Japanese Curry Fried Rice (Dorai Karē Chāhan)

As mentioned last week in my post Japanese Dry Curry, Japanese Curry Fried Rice (Dorai Karē Chāhan) is another dish called Dry Curry (Dorai Karē) in Japan. It is basically a curry flavoured fried rice. But the flavouring is very close to the other Japanese Dry Curry. Fried egg is optional, but I strongly recommend having it with the Curry Fried Rice.

Like the state of New South Wales vs Victoria in Australia, Kanto (the eastern part of Japan) and Kansai (the western part of Japan) do things differently and tend to have an unspoken competition going on. Cooking is no exception. Sometimes, the same dish is made in a different way, like the method of cooking Sukiyaki, noodle soups as in Tempra Udon, and the sauce for Tenshinhan, to name a few.

Japanese Dry Curry is another example. The Kanto version of dry curry is the Keema curry-like curry as per my recipe Japanese Dry Curry, and the Kansai version of Dry Curry is today’s dish, Japanese Curry Fried Rice (Dorai Karē Chāhan). The word ‘chāhan’ means fried rice as mentioned in my recipe Japanese Fried Rice.

I don’t know when and how the fried rice version of Japanese Dry Curry came about. But what I know is that Japanese Curry Fried Rice is as delicious as the Keema curry-like Dry Curry.

What’s in My Japanese Curry Fried Rice (Dorai Karē Chāhan)

Fried Rice:

• Finely chopped onion
• Streaky bacon cut into thin strips
• Green and red capsicums finely diced
• Cooked rice
• Oil to sauté
• Butter (optional)

Curry Flavouring:

• Curry powder
• Worcestershire sauce
• Tomato ketchup
• Beef stock cube/powder
• Salt and pepper (not in the photo above)

Topping and Condiment (optional):

• Sunny-side up fried egg
• Chopped parsley

Onion is required to make a curry roux.  I used green and red capsicums to go into the fried rice, but you can use diced carrots, corn kernels, chopped green beans, and/or green peas.

Butter is to be added at the end to make the rice shiny. But you don’t have to have it.

The ingredients for the curry flavouring are very similar to the ingredients used for Japanese Dry Curry with ground meat. I added a small amount of crumbled stock cube to give additional flavour to the dish, but you can omit it and adjust the flavour with more salt if you like.

How to Make Japanese Curry Fried Rice (Dorai Karē Chāhan)

You need to sauté vegetables, then add the flavouring to make a curry roux, before mixing the rice in.

1. Sauté onion, then bacon.
2. Add curry powder and sauté.
3. Mix in Worcestershire sauce and tomato ketchup.
4. Add capsicum, mix, then add rice.
5. Stir until the rice grains are coated with the curry roux, then mix the butter at the end.
6. Make a sunny-side up fried egg.
7. Serve Dorai Karē Chāhan topped with a fried egg and scatter chopped parsley over.

I add capsicum just before adding rice. This is to prevent the capsicum from overcooking and becoming discoloured.

Fried egg is optional, but I strongly recommend putting an egg on the top. Some recipes put just a raw egg yolk in the middle. The idea behind the egg is that the spicy flavour of the curry-flavoured fried rice mellows when eaten with egg.

Just like the Keema curry-like Japanese Dry Curry, Japanese Curry Fried Rice is also very simple and fast to cook. It will be ready in less than 20 minutes! You can keep Japanese Curry Fried Rice for 1-2 days in the fridge. You can also freeze it for 1 month.

Since both types of Japanese Dry Curry use similar ingredients, I thought it might be best to introduce both of them without a gap so that you can compare them. Which Dorai Karē do you like better?

Yumiko

5 from 3 votes

Print

Japanese Curry Fried Rice (Dorai Karē Chāhan)

Prep Time

8 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

18 mins

 

Japanese Curry Fried Rice (Dorai Karē Chāhan) is another dish called Dry Curry in Japan. It is basically a curry flavoured fried rice. The flavouring is very close to the other Japanese Dry Curry Recipe. Fried egg is optional, but I strongly recommend having it with the Curry Fried Rice.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Main Dish, Rice

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: chāhan, curry dish, Japanese Curry recipe, Japanese Fried Rice

Serves: 1

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

Fried Rice

• 60g / 2.1oz onion finely chopped
• 50g / 1.8oz streaky bacon cut into thin strips (note 1)
• 30g / 1.1oz green capsicum finely diced (note 2)
• 30g / 1.1oz red capsicum finely diced (note 2)
• 170g / 6oz cooked rice
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp butter (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Curry Flavouring

• 2 tsp curry powder (note 3)
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 20g / 0.7oz ketchup (or tomato sauce)
• A pinch of crumbled beef stock cube (or powder)

Topping and Condiment (optional)

• 1 sunny-side up fried egg (note 4)
• Finely chopped parsley (note 5)

Instructions

Curry Fried Rice

1. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium low heat.

2. Add onion and sauté for a minute or two until the onion becomes semi-transparent and the edges of the onion pieces start browning.

3. Add bacon pieces and sauté for 1-1.5 minutes until the bacon strips are cooked through and the oil from the bacon comes out (note 6).

4. Reduce to low heat. Add curry powder to the pan and sauté for a minute or so, ensuring that the curry powder is all integrated with the other ingredients and there is no dry powder left (be careful not to burn).

5. Add beef stock powder, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup to the pan. Mix well and sauté to get rid of the moisture.

6. Add green and red capsicums and quickly mix, then add rice.

7. Mix the rice with the curry base ensuring that every rice grain turns yellow.

8. Add butter and mix well. Adjust the flavour with salt and pepper. Turn the heat off.

Serving

1. Place the Curry Fried Rice on serving plates, forming a flat mound.

2. Place a fried egg on the top and scatter chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

1. I used streaky bacon to get more oil out of the bacon when cooked. Extra oil is important to make a roux with the curry powder.

2. Instead of capsicum, you can use chopped beans or green peas. You can also add diced carrots in addition to the green vegetables. If using carrot, cook before adding curry powder.

3. I used the curry powder that I could buy at supermarkets such as Keen's Curry powder.

4. Although optional, I strongly recommend having a fried egg on top of the fried rice. The runny egg yolk makes the spicy curry flavour somewhat mellow.

Cook your fried egg either while cooking the rice or immediately after the Curry Fried Rice is done.

5. Parsley is added as the vivid green colour breaks up the  dish, otherwise it is dominated by the yellow colour. Instead of finely chopped parsley, you can place a sprig of parsley.

6. The oil from the bacon is required to cook curry powder. If you don't have enough fat on your bacon, you may need to add a dash of oil before adding curry powder.

7. You can keep fried rice in the fridge for a couple of days.

8. Nutrition per serving.

serving: 395g calories: 678kcal fat: 39g (60%) saturated fat: 10g (50%) trans fat: 0.3g polyunsaturated fat: 6.1g monounsaturated fat: 20g cholesterol: 43mg (14%) sodium: 961mg (40%) potassium: 650mg (19%) carbohydrates: 70g (23%) dietary fibre: 4.9g (20%) sugar: 12g protein: 14g vitamin a: 49% vitamin c: 254% calcium: 6.4% iron: 25%