Homemade Japanese Curry Cubes

I love cooking Japanese curry at home and I usually buy pre-made Japanese curry cubes from the grocery store. However, I’ve discovered just how easy these Japanese curry cubes are to make them at home! The best part about it is that I can adjust the ingredients to suit my taste. I can make it mild and spicy and don’t have to commit to a large package!

Japanese curry is a bit different than Indian curry, it has less ingredients and the flavour is not as strong or complex as Indian curry. However, it still makes a very delicious meal at home. It was always a mystery for me how a Japanese curry cube was made (no I didn’t think about looking at the ingredients). I just assumed it was pretty complicated until one day….I was craving Japanese curry and I didn’t have any at home. I decide to do some research and found that it was pretty easy to make. My recipe is adapted from Just One Cookbook. I’ve adjusted some ingredients to suit my taste.

Japanese curry cube ingredients

The are 4 main ingredients I used for this Japanese curry cube:

• 1 cup. + 2 tbsp Flour
• 1 cup Unsalted butter
• 1/3 cups curry powder
• 1 tbsp Garam Masala

I also added a few more ingredients:

• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper.

I found this combination to be the closest in terms of flavour to the ones I buy at the store.

I generally prefers my Japanese curry cubes to have a bit more flour so it helps to thicken up my curry when I cook them. More flour in the curry cubes also means I can use one cube for a large batch of curry.

Important notes:

• No salt in curry cubes. This will help to control the saltiness of the final curry
• Butter:flour, stick with 1:1 and then add maybe 1/4 cup more to really thicken it up.
• The mixture will thicken up after adding all the spices so don’t worry if it feels like it’s too liquid

How to make Japanese curry cubes

Prepping the ingredients

Set out the ingredients before you start cooking. I put all the spices together because you can add it all at once.

Making the roux

1. First melt the unsalted butter in a pot under medium heat
2. Once the butter is melted, let it simmer on low heat for about 2-3 minutes. Then add in the flour
3. Stir quickly. If you are using more flour, make sure the flour is evenly mixed in with the butter, may need to use some muscle.

Adding the spices

1. Add the spices all at once and stir quickly to make sure the spices are evenly mixed.
2. Once it’s fully mixed, let it cool.
3. Pour the mixture into a silicone ice cube tray (Makes about 6 of 3.5cm or 1.37 in cubes) or a parchment lined container (5in x 5in x 2in or 12.7cm x 12.7 cm x 5.08cm)
4. Cover with the lid and put into the freezer to set. It will take about 1+ hour and you can continue to store it in the freezer

Cooking the curry

1. Stir fry chicken in a pan, add in carrots and potatoes. Let it fry for 5-6 minutes. Add water.
2. Remove one of the cubes or cut the Japanese curry into 6 equal large pieces. Use one cube/piece at a time. Make sure to add salt to the curry as this recipe doesn’t have any salt added.
3. Each piece will make about 6-8 servings. It also great making big batches for meal prep for lunch/dinner on busy days.

Important Tips

• I don’t recommend adding salt as it will be hard to control the amount of salt in the final curry. Add salt when you are cooking the curry.
• 1:1 of butter and flour are good ratio to start. I added more flour than the ratio because it will make the final curry thick even if you accidentally added more water than intended.
• The spices can be adjusted to your taste. Add cayenne for some heat but if you don’t want any heat, omit the cayenne.