Rich, aromatic, and packed with complex flavors, this Japanese Bone-In Chicken Curry is delicious right out of the gate! It’s extra comforting to serve it Japanese style over steamed rice. Since the spices are on the milder side, this curry is a favorite even among children.
Japanese curry or Kare (カレー) is one of the nation’s most popular comfort foods. To satisfy the frequent cravings, we have a decent array of curry menus – from Curry Udon and Curry Doria, to Curry Bread and Katsu Curry – all delicious in their own right.
Today’s recipe is Bone-In Chicken Curry (骨付きチキンカレー). It takes slightly longer to cook because of the bone-in meat, but you get super tender chicken and mega flavorful thick curry sauce that reign supreme.
How to Cook Bone-In Chicken Curry
Ingredients You’ll Need
You will only need simple pantry ingredients to make this dish.
- Bone-in, skin-on, chicken thighs (for the best flavor!)
- Onions
- Carrots
- Yukon gold potato (You can also use Russet potato, but it dissolves more easily)
- Green peas
- Garlic
- Chicken stock (You can use less-sodium one, and add salt if necessary)
- Sake
- Japanese curry roux (store-bought or homemade)
- Soy sauce
- Mirin
5 Easy Cooking Steps
- Cut ingredients and season the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Brown the chicken first, then take it out, and saute the onion till tender.
- Add the chicken back along with sake and stock, and let it simmer for 45 minutes.
- Add the carrot and potato and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Add curry roux, seasonings, and green peas. Serve and enjoy!
Helpful Cooking Tips
- Prick the chicken skin with a knife/fork – This technique will cook the chicken from the inside out keeping it moist and flavorsome, while the fat oozes out to crisp up the skin.
- Cut the onion into wedges for texture – I love sweet, tender, caramelized onion in the curry. I cut the onion into thick wedges, which add some texture to the curry.
- Cut the carrot and potato in similar size – Cut these two veggies into bite-size, small pieces, as we will only cook for 15 minutes. We do not want to overcook them.
- Brown the skin side first until the skin releases itself – Chicken skin releases fat which equals to flavors. The skin will first stick to the pan, but once it’s crisp up, you can easily flip the chicken.
- Saute the onion till tender and caramelized – For extra flavor boost!
- Turn off the heat while you dissolve curry roux – Once curry is in, keep the heat at the lowest. Curry will burn too easily.
- Use two different brands of curry roux (sometimes mix the spice level, like mild and medium spicy) – Store-bought curry doesn’t have to be boring! Mix it up so it’s not always same old flavor.
- Adjust the consistency of the curry – You can always adjust the thickness of the curry with stock/water. If your chicken stock is salty, use water.
- Add soy sauce and mirin – Why? Read the next section.
Personalize Store-bought Curry with Additional Seasonings
Many home cooks in Japan add some kind of condiments/seasonings to give additional layers of flavors to the store-bought curry. Today I added mirin for mild sweetness and soy sauce for umami, but you can add different seasonings. Here are the common add-ons.
- Butter
- Chocolate
- Coffee
- Grated apple
- Honey
- Ketchup
- Mirin
- Oyster sauce
- Red wine
- Sake
- Soy sauce
- Tonkatsu sauce
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Yogurt
Have you tried any of the flavor add-ons? If so, what are some of your favorites?
What to Serve with Bone-In Chicken Curry
Typically, Japanese curry is served with steamed rice, along with Pickled Rakkyo (Shallots) and Fukujinzuke and a bowl of salad.
- Fukujinzuke (福神漬) – It is lightly brined in a sweet soy sauce and does not undergo fermentation. The crunchy condiment is more like a chunky chutney, served with Japanese curry. It features seven vegetables as the name inspired by the Seven Lucky Gods (七福神).
- Rakkyo (ラッキョウ) – A pickle of the bulb of Chinese onions/shallots, Rakkyo can be pickled in salt, soy sauce, or sweet vinegar. It resembles a garlic clove but with a taste similar to shallots.
Check out our various salad recipes and salad dressings on the blog!
