This authentic Indian lamb curry is made with lamb shoulder. It's simmered with fragrant spices, caramelized onions, and Greek yogurt until fork-tender. Served over Indian bread or rice, this is a meal on its own.
Today, I bring you another addition to my curry recipes. I have shared a few different lamb curries with you already. And yet, this one is another yogurt-based lamb curry.
About this curry
This is my authentic Indian lamb curry the way mom used to make, with no shortcut. No readymade curry powder and quick cooking methods. If you look at the recipe, you will see every addition of ingredients requires a few minutes of sautéing, caramelizing, and cooking.
One of the secrets to this curry is to cook the onions until they are caramelized. These caramelized onions almost disappear into the sauce leaving their wonderful taste and flavor.
Another important tip for this curry is to use a Dutch oven. This helps cook the meat evenly and without drying out all the moisture, so you won't need to add any additional water as it cooks.
Ingredients and substitutes (Save/Pin)
As you can see this dish is fairly simple in terms of method and technique because what makes this dish a success
- Lamb - I prefer to use a lamb shoulder or leg of lamb for this dish. The meat does take longer to cook, but it comes out tender and juicy and absorbs all those wonderful spices.
- Onions - I love to use red onions. They add a bit of sweetness, which is very desirable. It is very important that you cook the onions longer and slower. This will help caramelize the onions, which not just enhances the taste, but also adds that touch of deep red color to this dish (which I love).
- Yogurt - Meat and dairy cooked together have a unique taste. In addition, yogurt also tenderizes the meat and makes it cook faster. I've used Greek yogurt for that rich and creamy taste.
- Spices - There really is no unique spices in this dish. Only coriander, cumin, paprika, and cayenne, which you can find on any supermarket spice rack. You can also use 4 tbsp curry powder if you don't have these on hand.
- Spice mix - The whole spices are used to perfume the dish. If you don't have the whole spices you can use garam masala. This is an Indian spice blend made with warm spices like cardamom, cloves, cinnamon similar to a gingerbread spice mix or pumpkin spice mix. This can be found easily in most supermarkets these days. I make my own and you can find my homemade garam masala spice mix here.
Step by step instructions
- In a Dutch oven or heavy bottom skillet, add the oil, ghee, and whole spices.
- Then, add onions and sauté until caramelized, almost brown - about 5 to 10 minutes (see video).
- Next, add the ginger and garlic - sauté another minute.
- Then, add the lamb pieces, sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until the lamb is no longer pink.
- Then, add the ground spices and chopped tomatoes. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes, until fragrant.
- Next, add the yogurt - combine well. Then, add ½ cup water.
- Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
- Cover and let cook on medium for 1 hour or until the meat is fork-tender stirring every 15 minutes - if necessary, add ¼ to ½ cup water to prevent it from burning.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro or parsley.
- Serve with Indian chapati, naan, or rice.
Frequently asked questions
Lamb curry can be spicy, but this one is not too spicy. I make it less spicy by using sweet paprika for the color instead of all cayenne pepper. The sweet smoked paprika gives the lamb that beautiful color.
Yes, you can use the same amount of coconut yogurt or coconut cream. The taste will be slightly different but it's a good different.
Yes, if you want to make this Indian lamb curry milder, you can omit the whole spices as we also have garam masala powder in the dry spice mix.
Yes, you can use curry powder and garam masala and I have shared the recipe with video here - slow cooker lamb curry recipe.
You can also use mutton, beef, chicken or pork. You must try my slow-cooked chicken curry, slow-cooked beef curry, lamb masala or Lamb rogan josh.
You can eat Indian lamb curry with stovetop Indian naan or garlic naan, Indian chapati, Sweet potato chapati, or steamed rice or try my rice pilaf with fruit and nuts. Today, I serve it with some homemade roti, which is an Indian no-yeast flatbread.
Oh, lamb is such a versatile dish. Here are some Indian as well as non-Indian lamb recipes I have shared on this blog.
Lamb Biryani
Grilled Lamb Chops with Cilantro Chutney
Lamb Rogan Josh
Slow-cooked lamb with creamy polenta.
Roast Lamb shoulder in Red Wine sauce
Herb crusted roast leg of lamb
Slow-cooked Lamb masala
Slow-cooker lamb curry
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Description
Ingredients
- 2 lb (900 g) Lamb leg or shoulder, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 1 tbsp Ghee or oil
- 2 tbsp Garlic grated
- 2 tbsp Ginger fresh grated
- 3 cups Onions red finely chopped
- 1 cup tomatoes chopped
- 1 cup Yogurt Greek, plain
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
Dry spices
- 2 Cinnamon stick
- 8 Cloves
- 8 Green cardamoms
- 2 Black cardamoms
- 3 Bay leaves
- 1 Mace (optional)
Spice mix
- 1 ½ tbsp Coriander powder
- ½ tbsp Cumin powder
- ¼ tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp Cayenne hot
- 1 tbsp Paprika sweet
- 1 tbsp Fenugreek leaves (optional)
- ½ tsp Garam masala powder
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven or heavy bottom skillet, add the oil, ghee, and whole spices.
- Then, add onions and saute until caramelized, almost brown - about 5 to 10 minutes (see video).
- Next, add the ginger and garlic - saute another minute.
- Then, add the lamb pieces, saute for 2 to 3 minutes until the lamb is no longer pink.
- Then, add the ground spices and chopped tomatoes. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant.
- Next, add the yogurt - combine well. Then, add ½ cup water.
- Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
- Cover and let cook on medium for 1 hour or until the meat is fork-tender stirring every 15 minutes - if necessary, add ¼ to ½ cup water to prevent it from burning.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro or parsley.
Recipe Notes
- Use lamb cuts such as lamb shoulder, leg of lamb, or stew meat when making curry.
- Today, I am using boneless but lamb with bones is ideal for making curry as the marrow in the bones adds more flavor.
- Cut the lamb into small pieces about 2 to 3-inches each. Large pieces will take longer to cook
- Cook the onions until caramelized and cook on low to avoid burning. There is a huge difference in flavor when you cook the lamb with just sauteed onions compared to caramelized onions.
- Do not skip the cooking time after adding each ingredient. Indian curry is about adding layers of flavor so don't make haste.
- I prefer to use Greek yogurt because it is thicker. If you use regular yogurt you may need to reduce some of the cooking liquid.
- If you use a Dutch oven you will not need any extra cooking liquid. For other pans, you may need to add ¼ to ½ cup of water every time you stir to prevent burning
- See ingredients and substitutes above if you don't have the spices.
Equipment
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
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