This flavorful Japanese Curry Recipe is made with the S&B Golden Mix. Warming and delicious, it's the best comfort food for fall or winter and so easy it's pretty much a staple in the Asian college student's menu! You'll definitely be able to make it perfectly the first time!
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⭐ Why This Recipe is a Star
- Flavorful: This Japanese Curry recipe from S&B Golden Mix is a delicious comfort food perfect for fall or winter. A staple in Japanese households and restaurants, it goes so well with rice (use white rice, brown rice or cauliflower rice) that the Japanese name is actually "Kare Raisu カレーライス (Curry Rice.)"
- Easy: It's 1 of the most popular dishes in Japan and pretty much a saute and simmer recipe!
- All-in-one versatile meal: it has protein from the meat (I use pork but you can also use beef) and fibre and vitamins from the carrots. Or add potatoes or Japanese sweet potatoes if you want to load up on the carbs. And you can choose the spice level according to your ability to eat spicy food!
Note: Japanese Kare may not be as famous internationally as Indian curry but it actually dates back to the Meiji era in the late 1800s. (It's based on British curry, which developed from Indian curry.)
🥘 Ingredients
You will need a few simple ingredients for Japanese curry rice:
- Japanese curry roux mix: you can use any brand but I usually get s&b Golden Curry from the Asian grocery store. (House or Vermont Curry are also good.) Japanese curry is famous for its mildness (甘口 (amakuchi)) but you can also get medium 中辛 (chuukara) or hot 辛口 (karakuchi) spice blends.
- Pork: S&B Golden curry also works with other types of protein. Japanese chicken curry is the most popular but beef and tofu work too. (Just remember to reduce the cooking time if using boneless skinless chicken!) Alternatively, serve with fried pork cutlet for katsu curry!
- Sliced onion: Any color onion works. If not, replace with 2 shallots per onion.
- Fresh garlic: peeled and minced
- Fresh ginger: peeled and grated
- Red apple: Can you make the Japanese curry without the apple? Yes but it won't taste as good! (The sweet apple is a popular Japanese addition & reinforces the apple flavor in the curry mixes.) I recommend Fuji apples or Gala.
- Medium-sized carrot: You can replace 1 carrot with 1 potato if you wish. The sauce is so scrumptious, you can use any vegetable really. Just be careful if adding veggies such as mushrooms as these will release water and dilute your sauce. (You'll need to cook down for longer or add less water.) Also, remember that different veggies have different cooking times: if you add peas, for example, these go in towards the end of cooking and not with the carrots, which take longer to soften.
- Optional ingredients: Using store-bought roux makes a tasty pot of curry but if you like variation, you can add 1 Tablespoon of ketchup, soy sauce, a little bit of Worcestershire sauce, coriander seed or dried orange peels. For a list of other complementary ingredients- basically what you find in Japanese curry powder- click here.
- Optional garnish: I use a few rounds of black pepper, spring onions and sliced red chilies, but you can also use Asian pickled veggies (pickled daikon is popular) or fukujinzuke
Note: I cook my delicious curry in vegetable oil but you can use butter for extra richness.
You will need rice, be it white rice, brown rice or cauliflower rice, for this dish. Alternatively, you can use bread to soak up the flavourful sauce!
🔪 Step-by-Step Instructions
1a. On medium heat, heat up oil or butter in a deep pan then saute the onions for about 5-8 minutes till golden. (If you have extra time, the curry will taste better if you cook over low heat to make caramelised onions.)
1b. Next, add the garlic and ginger and briefly saute till fragrant.
Note: this recipe is super flexible- as you can see, I forgot to add the onions this time but it was still delicious!
2. Add the cubed pork into the pan and stir-fry meat till the colour changes.
Note: If using beef, I suggest searing till brown for more flavor.
3a. Add the water and, over high heat, bring to the boil.
3b. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium so that the pot is at a simmer.
The meat will produce an icky looking scum- just skim it off and throw.
Note: if using homemade roux, chicken stock would be a better choice than water.
4a. Add the carrots and potatoes, if using, simmer till cooked and soft. (Vegetables that cook more quickly should be added later.)
4b. Whilst waiting for the veg to cook, break the roux into smaller pieces.
5. Once the veg is soft, add the grated apple and stir till well-mixed.
6a. Reduce the heat to the lowest, add ¼ of the broken curry cubes to the pan, and stir well till it's all dissolved. Repeat with the rest of the roux.
