Katsu curry is just a variation of Japanese curry with a chicken cutlet on top. I have used a store-bought block of Japanese curry roux which is commonly used in Japanese households. Chicken Cutlet (Japanese version of chicken schnitzel) brings the Japanese curry up to the next level. It’s so delicious and filling.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Japanese curry rice (カレーライス, pronounce it as ‘karē raisu’) is the national home cooking dish. Everyone, particularly children, love it. When Japanese people say ‘having a curry tonight’, it is the Japanese curry that is made from the store-bought block of curry roux.
Ready-made Curry Roux
The most popular store-bought curry roux in Japan is called Vermont Curry. It is one of the many curry roux products made by House Food Corporation. When you say ‘Vermont Curry’, everyone knows that it is House Vermont Curry.
The roux contains apple and honey to reduce the spiciness so that even little kids can eat curry.
Apparently, the name ‘Vermont’ came from the state of Vermont in the USA, which was known for folk medicine with apple cider vinegar and honey. At the time of the first TV commercial, this folk medicine was well known and popular, so House Foods just borrowed the name ‘Vermont’.
House Food Corporation broadcasted the commercial with a catchy theme song. The commercial was a big hit and absolutely every household bought the roux and made curry for their kids. I suppose the Japanese curry rice became a national dish then.
There are many varieties of curry roux products are available now (see a few samples in above photo) and each household has its favourite curry roux. The roux made the curry-making so easy. Sauté the meat and vegetables, add water and cook them, then add the roux. Viola!
The photo below is the beef curry I made by just following the instructions on the pack (in English!). I used Java Curry (the middle one in the photo above). Because it is medium hot, the colour of the curry is darker than that of mild curry such as House Vermont Curry.
You can buy Japanese curry roux at Japanese/Asian grocery stores as well as most of supermarkets.
What’s in My Katsu Curry
Katsu Curry is simply a rice and curry with a cutlet on it. Since the cutlet is a meat dish on its own, my curry does not have any meat in it. I added three vegetables in the curry that are commonly used to make a Japanese Ccurry.
- House Vermont Curry (mild) – see the sample photo of the packet in the post
- Cooked rice
- Onion – sliced into 1cm wide pieces
- Potato – cut to 1.5cm / ⅝” cubes
- Carrot – sliced to 7mm / ¼” thick pieces
- Chicken Cutlet (Japanese Chicken Schnitzel) – cut into 2.5cm / 1″ wide strips
The curry roux does not have to be Vermont Curry and the spiciness can be different too. Depending on the brand of the curry roux, the amount of water required to make the right consistency of the curry is different. You need to read the instructions on the packet.
The combination of the vegetables can also be changed but I prefer using the vegetables that do not stand out too much in the sauce, e.g. large green leaves. The Chicken Cutlet is the hero of today’s dish and you want to draw an attention to the cutlet.
Instead of Chicken Cutlet, you can use pork cutlet. See my post Tonkatsu (Japanese Pork Schnitzel) for the recipe.
You will notice that the size of the vegetables in my recipe are not very large. This is because I wanted the cutlet to stand out even after pouring the curry on. Katsu curries served at restaurants often do not have anything in the sauce.
Katsu Curry – Great Pre-made Dish
You can store Japanese Curry for 2-3 days in the fridge and 1 month in freezer. But if you are freezing the curry, I strongly recommend avoiding potatoes added to the curry. Defrosted potatoes become spongy and the texture is not great.
When reheating the chilled curry, you may add some water to the curry because the roux thickens when cooled down. It still tastes great, though.
There are two ways to reheat frozen curry – heat in the microwave and heat in hot water bath.
When reheating the curry in your microwave, stir from time to time. The outer part of the curry gets heated and even starts bubbling but often the centre is still frozen. You need to mix the hot and cold to speed up the process of defrosting and heating.
In the hot water bath method, you don’t need to worry about occasional mixing. Put the block of frozen curry in a zip lock bag and place it in a sieve that can go inside a pot of boiling water. The sieve prevents the plastic from touching the side of the pot, which is extremely hot.
The Japanese curry is quite different in flavour and consistency from other authentic curries. The sauce is thicker than other curries in the world. It is similar to the consistency of béchamel sauce. But it is delicious!
Yumiko
Katsu curry is just a variation of Japanese curry with a Chicken Cutlet on top. I have used a store-bought block of Japanese curry roux, which is commonly used in Japanese households. The Chicken Cutlet brings the Japanese curry up to the next level. It’s so delicious and filling.
Time dos not include the time required to make Chicken Cutlet
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.
