Dinner is solved on a busy weeknight with this easy and delicious Pressure Cooker Japanese Curry using an Instant Pot!
My Instant Pot has been saving me plenty of time cooking for my family’s dinner. It has so many conveniences, but my favorite part is I am also able to cook up complex dishes like this Pressure Cooker Japanese Curry without having to sacrifice the flavors.
The actual pressure cooking time is only 15 minutes, and you don’t even have to be in the kitchen if you use an electric pressure cooker. I simply add the ingredients in the pot, set up the timer, go out for my kids’ activity, and come home for a fabulous dinner ready to eat. Who’s in?
Japanese Curry Rice カレーライス
Have you heard of Japanese curry or Curry Rice (Karē Raisu)? If not, it’s best described as mild and thick curry. Even though curry was originally from Southeast Asia, it has become one of the most popular foods in Japan enjoyed by people of all ages.
Japanese curry is always served with steamed rice, and the common ingredients include a variety of proteins (chicken, beef, pork, seafood), potatoes, onions, and carrots.
To make Thai or Indian curry, you would add the curry spices from the very beginning. However, Japanese curry is seasoned with curry roux toward the end of cooking. Until then it’s just a plain soup/stew.
What is Japanese Curry Roux?
As I mentioned earlier, Japanese curry is seasoned with curry roux. Typically made from fat and flour, roux is a type of thickening agent used for thickening soups and sauces.
Most Japanese make curry with a boxed Japanese curry roux like this (picture above). You can find different spice levels and various brands of curry roux at Japanese or Asian grocery stores. These days I can even find it in the Asian aisle at American supermarkets.
If you prefer to make curry roux from scratch and have an additional 30 minutes to spare, check out my Homemade Curry Roux recipe. All you need is flour, butter, curry powder, and additional spice.
Personalize the Store-Bought Curry with Additional Seasonings
Growing up in Japan, curry rice was a “fast food” for my family; the food that my mom made ahead of time or the previous day when she knew that she couldn’t prepare dinner in time.
I always saw my mom adding grated apples and different condiments to the curry while she was making them. She said, “If you put just the boxed curry roux, your curry will always taste the same. It will not be different from your neighbor’s curry.”
So she taught me two tricks. Use two different brands of curry roux (sometimes mix the spice level, like mild and medium spicy) and use additional seasonings.
My mom and I would use the combination of the following ingredients.
- Chocolate
- Coffee
- Butter
- Yogurt
- Grated apple
- Honey
- Red wine or sake
- Oyster sauce
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Tonkatsu sauce
- Soy sauce (used in this recipe)
- Ketchup (used in this recipe)
Other ingredients that my mom or I haven’t added in our curry include peanut butter, marmalade, and banana. Do you add any additional flavoring to your Japanese curry?
Sign up for the free Just One Cookbook newsletter delivered to your inbox! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram for all the latest updates.
Pressure Cooker Japanese Curry
Video
Ingredients
- 3 onions (large; 2¼ lb, 1,005 g)
- 1½ carrots (5 oz, 143 g)
- 3 Yukon gold potatoes (15 oz, 432 g)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp ginger (grated, with juice)
- 1½ lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs (see Notes for substitutions)
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper
For the Curry Sauce
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil (for cooking)
- 3 cups chicken stock/broth (for lower sodium, use water only or half stock and half water)
- 1 package Japanese curry roux (7–8 oz or 200–230 g; or make my Japanese Curry Roux)
- 1 Tbsp ketchup
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
For Serving
- 6 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice
- fukujinzuke (Japanese red pickled vegetables) (optional; or make my Homemade Fukujinzuke)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Please read my blog post about options for add-on condiments to season the curry sauce.
To Prepare the Ingredients
- Cut 3 onions in half and cut each half into 5 wedges.
- Peel 1½ carrots and cut into bite-sized pieces. I use a Japanese cutting technique called rangiri. This cut creates more surface area, which helps the carrots absorb more flavor and cook faster. Tip: You can cut the vegetables slightly bigger to avoid a mushy texture.
- Peel 3 Yukon gold potatoes and cut them into quarters. Soak them in water for 15 minutes to remove the excess starch. Tip: Do not use russet potatoes since they would break down too easily.
- Mince 2 cloves garlic (I like this garlic press). Then, grate the ginger with a microplane zester or ceramic grater and reserve 1 tsp ginger (grated, with juice).
- Cut 1½ lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces. I use the sogigiri Japanese cutting technique to create more surface area and flatten each piece so it cooks faster. Season with ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper.
