Japanese Chicken Curry
Japanese chicken curry is a hearty cold weather meal best served piping hot with white rice. Initially, I tried to tinker with the flavor by making my own curry paste. Let me say it here: Homemade curry past is not worth the trouble. The flavor of this popular dish is set by S&B, the Japanese spice maker which probably sold millions of pre-made curry pastes sold around the world to restaurants and housewives. The S&B cubes made this dish simple to make and it always tastes as expected. My contribution to this dish is using Japanese Kobucha squash instead of potatoes, which adds a very nice sweet mellowness to the curry. The recipe below combines recommendations from the back of box of the S&B curry paste (spicy, see photos below) and this recipe from Just One Cookbook .
Ingredients:
1.5-2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut to bite sizes
2 large onions (1.5 pounds), sliced or chopped
2 large carrots, cut into chunks
1/2 large Kobocha squash (1.5 pounds), cut into chunks
1 apple, peeled and graded
Ginger and garlic, chopped
2 3/4 cups water
1 tsp organic chicken base (see photo below)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp salt
1/2 box of S&B Golden Curry Mix (they come in two packets with 4 cubes each)
Instructions
In stockpot or large soup pot, sauté onions in about 2-3 tbsp oil for about 10 minutes, until onions are caramelized with a golden brown color
Add garlic and ginger, sauté for 1-2 minutes until fragrant
Add chicken, sauté until no longer pink
Add water, graded apple, chicken base, soy sauce, ketchup, and salt, mix well
Add carrots and squash chunks
Bring to broil over medium heat
Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes
Turn off heat
Dissolve S&B curry cubes using a ladle of hot curry stock, one cube at a time, and put everything back into curry
Turn heat back on to medium and cook curry for 5 more minutes.
Serve with rice
