Japanese-Style Chicken Curry

Curries are a delicious and flavorful food to try!  Curry from different countries taste completely different due to the types of spices used to create them.  My favorite type of curry is the Japanese-style since I was never great at eating spicy food and their mild curry is truly very mild.

My favorite curry restaurant from NYC is GO!GO!Curry!  They are so authentic to their Japanese origins and they have a great brand.  If you dine in at one of their small tables, you can watch their original Japanese restaurant's staff and mascot doing their antics back in Japan on TV.  I watched one episode where they packed maybe a hundred curry bento boxes for this children's baseball team's lunch.  It was sweet and I stared at the boxes piled high with envy.  I also watched people attempting the curry challenges to eat a monster-sized portion of katsu curry within 30 minutes to get it for free.  GO!GO!Curry! has such a fun brand with lots of deals, and they host annual curry-eating competitions.  Check them out if you're ever in NYC (or in Japan)!

I've always bought a box of Japanese Golden Curry Sauce to dissolve in water and make at home.  Here's how I make my version! :)

Japanese-Style Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 box of Golden Curry Sauce Mix 8.4oz (mild or whatever you can handle in spiciness)
• 1.5-2 pounds of raw chicken (thighs, tenders, or breasts--I prefer tenders or thighs)
• 3-4 medium-sized yellow (Spanish) onions
• 4 medium-large russet potatoes (Eastern potatoes work as well)
• 3-4 carrots (I'm a picky eater so I don't include carrots in my curry)
• Salt and pepper

Ingredients-wise, you're essentially preparing a big pot of stew.  You can pick and choose how much of each ingredient you'd like to have, but it's best to have an even amount of each item.  When you chop it all up, you'll see how everything stacks up.  Most curries include meat, potatoes, onions, and sometimes, carrots.  I usually only use chicken, potato, and onion in mine.  Japanese restaurants will often serve fried pork (katsu) or chicken cutlets over the rice covered with curry sauce.

The box of curry sauce claims to be enough for 12 servings.  The sauce comes in condensed cubes that you can then add into the water and dissolve.  To prepare the full box, 8.5oz, you'll want to use a stockpot to get the most out of it.  There are directions on the box stating how much water to use.  Remember, you're going to be adding in a lot of ingredients, so the pot should not be completely full when you first boil it!  Also, depending on how thick you want your sauce to be, adding too much water will only water down your sauce.

1. Fill your stockpot with water.  The more water you use, the more watery and less flavorful your sauce will turn out.  Start with the directed amount of water and set it to boil on medium-high heat.  While your water is heating up, prepare the ingredients.  I like to start with the chicken.
   
2. Trim and discard the fat on your chicken before cutting it up into bite-sized pieces (about an inch or less in width).  You'll want to maintain a square/cube shape.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
   
3. Wash your hands (and board, if you're using the same one), then prepare the onions.  Cut off the ends and peel the outer layers off.  Chop into squares or slice into strips--I prefer squares.
   
4. Next, peel your potatoes and cube them.  Remember, you're looking for a consistent size/shape so that everything mixes well.  At this point, your water may be boiling.  You can throw the potatoes into the pot to boil.
   
5. Prepare a frying pan for the chicken.  Add a little vegetable oil with the heat on medium.  When the oil is hot, add the chicken to the pan.  When it is partially cooked, add in the onions to cook as well.  You can turn off the stove when the chicken is fully cooked or no longer pink.
   
6. When the potatoes are softened, you'll want to start mixing in the sauce cubes.  I use chopsticks to hold onto a small cube and gently stir it in the water.  It dissolves quite quickly into the hot water.  You don't have to do it like I do, but I suggest adding one cube at a time until it is mostly dissolved before adding in the next one.  You'll see as you add in the sauce cubes, the sauce will thicken up quite nicely.
   
7. After you have added and dissolved all of the sauce cubes, you're ready to add in the chicken and onions. You'll want to stir every 10-15 minutes to keep things from sticking to the bottom of the pot.  You can turn down the heat to medium-low and let it simmer.
   
8. Now, the secret ingredient!  Mix your curry with LOVE!  The best part about curry is that it tastes great for days after you first make it.  This is because the longer you let it simmer, the more flavorful the meat and veggies get.  They really soak up the curry flavor and become so delicious.  If you're looking to serve your curry on the day of, you might want to let it simmer for an hour or so before serving.  It is great over some fresh white rice, but you can also try curry with noodles!