To Cook the Curry
- Press the Sauté button on your Instant Pot (I use a 6 QT Instant Pot) or preheat a stovetop pressure cooker over medium heat. When the inner pot is hot, add 1 Tbsp neutral oil.
- Then, add the onion wedges, minced garlic, and grated ginger with juice.
- Add the chicken pieces to the pot and mix until just coated with the oil.
- Add the carrots and potatoes to the pot and mix well.
- Add 3 cups chicken stock/broth and use a spatula to press down the meat and vegetables into the liquid. Then, place the cubes from 1 package Japanese curry roux (I combine half mild and half medium spicy packaged roux) on top of the other ingredients. DO NOT MIX! Otherwise, the roux may sink to the bottom of the pot and burn while cooking. For solidified homemade roux, place the cubes on top of the ingredients and do not mix. For non-solidified homemade roux (that you just made), add it after pressure cooking is done.
- Cover and lock the lid. Make sure the Instant Pot‘s steam release handle points to Sealing and not Venting. Press the Keep Warm/Cancel button on the Instant Pot to stop sautéing. Then, press the Meat/Stew button to switch to pressure cooking. Press the “minus“ button to change the cooking time to 15 minutes.
- For a Stovetop Pressure Cooker: Close and lock the lid. Set the pressure level to high. Heat the pot on the stovetop over medium-high heat until you‘ve reached high pressure. Then, reduce the heat to medium low to maintain high pressure, and cook for 15 minutes.
- When it is finished cooking, the Instant Pot will switch automatically to the Keep Warm mode. Slide the steam release handle to Venting to let out steam until the float valve drops down, OR let the pressure release naturally (this takes about 15 minutes).
- Unlock the lid. (If you‘re using homemade curry roux, add it to the pot now and heat on Sauté mode for an additional 5 minutes until well blended into the stew.) Add 1 Tbsp ketchup and 1 Tbsp soy sauce now. Mix well, stirring to dissolve the curry roux and checking one last time that there are no undissolved chunks left. Tip: If you use my unsalted homemade curry roux, taste the curry sauce now and add salt to your liking. I recommend adding 2–4 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt, but this will vary based on the brand of the chicken broth and condiments you added.
To Serve
- Portion 6 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice on individual plates and serve the curry on top. Serve with optional fukujinzuke (Japanese red pickled vegetables) on the side.
To Store
- Keep the leftovers in a glass airtight container and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month. The texture of the potatoes will change in the freezer, so remove them before freezing. 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 until loosened. Then, gently reheat it on low heat. If the sauce seems thin, continue heating with the lid off to reduce the sauce.
Made this without ginger or ketchup but added a block of dark chocolate it turned out amazing.
Hi Vis! Dark chocolate! Delicious!! Thank you for your feedback! 🙂
I am making this tonight – it’s a great dish for camping! We eat well when we camp.
Hi Dana! Hope you enjoyed the curry at the camp! 🙂
It was delicious as always! It draws a crowd with the delicious aromas!
Please share more Japanese. If you have any Vietnamese or Cambodian recipes for the pressure cooker, please share.
Thank you again!
Hi Dana! Thank you! SO glad to hear that. Hmmm if I have some good recipes, I will! 🙂
Thank you for doing an instant pot recipe, I love that I can make curry faster. Normally, I use leftover curry for chicken katsu, but my husband and I decided to try it out on hot dogs. Just has to share that curry dogs are amazing, and much better than a chili dog
Hi Callie! Oh wow, on hot dogs! Curry dogs!!! Thanks for sharing your delicious tip! xoxo
Konnichiwa from Mexico City! As I bingewatched Terrace House (oh the shame) I couldnt help myself – I was craving some curry. I’ve just made this recipe in my Ninja Foodi, and used your curry paste recipe. Now, I’ve made Japanese curry before with store bought curry tablets and I know you keep saying your paste is not an exact replica – no it’s not, yours is WAY BETTER! The whole thing turned out delicious, even to my picky 6 y/o daughter. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Konnichiwa Bruna! Ha! We were the same, we bingewatched Terrace House as much as we could in one day. LOL. I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the homemade curry roux. Thank you for your kind feedback. It made me happy! xoxo
This was delicious! I was wondering for future attempts if I only need a single batch of the homemade roux or if I need to make as much as the packaged kind.
Hi Anya! It depends on how much liquid is used for the curry you are making. 🙂
I tried this recipe for the first time, substituting beef for chicken and it turned out perfectly. Reminded me of the meals I would eat when I lived and worked in Japan. Some of the best comfort food imaginable. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! It will be one I use often.
