Japanese Chicken Curry

Chop up the onion

For stew onion, I like a longitudinal slice for a texture that can hold up to a long cook time.

How to Slice An Onion Longitudinally

There are a ton of ways to cut an onion. Over time, you tend to favor different cuts for different dishes. I favor longitudinal slices for stews and braises because they provide a little more texture than slicing at latitude. The difference is subtle, but I think it's worth looking at.

Crush garlic

Crush your garlic however you like. I usually use the broad side of my knife or a microplane.

How to Crush Garlic

Basic cooking techniques

Grate ginger

Crush the ginger to a pulp with a ginger grater. Or you can use the finest side of a standard box grater.

How to Grate Ginger

Quarter the potatoes

If your potatoes are small, feel free to leave them whole. These potatoes were medium-sized, so I lined them up and quartered them.

Slice apple

Quarter the apple. Slice out the core. Slice the apple thin. Or, you can use a cheese grater and grate the apples as well to make sure that they are not detectable in the final dish. But the pressure cooking should take care of that anyway.

Roll cut carrots

The roll cut is a great technique for stews because it helps your carrots cook evenly, and it also yields some interesting shapes.

Roll Cut Carrots

The roll cut is great for quickly chopping vegetables that have an oblong shape. See, the problem with oblong vegetables like carrots is that they are wider on one side. This means that if you slice them uniformly, the pieces will not really cook at the same rate. The haphazard nature of the roll cut yields some interesting shapes that should cook more evenly than a standard cut.

Trim and chop chicken thighs

Sometimes boneless chicken thighs can have little pieces of gristle on the back where the bone has been removed. If you feel any rough spots, slice them off. Then chop up the chicken.

Set instant pot to sautée mode

Tap the button that says 'sautée'. This will heat your instant pot up, just like if you put a pan on a medium heat.

Add oil

Pour in the oil and heat until shimmering.

Add sliced onion and apples

Dump in the apples and onions. Stir over heat until onion is translucent.

Anchovies

Drop in the anchovies, and stir.

Garlic, ginger, curry

Add the garlic, ginger and curry. Stir over heat until fragant.

Soy sauce and chicken broth

Dump in the soy sauce, followed by the chicken broth.

Mirin to deglaze

Pour in the mirin and scrape the bottom of the pot to remove any fond that has developed.

Carrots, potatoes and chicken

Then, add your carrots, potatoes, and finally, the chicken.

Cook

Press 'cancel', then select 'poultry', followed by 'pressure'. This sets your Instant Pot to cook on low pressure for about 15 minutes.

Release pressure

When the cycle is complete, your Instant Pot will start beeping at you. Carefully turn the release valve on the lid of your pressure cooker to release the pressure. That's hot steam, so watch out!

Remove lid

When the pressure has been fully released, you will be able to twist the lid to remove.

Add a corn starch slurry

Dissolve the corn starch in a small amount of water. Stir this slurry into your curry. Mix well. The broth will begin to thicken.