Other Curry Recipes You May Enjoy
- Chicken Curry
- Beef Curry
- Pressure Cooker Seafood Curry
- Pressure Cooker Japanese Curry
- Sapporo Soup Curry
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Bone-In Chicken Curry
Video
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs (1.8 lb, 800 g)
- ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 onions (1 lb, 454 g)
- 1 Yukon gold potato (6.5 oz, 184 g)
- 2 carrots (4 oz, 113 g)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced or crushed)
- ¼ cup green peas (1.3 oz, 36 g)
- 2 Tbsp neutral oil (for cooking)
For the Curry Sauce
- ¼ cup sake
- 2 cups chicken stock/broth (or use vegetable stock)
- ½ cup water (add more if needed)
- ½ package Japanese curry roux (3.5–4.2 oz, 100–120 g; or make my homemade curry roux; I use 2 different brands and mix)
- 1 Tbsp mirin
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
To Prepare the Ingredients
- Prick skin of 4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs with the tip of your knife (so the flavors will penetrate the skin). Cut off the excess fat with a pair of scissors (or knife).
- Season the chicken with ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides.
- Cut 2 onions into wedges. The wedge cut adds more texture; however, you can also thinly slice or dice.
- Peel and cut 1 Yukon gold potato into 8 pieces.
- Peel and cut 2 carrots into bite-size pieces. Here, I use the Japanese rangiri cutting technique. Set aside the vegetables on a tray or plate.
To Cook the Curry
- In a large pot (I use a Dutch oven), heat 1 Tbsp neutral oil on medium-high heat. When it’s hot, sear the chicken on the skin side first. Do not crowd the pan to avoid steaming the chicken and cook in batches if necessary.
- Flip the chicken and cook the other side for 2 minutes and then transfer to a plate until the rest is done.
- Add the onion to the pot and coat with the oil using a wooden spoon/spatula. If there is not enough oil, add ½–1 Tbsp more oil.
- Add the minced/crushed 3 cloves garlic and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender. If the burnt spots on the bottom of the pot need some scraping, you can add sake here (instead of the next step) to loosen them up.
- Add the chicken back into the pot and add ¼ cup sake.
- Add 2 cups chicken stock/broth and ½ cup water, just enough to almost cover the chicken. If you use a larger pot, it may not cover, so please adjust the amount of stock/water. This is not a soupy curry, so we do not need much liquid.
- Cover the lid and bring it to a simmer. When simmering, skim the scum and foam with a fine-mesh skimmer.
- Cook covered on low heat for 45 minutes.
- Add the carrots and potatoes and make sure they are submerged in the cooking liquid.
- Cook covered until they are tender, about 15 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and dissolve ½ package Japanese curry roux, one cube at a time in a ladleful of hot broth. When the first cube is dissolved, release it to the broth and mix gently without breaking the tender vegetables. Repeat the process until you finish dissolving all the roux.
- Add 1 Tbsp mirin and 1 Tbsp soy sauce. Mix all together and check the taste. You can add water to loosen the curry if it's too thick. I added 2 Tbsp water here. If your pot does not have a tight-fitting lid, your cooking liquid might have evaporated more than mine. Then add more water, if necessary. You can control the consistency of the curry here. This Bone-in Chicken Curry should have a thicker sauce than my other regular curry, but please adjust the consistency to your liking.
- Add ¼ cup green peas and cook for another minute. Serve the curry with steamed rice.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for a month. Remove the potatoes as they change texture once frozen. Defrost the frozen curry in the refrigerator for 24 hours before you want to reheat it.
To Reheat
- Leftover curry sauce will thicken into a paste as it cools, so it tends to burn while reheating. To avoid this, stir ½ cup (120 ml) water or more into the leftover sauce to loosen. Then, gently reheat it on low heat. If the sauce seems thin, continue heating with the lid off to reduce the sauce.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on May 6, 2011. The images have been updated in May 2, 2021 and a new video has been added.
Can you substitute sake with mirin? Can you omit sake and use just mirin when sake is needed in arecipe?
