Japanese Curry Udon Recipe

Super easy and delicious Japanese curry udon for lunch or dinner! Tender beef and with a variety of toppings to make the dish look deliciously colorful. Curry udon is perfect for a family meal as it’s really easy to make a large portion!

What Is Japanese Curry?

Japanese curry is generally a thicker style of curry that is used to pair with rice or udon. Because it is a thicker curry, it coats the rice and udon very nicely.

Japanese curry roux is commonly used and carrots, potatoes, and a protein such as beef or chicken/pork katsu are the popular ingredients to be mixed into the curry.

What Is Curry Roux?

Curry roux is a solid block form of curry made of curry spices, fat content, and flour that can readily be used. You simply add the curry roux into hot water to melt it and create a liquid form of curry. You can make your own curry roux or can commonly find it in supermarkets. There are many types of curry roux ranging from different spice level, colour of curry, thickness, etc.

What Makes Japanese Curry Different From Other Curry?

Japanese curry is typically dark brown colour compared to some curry that is yellow or light brown. Japanese curry tend to taste sweeter, less spicy, and more mild in flavour than other types of curry. It also uses less spice so the spice taste is less strong compare to other curry such as Indian curry which heavily uses spice.

Japanese Curry Brands

The three big Japanese Curry brands are:

• S&B
• Glico
• Vermont

You can find these brands in any Japanese supermarket or sometimes in your local supermarket too.

Ingredients For Japanese Curry Udon

Ingredients for Curry

• Udon
• 4 Japanese Curry cubes (eg. Glico, S&B brand)
• Beef stew
• Russet potato
• Yukon gold potato
• Carrot
• Yellow onion
• Garlic
• Brown mushrooms
• Cooking oil
• Dashi powder (optional)
• Ketchup or diced tomato or apple (optional)

Seasoning for Stewed Beef

• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Grounded black pepper
• Corn starch

Toppings (Optional)

• Corn
• Soft boiled egg per person
• Seaweed Flakes (aonori)
• Fried tempura bits (tenkasu)
• Green onion

How To Make Japanese Curry Udon?

Here is the summary of the steps. For full recipe, please see recipe card below.

Prep Work

• Cut the russet potato and yukon gold potatoes into evenly cube shapes.
• Cut carrot into round slices and cut mushrooms into slices.
• Cut onion into strips and finely dice the garlic.
• Wash and dice tomato or apple (optional)

Seasoning the Beef Stew

• Pat the beef stew cubes with paper towel to soak the excess moisture.
• Mix soy sauce into the beef cubes until the beef cubes are lightly coated with soy sauce. Add sesame oil and grounded black pepper to the beef cubes and mix well.
• Slowly add cornstarch to the beef cubes and mix well until beef cubes are lightly coated.

Making Curry & Udon

• In a large pot, turn the heat to high and add 1 tbsp of oil on medium heat.
• Add diced garlic. Once the garlic begins to sizzle, add beef stew and onion and mix well. Sear the beef until its golden brown. Continue to mix to prevent the beef stew from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
• Add water until it covers the ingredients. (Optional – Add dashi powder to the water and mix well.)
• Cover the lid and turn the heat to high until boil. Once boiled, start skimming the beef scum with a skimmer. Continue to skim off the scum every 5-10 mins.
• Occasionally mix the pot to prevent any ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pot as well as checking on the broth level. If the ingredients are no longer submerged, add additional water.
• Once the beef stew starts to get tender, add carrots, russet and yukon gold potatoes, mushrooms and mix well.
• Add one curry cube at a time and mix it into the broth. Continue to add curry cubes one at a time until curry flavor is to your liking.
• Continue to stir and mix well until the russet potato has fully dissolved and the Yukon gold potatoes are soft. Once the ingredients are tender, turn the heat off. Grate an apple, or add diced tomato or ketchup to the curry.
• Boil a pot of water on the side for the udon. Once the water is boiling, add udon into the pot and cook for 1 min (or to desired firmness) Then place udon in serving bowls.
• After udon has been cooked, use the same pot and bring the water to a boil. Place entire egg into the boiling water and let it cook 6-7 mins for a soft boiled egg (do not place pot lid on the pot). Then place egg in cold water to stop the egg from overcooking.

Toppings & Plating

• In the serving bowl with the udon, add curry to udon. Place egg, corn, seaweed flakes, fried tempura bites, and green onion as toppings.

What Do You Add In Japanese Curry?

Potato is a very common ingredient to include in curry. The starch in potatoes help thicken the curry and also makes a good topping. There are two types of potatoes that should be used in your curry. Russet potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes. Russet potatoes dissolves more quickly so it thicken the curry, whereas Yukon gold potatoes are more waxy and does not break down as easily. Yukon gold potatoes would be used as toppings in the curry.

Carrots and onions are ingredients that adds sweetness to the curry. Mushroom is not a common ingredients but it adds texture and extra vegetables to the curry.

Some people like to add either a grated apple, diced tomato, or ketchup as a finish touch to their curry and enhance its flavor. It adds extra sweetness and umami to the curry. This is optional and is a personal preference but many people add this to their broth to help sweeten the curry flavor.

What To Do With Leftover Curry

You can leave it in the fridge if you plan on eating the leftover the next day. You can simply cook an udon or some rice for the curry. Otherwise, you can simply freeze the curry so you can enjoy it again another time!

Tips On Cooking Curry:

• The beef stew takes the longest time to be tenderized. Be patient with cooking the beef. Since it takes the longest time to cook, make sure the beef is one of the first ingredients you start cooking.
• The russet potato dissolves a lot easier in the curry than the yukon gold potato. The russet potato helps thicken the curry broth. If you want a thicker broth, add an extra russet potato.
• Another way to thicken the curry broth is to let it sit and cool down before serving. Take it off the hot stove and have it cool down for a couple minutes before serving. This will help thicken the broth.
• After cooking the egg, place it in cold water to prevent it from continuing to cook. The egg will continue to cook even if it is taken off the heat since the egg is still hot. Placing it in cold water will stop it from overcooking.

Where To Buy Ingredients For Japanese Curry?

You can get all of these ingredients at a Japanese market or at your local (Asian) supermarket.

If you are in Vancouver, BC, here are the locations you can find these ingredients:

• Fujiya
• Super Store
• T&T Super Market

Other Japanese Recipes You May Like:

• Aburi Sushi
• Takoyaki

Hope you enjoy our how to make Japanese curry udon recipe below! Please leave a comment or tag us on Instagram (@foodiiventure), we would love to see your cooking!

Happy Cooking!~