Kare Raisu (Japanese Curry Rice with Chicken)

Why This Recipe Works

Kare raisu, or curry rice, is Japan's go-to comfort food: a bowl filled with fragrant spiced stew (the curry) on one side and a mound of steamed rice on the other. Cooks typically make the curry by adding a commercial curry-roux “brick” (roux that's seasoned with Japanese curry powder and sometimes umami boosters, and solidified) to the cooking liquid, doctoring the velvety gravy with additional seasonings, and bulking it up with vegetables and/or proteins. But it's easy to fully customize the dish by making your own curry roux, and the bricks freeze well and are great for pulling out anytime you need a fast, hearty meal. In this version, the roux was cooked only until golden brown (not darker, like many commercial versions) to allow the spices to stand out and to maximize the roux's thickening power since browning the fat-flour paste weakens its ability to thicken liquid. Carefully blending the spices resulted in a warm, delicately sweet-savory curry powder, and starting with commercial ground spices made for a smoother curry than one made from spices ground at home. Adding a little sugar and miso rounded out the flavors of the curry roux, and refrigerating it in a loaf pan molded it into a flat “brick” that could easily be halved and used to make two batches of curry rice. To make the stew, we sautéed aromatics (onions, garlic, ginger) and chunks of seasoned boneless, skinless chicken thighs (succulent and easy to prep); added chicken broth as well as carrots and potatoes (both classic in Japanese curry); and simmered until everything was cooked through. The curry-roux brick plus dashes of soy and Worcestershire sauces added during the last few minutes of cooking seasoned and thickened the stew.