Cole Cooks: Instant Pot Japanese Curry Recipe
Japanese curry is one of those dishes that I have never tried in an official Japanese restaurant. However, I developed this recipe after careful research, and everyone loved it.
Go To Recipe
Japanese restaurants in San Diego tend to specialize in sushi, ramen, yakitori and tempura. The only place I have tried Japanese curry is at World Curry in Pacific Beach.
Our family loves World Curry and personally I have been going here for over 20 years. As the name implies, they serve a variety of curry styles from around the world. World Curry is the only reason I was even aware Japanese curry existed.
The Japanese curry at World Curry features breaded chicken in a brown sauce with potatoes and carrots. In my research I found it is basically a stew, and one of the most popular meals in Japan. At Just One Cookbook there are 15 recipes for Japanese curry.
The main ingredient for Japanese Curry is the sauce. The curry starts with a roux. Just One Cookbook has a recipe for making the roux from scratch. However, it appears most people in Japan use a store bought curry sauce that comes in blocks.
Our daughter’s school happens to be right by three Japanese grocery stores. They all carry several brands of Japanese curry sauces. These sauces come in bricks similar to bouillon.
Surprisingly, one of the most popular sauces in Japan is named Vermont Curry. Based on the advice of Serious Eats we combined Vermont Curry with one of their favorites Kokumaro. An 8-ounce box of curry comes in two 4-ounce blocks, so it is easy to mix two different sauces.
I have bought the medium hot blocks for my Japanese curry. However, overall this is not a spicy dish. Next time I may try the hot version.
Note if you do not have an Asian grocery store in your area these blocks are easily ordered online. Of course, you can always try making your own sauce following the recipe from Just One Cookbook.
Many Japanese curry recipes use chicken. This is how I have tried it at World Curry. In my mind the Japanese curry brown sauce called out for beef. To me this seems like the Japanese version of beef stew.
Japanese curry is perfect for the Instant Pot. Like most stews, I put it through two cycles. I cook the meat for 25 minutes and let the steam release. I then add the vegetables and curry blocks and cook it for an additional 10 minutes.
This recipe has become an immediate family favorite and has joined our regular menu rotation. Of course, we serve it with rice cooked in our Zojirushi Japanese rice cooker. The Instant Pot works as a rice cooker, but one issue is you can’t cook a rice and stew at the same time. We are huge fans of the Japanese Zojirushi brand and in addition to the rice cooker we own a Zojirushi bread maker and a water boiler.
There is one restaurant in San Diego that specializes in Japanese curry, Zen Curry in Kearny Mesa. This restaurant just opened in June 2019 and we have yet to try it out. Based on the San Diego Reader review of Zen Curry, they serve multiple styles. It appears, I have just scratched the surface of Japanese curry styles.
Instant Pot Japanese Curry
Equipment
- Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef stew
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or butter
- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon ginger minced
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 4 carrots cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1.5 pounds potatoes cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 8- ounce package curry blocks
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to sauté. Add vegetable oil and heat. Brown beef cube on all sides. Add onions and garlic and sauté for about a minute.
- Add chicken broth, salt, pepper, ginger, Worcestershire and soy sauce. Cook on high pressure for 25 minutes. Allow to natural release for 10 minutes.
- Add potatoes, carrots and curry blocks. Cook at high pressure and additional 10 minutes. Allow to natural release for 10 minutes.
- Stir and serve with rice.
For more info on the Instant Pot check out our Top 10 Instant Pot Tips and our Top 10 Instant Pot Recipes
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