Hi Belle! Sake and Mirin are different, and Mirin is sweeter than Sake, so we recommend adjusting the sweetness.
Here are links where Nami talks about Sake, Mirin, and substitute.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/sake/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/mirin/
We hope this helps!
can i use bone less chicken?
Hi Iyama, Thank you for reading Nami’s post! Yes, you can use boneless chicken. However, the meat will cook faster, so you can shorten the cooking time to 20 minutes, or you can try Nami’s other chicken curry recipe (no bone) https://www.justonecookbook.com/simple-chicken-curry/.
We hope you enjoy Japanese curry!
This recipe brings bake memories from my 29s in San Francisco. I used to make chicken curry with the Japanese curry paste bars, but cannot use them anymore because they contain gluten. Could you give us a recipe for the curry paste so I could alter it to work for me?
Hi Barbara! Thank you for reading Nami’s post!
Nami has a delicious homemade curry roux recipe to share with you!
https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-make-curry-roux/
You can use gluten-free flour instead of all-purpose flour. Enjoy!
I made this for dinner tonight. It was delicious. Thank you for this recipe.
Hi Shirlee, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed Homemade Curry!
Do you have a good homemade curry recipe instead of using the roux box? I would also like a healthy version please. Thanks!
Hi shakuroo! Yes, we do!
Nami mentioned it in the recipe card, and here is the link for it! https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-make-curry-roux/
We hope you enjoy it. Thank you for trying Nami’s recipes! 🙂
I use ripe crushed banana to sweeten it. I read a lot of Japanese housewives do that because they
like their curries sweet and it makes it more enjoyable for children. Also use a dash of tomato ketchup soy sauce and Shaoxing.
Hi John! Awesome! Thank you very much for sharing your cooking tips! 😊
During the long months, of safe insulation, exploring old recipes from another angel is elevating. Even in seasonally warmer months we experience cool nights. The curry recipe is my favorite, because it is wholesome, uncomplicated, and novel to the standard American fare. Thank you so much Sensei!
Hi George! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the Curry recipe.🙂
Really amazing and delicious. Thank you for sharing it.
Hi Justin, We are glad to hear you enjoyed this Curry!
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
Nami, this Japanese chicken curry recipe is delicious. I made it last night using your curry roux recipe and added a tbsp of tomato paste (personal preference). Everyone loved it! Thank you.
Hi Kailey! I’m so happy to hear you tried this recipe and enjoyed it! Thank you very much for your kind feedback! xo 🙂
Me and my boyfriend tried this recipe and we both loved it!! Your recipes are fantastic!! ????????????????????
Hi Mao! I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. I appreciate it! 🙂
Discovered your site a year ago and love! Thanks for another great recipie.
Thanks so much Will! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my site. 🙂
Thank you so much for this recipe!!
I was looking for a meal for 10 servings, it was very easy to prepare and delicious!
I think i will try and cook lot of your japanese recipes,
Thanks again for sharing your talents!!
Hi Aurelie! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed this curry recipe! Hope you have some recipes that you like on my blog. Thank you for your kind words, Aurelie! 🙂
Love the additional flavors to S&B golden curry. I always use golden curry and love it. I enjoyed the additional ingredients of garlic, chicken broth, sake and mirin. I would exclude the soyu the next time as this seemed to be a ‘lil overbearing. Thank you, I did enjoy this recipe!
Hi Volcanogirl! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it. Thanks so much for your feedback! 🙂
Just wanted to let you know that I have used this recipe often and have loved it since the first time I made curry. My boyfriend is Japanese and he loves curry (it’s his favourite food), so I simply had to learn how to make it myself.
It was a big hit! Plus, my family at home also really appreciates this dish in the middle of winter in the Netherlands. Thank you for posting this lovely recipe.^^
Hi Sanne! I’m really happy to hear that your BF and you enjoyed this recipe. We really like it too and I need to update the photo so it looks more decent! Thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate it. 🙂
hey nami can i use chicken breast instead of thigh?
Yes you can use chicken breast but only cook for 15-20 minutes, not need to cook for that long. 🙂