Cook: Japanese Curry Pot Pie
I mention this in many posts but I love Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat cookbook. One of my favorite recipes from her book is the Chicken Pot Pie. I made a pot pie for Elliott (with the traditional chicken filling) and he ate about half of it in one night. That’s just how delicious it is. I got to thinking, what if I made the filling with Japanese chicken curry instead…
There’s a curry place in my old San Francisco neighborhood that I would walk to at least 2-3 times a month. They serve the best chicken katsu curry and I’ve tried so many times to replicate their flavor. I decided to try to combine the flavors of their curry with a good old American pot pie crust. I also use Samin Nosrat’s pie crust recipe but instead of using a stand mixer, I use my hands or a grater to crumble the butter. Recipe for that is here. I recommend starting the pie crust first, so that it has time to rest in the fridge and it’s ready to go when your filling is done.
Let’s get started with the filling. First, as always, I like to gather all my ingredients. I made this for the first time during Thanksgiving at my mom’s house in Colorado and we had experienced one of our biggest blizzards in years. So, I had the time to make my own curry roux from scratch. However, this is not required and I usually use box curry for the roux. I like the S&B brand in the hottest flavor (it’s not that spicy) and you can always kick it up a notch with some cayenne or ghost pepper.
Prep Time for Filling: 20 minutes, Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion (finely chopped)
4-5 garlic cloves (minced)
1 thumb-sized knob of freshly grated ginger
1.5 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2-3 orange and yellow carrots (chopped in bite sized chunks)
1-2 large potatoes or 5-6 small potatoes
1 Fuji apple (peeled and grated)
1 tbsp of honey
2 tbsp of ketchup
1-2 tbsp of soy sauce (I usually only use one if using box curry mix)
4 cups of chicken broth (water to replace if you don’t have enough chicken broth)
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Saute the chopped onion, garlic and ginger with salt and pepper in olive oil. Stir for about 7-8 minutes until the onions are clear and soft.
2. After you’ve washed, dried, and salted the chicken, add in chicken to the onion mixture. Make sure to pat the chicken dry before you add it into the pot. This will help it to get nice a brown in the pan. Cook the chicken until it gets light in color on the outside. It doesn’t need to be cooked all the way through because it will continue to cook in the broth.
3. Add in your chopped carrots, potatoes and jar of chicken bone broth. I like to use the 31 oz. jar of bone broth instead of stock because I think it has a heartier flavor. Really any of them will do and you can even use water if you don’t have stock or broth in your pantry. Make sure that all the ingredients are covered bring to a boil and let this simmer for about 15-20 minutes. While it’s boiling, we can start on the homemade roux, if you are going that route.
**If you are using box mix, this is where you’ll add it. Once the water has come to a boil… skim the fat off the top. Cut your curry mix into 4—6 smaller pieces and put it in a bowl with broth from your veggie/chicken mix. Mix up up so it becomes like a paste and then add it into the pot. Give it a good stir and skip to step 5. If you’re not making pie, you are almost done! Follow step 5 and let it simmer for about 15-20 more minutes until it’s thick and then serve over rice.
Instructions for the Japanese Curry roux: You’ll only need flour, butter, curry powder, garam masala, cayenne pepper and salt (to taste). If you’re making regular chicken curry, you don’t need as much flour but for the pie, it helps because it’ll hold it’s form better.
Melt 5 tbsp of butter and then add 7 tbsp of flour into the butter and mix it. Let this cook down for about 15-20 minutes until it turns dark brown. Make sure to continuously stir or else the bottom can burn.
Add in 2 tbsp of curry powder, 2 tbsp of garam masala and 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper.
Stir for 30 seconds and then remove from the heat, add in salt and pepper to taste.
Japanese Curry Roux Ingredients
Voila - now you have curry paste! If you are making regular curry use 3 tbsp of butter and 4 tbsp of flour and only 1 tbsp each of curry powder, garam masala and cayenne pepper to taste. The recipe for the pie is doubled here.
4. Back to the chicken. Skim in any fat that’s come up to the top. Add in one coarsely grated Fuji apple. Take a large spoonful of the broth and mix into your curry roux until the texture becomes smooth. Once it’s smooth, add it all to your chicken mixture.
5. Add in 1 tbsp of ketchup, a dash of honey and 2 tbsp of soy sauce. Adjust the seasonings to your liking and if you’re using box mix and skipped step 4, add in your 1/2 to whole coursely grated apple (optional). Let this simmer for about 5 more minutes until it’s nice and thick like pie crust filling.
6. Now for the fun part. Preheat your oven to 400° degrees. With your pie crust ready to go, scoop in the filling so that it’s heaping full. Put your pie crust on top and pinch the ends together however you would like. Make sure you poke a few holes with a fork in the bottom and then make a few knife lines on the top so that it doesn’t bubble up when you cook it in the oven. I also like to do an egg white wash so that the top gets nice, shiny and crispy.
7. Put the pie in the oven for about 30-35 minutes. Your pie crust should be golden brown. Serve while it’s hot!