6b. Leave to simmer for 5-8 minutes or till the curry is at your desired consistency (it should be a thick curry sauce but not gloopy.) Remember to stir every now and then (to prevent the pan from catching.)
Note: if you accidentally made the sauce too thick, just stir in a few more tablespoons of water!
🥡 How to Store
Keeps for 2-3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
This is the perfect make-ahead dish for a party because, like most curries, it actually tastes better after reheating on the stove! (You will need to add some water as the sauce will thicken after cooling & re-heating.)
Freezing
It can even be frozen for up to 1 month!
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
Tip #1: The store-bought S&B brand roux contains allergens such as wheat, soybean, apple and gelatin so you can use homemade roux (made with garam masala etc) if you have food intolerances. If so, I suggest using chicken stork instead of water to simmer the meat.
Tip #2: The store-bought instant curry roux contains turmeric so it will stain plastic containers- use glass instead.
Tip #3: The curry is super flexible so you can easily add different ingredients. However, remember to pay attention to the total amount of ingredients added. If you add more vegetables, you will need to reduce the amount of meat.
💭 Recipe FAQs
Japanese curry has a thicker sauce, more like a gravy. The flavor is also sweeter and usually less spicy (although you can also buy the spicier "Hot" roux cubes if you wish.) In addition, Japanese people do not use coconut milk or cream in their curry!
The main ingredients in Japanese curry are usually the roux, onions, carrots, potatoes, and meat (such as beef, pork, or chicken). If you really want to pare down the recipe to its simplest version, it's basically the roux and the filler (be it meat or veg.)
Yes, simply omit the meat and use a variety of vegetables like bell peppers, peas, or mushrooms. Remember to pay attention to the different cooking times of the different veg!
🥗 Suggested Accompanying Recipes
Enjoyed this easy Japanese Kare Raisu Recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below! If you found these Golden Curry instructions helpful, please consider supporting it by buying me a packet of roux! 🙂 (No obligation though!) Thank you and have a great day!
Japanese Curry Recipe (S&B Golden Mix)
Equipment
- Pan and heat-proof spatula
- Grater
- Chopping board & knife
Ingredients
- 1-2 Tablespoons vegetable oil Substitute: butter
- 1 onion sliced if you want texture, minced if you want them to break down into the sauce
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 1 inch ginger peeled and grated
- 3-4 lb pork shoulder cut into bite-sized pieces. If adding other veg such as potatoes etc, you will need to reduce the amount of meat added.
- 2½ medium carrot Cut into rounds.
- 4 Cups water Substitute: dashi and chicken stock
- 1 apple peeled and grated. Omit if you're too lazy to grate and add 1T of sweeter such as sugar or a neutral honey instead.
- 1 pack Japanese curry roux Broken into smaller pieces. I use S&B hot but other brands or other levels of spiciness work too. (Different brands may require different amounts of liquid.)
Instructions
- On medium heat, heat up oil or butter in a deep pan then saute the onions for about 5-8 minutes till golden. Note: If you have extra time, the curry will taste better if you cook slowly over low heat till you get golden caramelised onions.
- Next, add the garlic and ginger and briefly saute till fragrant.
- Add the cubed pork into the pan and stir-fry meat till the colour changes. Note: If using beef, I suggest searing till brown for more flavor.
- Add the water and, over high heat, bring to the boil.Note: if using homemade roux, chicken stock would be a better choice than water.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to medium so that the pot is at a simmer.Note: The meat will produce an icky looking scum- just skim it off and throw.
- Add the carrots and potatoes, if using, simmer till cooked and soft. (Vegetables that cook more quickly should be added later.)Note: Whilst waiting for the veg to cook, break the roux into smaller pieces.
- Once the veg is soft, add the grated apple and stir till well-mixed.
- Reduce the heat to the lowest, add ¼ of the broken curry cubes to the pan, and stir well till it's all dissolved. Repeat with the rest of the roux.
- Leave to simmer for 5-8 minutes or till the curry is at your desired consistency (it should be a thick curry sauce but not gloopy.) Remember to stir every now and then (to prevent the pan from catching.)Note: if you accidentally made the sauce too thick, just stir in a few more tablespoons of water!
- Garnish to your preference, serve with rice and enjoy!
Notes
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity.
Nutrition
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