Hi Jarrett! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m really happy to hear you enjoyed it. Japanese curry always hits the spot when you need comfort food. 🙂
I love this recipe, but I do make a couple of changes. First, I sub the chicken and chicken broth out for stew beef and beef broth. Then I add a cup extra of the broth, this helps cut back on the weird film the curry sauce leaves in your mouth. Finally, I add A1 steak sauce and sometimes some siracha.
Hi Michael! I’m so glad you enjoy this recipe! Ohhh I LOVE A1 steak sauce! Such a great add-on condiment idea! Thanks for sharing!
I found this site about a little over a month ago, and have made the scratch recipe roughly once a week since then. I just got my instantpot today and am super excited to try this recipe! I have a duo-mini, since it’s usually just my husband and I, and we have a small apartment space; what would you say the recommended serving would be for an instantpot of this size?
Hi Quinley! Congrats on getting an Instant Pot! Duo Mini is 3 QT so I would say cut everything in the recipe in half? That should work. 🙂 Hope you enjoy the recipe!
This was a lot of work, as I made my own curry roux using your recipe, but it was fabulous and so worth all the extra homemade steps. I used some sweet potatoes and it added another layer of flavor. Thanks so much, will be making this again!
Hi Wendy! Thank you for trying this recipe, including the homemade roux! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it. Thanks very much for your kind feedback. 🙂
Love it! Surly an easier way than boil for 40 mins! Thank you for sharing!!
Thank you for trying tihs recipe, Kaitlyn! I’m happy to hear you liked it. 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, I’ve been looking for some good Japanese instant pot recipes. The only issue I have with this is that I like to make curry AND rice at the same time, naturally. And I use my IP for the rice cooker (I don’t have a dedicated rice cooker)…. so either one of them has to be done on the stovetop haha
Hi jagbot! Ha! That’s one of the reasons why I don’t use IP for cooking rice. 🙂 But here’s what you could do – 1) make the steamed rice ahead and freeze (https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-freeze-rice/). Best way to keep the fresh rice! But you have to have a microwave for this method. 2) Buy another IP inner pot (they sell non-stick for rice cooking purpose), and you cook the steamed rice first and then swap the inner pot to cook curry. 3) Yeah, cook rice in a pot over stovetop… 😀
Super happy to have found this! I don’t care for coconut milk, so Japanese style is my fave curry. I have to eat very low sodium and ready made curry cubes are loaded with salt. I made this in and Instant Pot mini (3 qt). I reduced to 1 onion so there was room for some zucchini and used no salt added stock. Increased cook time to 17 minutes because the mini cooks at a lower pressure than the larger models. There is going to be a lot of curry in my future!
Hi Diane! I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe and thank you for your feedback! I wasn’t aware that the smaller IP model requires longer cooking time due to the pressure level. Thank you for letting me know! I learned something new today! 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback, Diane!
I make this dish all the time now! I do have a question about the time on the pressure cooker. Do I need to reduce or increase the cook time for the curry if I half the recipe? My household only has two people and it would help to cut the recipe in half.
Hi Rylan! If the amount of meat is half then you can reduce the cooking time a bit. The vegetables should be cooked pretty fast, but the meat is the only ingredient you should think carefully. 🙂
Thank you for your Japanese meal with Instant pot.
Recently I got this and so much interesting cooking with pot. And found you . I’m Japanese. And bunch of cooking that I want to using with Pot.
Today, I was making Curry and some veges with water and Curry Paste (like store bought same as yours ) with leftover my previously making curry . I did set up for 15 min Stew button. Some point I noticed indicating ” Burning” so I was freaking out ! LOL and turn off and doing mix up and doing again for 10 min . And again ” burning ” . So I think this is already enough to cooking this. So turn off. Is this something wrong that I was adding leftover curry ? or Should I do push button Pressure cooker instead that you were doing ” Meat and Stew ” button ??
Thank you for your effort !!
Hi Yuri! Glad you got the Instant Pot too! 🙂
At Step 11, I mentioned to “Keep the curry roux blocks on top (no mixing). If you use homemade roux, add it after pressure cooking is done.” Instant Pot can’t handle roux, white sauce type milk ingredients, and thick sauce as the temperature gets too high and can’t control those ingredients (mentioned in the manuals). Therefore, they recommend to add it later AFTER pressure cooking.
I found out that you “can” add the roux before pressure cooking AS LONG AS you leave the roux on top of the ingredients WITHOUT MIXING. If you mix, the thick roux will go down (it’s heavier) and of course, the warning will turn on. Many JOC found it works just fine if you don’t mix it. Hope this helps!
That’s one of the best recipe I’ve used so far. Keep up the great job 🙂
Hi Daniel! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