Easy Japanese Curry

Nov 8, 2022 · 201 Comments

Japanese Curry is the perfect cozy meal for busy nights. Thanks to store-bought curry roux blocks, it’s full of flavor with little effort.

Two bowls full of steamed white rice and Japanese curry with potatoes, onions and carrots. A small bowl of green onions sits in the background.

This Japanese curry recipe is so easy it honestly feels a little embarrassing to write a recipe for it. But it’s one of my favorite things to make on busy weeknights, and many folks have asked me for a recipe, so here it is!

The beauty of this recipe is its infinite adaptability. I recommend including onions every time, but aside from that, the world is your oyster. I love including potatoes and carrots in mine, but I’ve also made it with butternut squash, zucchini, pea pods… The list goes on. Whatever might taste delicious draped in a thick, luxurious blanket of curry sauce (so basically, anything on earth) would be welcome in the mix.

Potatoes, carrots and onions chopped into big chunks on a wooden cutting board

What are curry roux blocks?

This recipe gets both its flavor and its speed from store-bought curry roux blocks. These are blocks of curry sauce, made with fat and flour to keep them shelf-stable and help create a thick curry. Most curry roux comes in a box containing a few portions, which look a bit like a chocolate bar. You can use the whole block to make a big pot of curry or break off a single block for a smaller portion.

A package of Japanese curry roux, opened and broken apart to show the texture

I use S&B brand’s Hot variety and have had luck finding it at just about any grocery store, from Whole Foods to Kroger to my local Asian grocer. It’s affordable, accessible and quite delicious. A note about flavor: I have a medium spice tolerance and find S&B’s Hot flavor rather mild. If you like your food spicy, I recommend the Extra Hot; if you don’t love spice at all, try the mild or medium.

What you’ll need to make this Japanese Curry:

Curry roux blocks. This is, objectively speaking, the most important ingredient. There are recipes out there for homemade curry seasoning, but truthfully, I think these premade curry roux blocks are delicious and perfect just as they are. While I’m usually a proponent of doing things yourself, sometimes the grocery store really just knows best. This is one of those times.
Onions. This is the one vegetable I don’t recommend swapping out. I usually use a yellow onion or sweet onion, which I chop into big pieces and sauté before adding the rest of the veg.
Speaking of which, we’ll need some other veg. Potatoes and carrots are the gold standard you’ll find in most recipes, but feel free to get creative! Think of this recipe as a basic set of instructions, from which you can deviate and dream up your own go-to curry combos.
Protein. I almost always make this into a katsu curry by topping my bowl with Chicken Katsu. But, of course, you can also just mix in your favorite protein, like beef, chicken, shrimp or tofu.
Water. It may seem like plain water will make this bland, but the curry roux has all the flavor you need already built in! I’ve tried swapping out broth or stock in place of the water and it’s ended up too salty. If you have a no-salt broth, you can try using that instead, but it’s not necessary.
Green onions and rice, for serving. You can also toss this curry with noodles — try making curry udon!

More easy weeknight recipes:
One-Pan Chicken Pesto Gnocchi Bake
Spicy Pork and Cabbage Noodles
Creamy Mushroom Fettuccine

Did you make this recipe? If you loved it, please leave a ⭐5-star rating⭐ and/or leave a comment below the recipe card! And don’t forget to share a photo and tag me on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok — I love seeing you recreate my recipes.