- 400g / 0.9lb onion sliced into 1cm / ⅜” wide pieces
- 250g / 0.6lb potato cut into 1.5cm / ⅝” cubes
- 100g / 3.5oz carrot sliced to 7mm / ¼” thick pieces (note 1)
- 1 tbsp oil
- ½ packet of 230g / 0.5lb House Vermont Curry (Mild, note 2)
- 800ml / 1.7pt water
- 4 cups cooked rice (hot)
- 4 Chicken Cutlets cut into 2.5cm / 1” wide strips
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Add oil into a pot and heat over medium high heat.
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Add onion and sauté for a few minutes or until the onion becomes translucent and edges start getting slightly burnt.
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Add potatoes and carrots into the pot and stir for a couple of minutes or until the surface of the vegetables starts getting cooked.
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Add water and turn the heat up to bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for about 7 minutes or until the vegetables are nearly cooked through (note 3).
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Break the curry roux cake into small blocks along the lines and add them into the pot. Stir gently to blend the curry roux.
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Place a lid on and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes or until the curry roux is completely dissolved. Stir occasionally.
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Check the consistency of the sauce. It should be like béchamel sauce. If too thick, adjust with some water. If too thin, cook further without the lid. It will thicken when cooled down as well.
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Turn the heat off.
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Place a cup of hot cooked rice onto one side of a plate. Place the chicken cutlet pieces next to the rice, leaning them on the rice so that there will be a space to pour the curry.
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Pour curry next to the chicken cutlet and serve immediately.
1. If the carrot is fat, you may halve or quarter it lengthwise, then slice it.
2. I happened to have a mild curry pack. But you can use medium hot or hot curry or even another brand instead of House Food.
Different kinds/brands of roux might require different amounts of water. Please follow the instructions on the pack.
3. Put a skewer through to the potato/carrot. If the skewer can easily get through, the vegetables are cooked.
4. You may pre-make the curry and serve it later. The curry can be kept for few days in the fridge, 1 month in the freezer.
When the curry cools down, the sauce thickens. The consistency of the sauce should be like béchamel sauce. Check the consistency of the sauce after re-heating and if too thick, adjust with water.
To defrost your curry, see the post for two different methods.
5. I did not use it but you can add Fukujinzuke (Condiment for Japanese Curry) if you have it.
6. Nutrition per serving. It is a high calorie food. Eat vegetables rest of the day!
serving: 790g calories: 945kcal fat: 45g (69%) saturated fat: 8.3g (42%) trans fat: 0.3g polyunsaturated fat: 9.6g monounsaturated fat: 24g cholesterol: 198mg (66%) sodium: 559mg (23%) potassium: 958mg (27%) carbohydrates: 93g (31%) dietary fibre: 6g (25%) sugar: 8g protein: 41g vitamin a: 88% vitamin c: 36% calcium: 10% iron: 31%
Originally published in March 2017, split into two posts to have Chicken Cutlet in a separate post, improved photos and contents with Meal Ideas in 2020 (no change to recipe).
Meal Ideas
A typical Japanese meal consists of a main dish, a couple of side dishes, a soup and rice. I try to come up with a combination of dishes with a variety of flavours, colours, textures and make-ahead dishes.
Fukujinzuke is the condiment to go with Japanese curry. I included it in today’s Meal Idea as a condiment.
I strongly recommend serving a salad to go with the rich flavour of the curry. Fresh or steamed salad with Mixed Vegetable Dressing would be perfect for it.
- Main: Katsu Curry (Japanese Curry with Chicken Cutlet) – today’s recipe, curry can be made ahead but freshly made Chicken Cutlet is recommended
- Side dish 1: Smoked Salmon with Grated Daikon Dressing (Mizore-ae) – or just a bowl of grated daikon with a bit of soy sauce or ponzu to be healthier
- Side dish 2: Mixed Vegetable Salad Dressing over either fresh salad/steamed vegetables – make ahead dressing
- Condiment: Home-made Fukujinzuke – make ahead
- Soup: Shimeji and Mizuna miso soup from Miso Soup Ingredient Combinations: or other ingredients of your choice
This is one of my favourite dishes of all time but I prefer to make the Kare sauce myself as the cubes you buy in the store (Vermont and S&B etc) are *seriously* loaded with sodium – which rules it out for me as I have to watch my salt intake. It’d be great if you could work on a traditional kare sauce recipe and post it sometime. I do have one I use already which is lovely but if you fancy a challenge then I’d be the first to try it 😇
Hi Mike, I posted Home-made Japanese Vegetarian Curry which does not use store-bought roux, if you are interested. Even though it says vegetarian I cannot see why you can’t add meat to the ingredients. Let me know what you think.
There are so many different version of home-made curry and I am certainly intending to post different ones in future.
Thanks for the link the the vegetable curry Yumiko – I’ll do that with the Chicken Katsu 🙂
Good luck with it!
