Japanese Chicken Curry
Servings 5 pint jars
Ingredients
- 5 regular mouth pint jars sanitized, with lids and rings
- 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
- 2 medium yellow onions quartered
- 1 (1 inch) piece peeled fresh ginger
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups diced carrots about 2 carrots
- 2 cups diced daikon or rutabaga, or potatoes
- 16 oz chicken stock
- 2 cups water
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp apple butter or apple sauce or grated apple
- 2 tbsp semi-sweet chuno sauce or Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp salt to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper to taste
- 3 tbsp curry powder preferably J&B brand
- 3 tbsp Clearjel see notes below
Instructions
Combine the onion base into a paste
- In the food processor, add the onion, ginger, garlic, and baking soda
- Process to a paste in the food processor
Caramelize the onion base
- Heat the vegetable oil in a medium stock pot over medium heat
- Add the paste and cook until the mixture is caramelized and dark brown, about 20-30 minutes, adding additional oil and scraping the pan as necessary
Bringing it all together
- Add the curry powder and sauté until fragrant
- Add the stock, water, apple butter, chuno sauce, tomato paste, cocoa powder, salt, and pepper and adjust to taste
- Add the Clearjel and stir until mixed thoroughly
- Add the carrots, daikon, and chicken and bring to a boil
- Reduce heat and simmer
Canning the Japanese Curry
- Add canning rack to the instant pot and fill with ~2 inches of water
- Set up the five pint jars near the cooking area with their lids and rings handy
- In the bottom of each jar, place one of the bay leaves
- Distribute the curry evenly among the pint jars
- Wipe the rims of the jars clean as necessary
- Apply lids and screw the bands to finger tightness on the jars
- Using the jar lifter, lower the jars in to the instant pot
- Secure the lid of the instant pot and make sure the pressure valve is set
- Program the instant pot to cook under high pressure for 1 hour and 10 minutes, and make sure to disable the Keep Warm setting
Wrapping up the process
- After the instant pot has finished cooking, be sure to let it come down to ambient pressure using the natural release cycle, do not try to do the quick release cycle as this can cause liquid to be forced out of the jars and potentially break the seals
- Once the instant pot is safe to open, open it and use the jar lifter to pull the jars out and place on a towel too dry and cool down
- If the rings on the jars are loose, they can be finger tightened again, carefully
- Leave the jars to cool, you should hear the lids popping as the pressure creates a seal on the jars
- After the jars have cooled, the rings can be removed and the jars are now shelf-stable and safe to store in a pantry to be eaten later
- If any jar failed to seal, it is safe to either eat immediately or reprocess in the instant pot, though you may need to replace the lid since it did not seal properly
Notes
Regular mouth jars:
Normally regular or wide mouth mason jars are interchangeable, and the only consideration is how many jars will fit in the instant pot (5 regular mouth, 4 wide mouth). Since in this recipe the yield is 5 jars, I recommend using regular mouth pint jars.
Clearjel and canning safety:
Normally, flour is used as a thickening agent in recipes, however when canning, thickeners such as flour can prevent heat from penetrating to the center of the jar, interfering with safe processing to destroy the bacterial spores that cause botulism. Clearjel is a modified cornstarch that is safe for canning, so we use it instead of flour in this recipe. Make sure you purchase regular Clearjel and not instant Clearjel, as only the former is safe for canning.