Japanese Chicken Curry - The next time that you're looking to make a one-pot meal, this quick chicken curry is sure to be a perfect choice. With the rich flavors of a classic Japanese curry, this single pot dinner is a real winner, (winner, chicken dinner!!).
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For a More Home-Style Chicken Dish, try our Roasted Chicken With Herbs
In learning to cook curries as well as a lot of Indian and Asian recipes, there are some interesting techniques that should be followed that are not immediately obvious. In French or continental cuisines, one would never use so many spices, as well as frying them in the beginning would be unheard of.
A little note for any curry purists out there. This recipe is kind of an amalgam of several different styles, and therefore not absolutely authentic to any of them really. I will be writing a overview article about curries in general that will cover the history, variations, and minutiae in the future.
Oh, and did I mention, this is gluten free! It can also be easily dairy free with a dairy free broth or bouillon, the one used has milk whey as an ingredient.
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Ingredients For Chicken Curry and Mint Chutney
Curry:
- peeled cubed fresh sweet potatoes
- peeled cubed gold potatoes
- peeled cubed carrots
- fresh jalapeno, thinly sliced
- fresh ginger
- curry powder
- ground coriander
- ground cumin
- yellow onion, peeled and small diced
- skinless and boneless chicken thighs, chopped to bite size pieces
- garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- frozen peas
- cilantro, picked and coursed chopped
- bay leaves
- cornstarch
- chicken bouillon, (or chicken stock)
- dried red chilis, (optional, we have whole cayenne chilis from the garden)
- vegetable oil
- soy milk
- salt
- black pepper
Mint chutney:
- cucumber, peeled, cored, and rough chopped
- fresh mint
- fresh jalapeno chilis
- fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
- lemon
- salt
- sugar
Instructions For Chicken Curry and Mint Chutney
Gather, peel, and chop all ingredients.
Let me take this time to share a few chef tips about fresh ginger. First of all, peeling it. You needn't risk your fingers whittling away at it with a paring knife or peeler, just use the end of a spoon as shown. Alternately, you can keep it frozen and grate it on a microplane, or grind it up in a blender with just enough water to make it work, and freeze it in an ice tray. Neither of these two tricks require that you peel it at all!
Mix all of the chicken and dry spices together while getting your pot and oil hot and ready to cook, the spices benefit greatly from frying a bit with the meat.
Here you see the pot after the chicken and spices have gotten well acquainted with each other over medium high heat, and then the aromatic veg. is added. Notice the building of flavors in layers happening here. This is where your kitchen will start smelling delicious!
After adding liquid ingredients, add in the root vegetables, and bring to a slow boil, so the vegetables don't break up, and remain intact.
Always add the peas right towards the end, so that they will not get mushy, and they will remain nice and bright green.
Add soy milk, make a slurry out of the cornstarch with some water, bring it to a boil, stirring in the starch slowly and gently to thicken.
Simmer for 10 minutes to cook out the starch bitterness, serve over your favorite rice, season to taste with mint chutney.
The chutney is incredibly easy, put all of the ingredients into the blender and pulse until smooth.
Variations On Chicken Curry, Mint Chutney
Feel free to play with this recipe in a number of different ways:
- we used soy milk, but any milk will work to add richness, coconut being very traditional.
- you can vary your desired level of spice by changing the amount, (and/or the type)of the chilis used. the heat level of this is about a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.
- If you would like to use chicken broth, just omit the bouillon and use the broth instead of the water.
- this recipe makes 8 large portions, but can be scaled back by just dividing the amounts of everything down without having to make any adjustments.
- we serve this with Japanese style sticky rice, but it is great with whatever your favorite rice would be, basmati being the Indian go-to, and jasmine for Thai or Vietnamese.
Recipe
Easy Chicken Curry with Spicy Mint Chutney
Equipment
- 1 large stock pot
- 1 large kitchen spoon
- 1 set of measuring spoons
- 1 set of measuring cups
- 1 Chef Knife
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Mixing Bowl
- 1 soup spoon
- 1 Blender
- 1 vegetable peeler
Ingredients
Curry
- 2 oz. fresh ginger root, peeled and minced measured by weight, about 2½ Tbspn.
- 6 oz. yellow onion, peeled and small diced approximately ½ of a large onion
- 1 oz. large fresh garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed about 4 each
- 2 oz. fresh jalapeno, stemmed and medium sliced 2 medium sized peppers
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 4 tbsp. curry powder look for "madras" on the label for typically higher quality and potency
- 1 tsp. ground coriander
- 3 each large bay leaves
- 2 each dried hot red chilis optional
- 1 tbsp. salt
- 2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 2¼ lb. chicken boneless and skinless thighs, cut into bite sized chunks
- 3 tbsp. vegetable oil soy, canola, or any light flavor will be fine
- 1¼ lb. gold potatoes, peeled and cut to large bite sized chunks
- 1 lb. fresh sweet potato, peeled and cut to large bite sized chunks
- ½ lb. carrot, peeled and cut to large bite sized chunks
- ¾ lb. frozen peas
- ½ gal. water if subbing broth for bouillon, use this instead here
- 3 tbsp. chicken bouillon paste
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro roughly picked and chopped, to be added to taste as fresh garnish
Spicy Mint Chutney
- 8 oz. cucumber, peeled, cored, and rough chopped
- ½ ounce fresh jalapeno, stem removed, rough chopped ½ of a single large chili, if making milder, chop a little smaller and add in parts, tasting as you go.
- 25-30 leaves fresh mint
- 1½ tsp. sugar
- ½ oz. fresh ginger, peeled and rough chopped
- 1 tbsp. salt
- 4 tbsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice roughly the juice of one large lemon
- ¼ cup cold water
Instructions
Curry
- gather and process all ingredients to proper size and state.
- heat stock pot over medium high heat
- In a bowl, combine chicken with all dry spices, toss together to coat
- add veg. oil to pot, allow to heat for a few seconds
- add chicken and spices to pot, increase heat to high
- stir occasionally to sear chicken and fry the spices lightly
- add onion, jalapeno, ginger, and garlic
- continue to stir through, allowing aromatics to sweat lightly
- combine chicken bouillon with water thoroughly, add liquid to pot
- add carrots, potatoes, and sweet potatoes
- bring to a rapid boil
- reduce to low boil/ rapid simmer
- cook until root vegetables become tender, about 20 minutes
- add soy milk
- add frozen peas
- combine corn starch with cold water to form a homogeneous "slurry"
- bring back to a steady boil over high/medium high heat
- stirring steadily with a spoon, add the starch mixture slowly until curry begins to thicken. be careful to to stir too vigorously, so as not to break up the potatoes
- reduce heat to low, simmer for 5 to 10 minutes in order to eliminate any starchy flavor
- serve over favorite rice with cilantro and mint chutney to taste
Mint chutney
- place all ingredients into blender
- pulse and blend until pureed
Jason
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