I’m so glad I found your curry recipe Yumiko! I made a version of this from another website last night as a trial run for a dinner party I have to cook at in the Hunter Valley vineyards in a couple of weeks time for about 25 people and I really was not happy with it. I think the recipe said to add way too much of the roux but this looks more sensible and I’ll be using the House Vermont brand when I do another trial run this week instead of S&B. I did like the other recipe added garlic and ginger to the onions so will still do that.
I’ll let you know how it goes at the party. By the way I’m a #1 fan of Nagi’s recipes. EVERYTHING I make from her site is amazing without fail!
Hi Sue, I’ll wait for your report back on Katsu Curry! And thanks for your kind words about Nagi’s site.
Hi Yumiko
My children and I absolutely love this receipe. Just to make it slighty healthier, I shallow fry the chicken to give it colour then finish it off by baking it in the oven 😀 Thanks so much
John
Hi John, that’s great! Clever way to reduce calories!
I love Japanese food, especially curry, so I was excited to try this! This recipe was easy to make and it was so delicious! It was a crowd pleaser, even my 9 yr old liked it. This is a keeper!
Hi Heather, that’s great! Every time I read a feedback on Katsu Curry, I get an urge to make it myself.
Yummy and simple recipe…me and my family are vegan so I “veganized” this by replacing the chicken in this recipe with vegan chicken flavor bouillon soaked soy curls and replacing the egg with watered down vegan mayo..also seasoned before breading a bit more with onion powder garlic powder and a bit of smoked paprika.l…was yummy so easy to make and my husband and daughter said it was one of the best things I’ve ever made! My husband says it was way way better than the curry he had gotten from the Japanese resturaunt (great quality resturaunt btw) Thanks so much will be trying more of the recipes on the site!!
Hi Amnbet, that’s a great degree of modifications. Well done! I have a category ‘Vegetarian‘ which includes pure vegetarian dishes as well as dishes which can become vegetarian. Please have a look.
Made Japanese curry tonight with Vermont curry mild as I have 8 year old who is aversed to even the mildest spice his taste buds are highly tuned…so I added chilli powder to mine. It was fantastic thank you. I have been wanting to replicate this dish as I used to buy it at my favourite Japanese restaurant in Brisbane and I was 99% there. Next time I will buy different curry roux to try and get that 1% deeper flavour. The whole family loved it and as I write I am full-as-a-goog…even my boy enjoyed it. FY readers info I bought panko bread crumbs at Japanese grocery store northside Brisbane for $1.80 at coles sell for $5.30 mmmmm. Thank you for your well written instructions and know how. You and Nagi are total gold. I love eating Japanese cuisine now that I have found you I will be able to indulge more.
Hi Risky, that’s great, especially your child liked it. Experimenting different kinds of roux and finding your favourite is also fun, isn’t it?
And thanks for a note re huge price difference of bank breadcrumbs. Unbelievable!
Perusing your site I ran across this Curry Rice post. I just made Curry Rice last week and now I’m going to have to make it again after reading this recipe and all these posts. It is one dish I can not get enough of. So delicious and comforting. In Japan I learned to make it from pork slices which are browned well, giving it a great base flavor, then onion, carrots and potatoes are browned along with the pork. I use S&B Curry and my family loves it hot. Sometimes I customize the spices to our taste. I will also try this chicken cutlet in the future. Tomorrow I will make Osekihan agin, using my rice cooker. Thank you Yumiko for your recipes and advice. And by the way, the only rice I like is Japanese rice. After reading your “How to cook rice” advice I now understand why. I avoid American rice unless I’m cooking a Mexican recipe and it works there. I also love Nagi’s recipes. Of course that is how I found you and I was confused between y’all and the two sites in the beginning.
Hi Phyllis, thank you very much for your kind comment! I also love Japanese curry, particularly Katsu Curry and all my kinds love it. I am glad to know that you got a good information about rice and can use different types of rice accordingly.
Hi,
how would I cook the beef and whats the best cut if i wanted to do a beef curry instead?
Thanks
Hi Rtn, I would use beef tenderloin or ramp.
Hi Yumiko,
Your recipe for Japanese curry is my go to every time I crave curry- and that’s pretty often because I love it so much. I’ve made it with chicken and pork cutlet. I’ve also added beef into the curry mix. Suffice to say I can’t get enough of it. Thank you such for sharing your recipes and stories with us
Hi Keke, it sounds like you really do like Japanese curry! You made me feel like making it today for myself…
I just made the katsu curry for supper. I used pork instead of the chicken. It was delicious. I’m not really a c traditional curry fan but this is delicious. I will definitalty make this again. It was perfrct for the exxtreme cold weve been getting.
Hi Susan, it’s quite different from Indian or South Asian curries, isn’t fit? It is easier to eat. It is good to know that you like Japanese version of curry.