japanese rice
Video
Notes
Onion cut: the best way to cut the onions for this curry is to cut fist the onion in half. Than cut each half into 5 wedges.
Chicken: for this recipe traditionally they use chicken thigh, but I prefer the breasts because it is easier to clean and cut into pieces. But you can use any kind of chicken pieces you like.
Japanese curry roux: for my curry I preferred to use half of two level of spiciness (mild and medium hot)
Chocolate: the adding of the chocolate is optional and won’t affect the final outcome, it is a very minimal add in that will a richness, if you want to try it make sure you use a dark good quality chocolate 60% and more like this one.
Leftovers: this Japanese curry is one of the recipe that taste better the next day. You can store the leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days. When reheating from fridge you might need to add some extra water to loosen up the curry sauce. It is not recommended to freeze this curry as it contains carrots and potato that will retain water and fall apart after defrosting you can still freeze your curry up to one month but I recommend to remove the root vegetables from it before freezing.
Be aware of the salt content: I recommend using a low salt or unsalted chicken stock or any other stock, if it not available switch to water as the roux cubes itself contain salt and the soy sauce also added. Do not any additional salt, before tasting the final dish because you might end with a very salty curry.
Thick curry: if you find your final curry very thick you can add more water and loosen it up. And you might even reduce the quantity of the roux from the beginning.