Indian Recipes
Lamb Curry
Boneless lamb shoulder marinated in yoghurt, then slowly simmered in a deeply browned onion, tomato and whole-spice sauce until meltingly tender.
- Serves 6
- Marinate 1 hr or overnight
- Cook about 2 hrs 15 min
- Indian
Method
Mix the lamb with the yoghurt, turmeric and 1 teaspoon of salt in a bowl. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
Heat the oil in a large, heavy flameproof casserole. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaves and stir for 30 seconds. Add the onions and fry over a medium heat, stirring often, for 15–20 minutes until deep golden brown. This is where most of the flavour comes from, so take your time.
Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the coriander, cumin, chilli powder and paprika with a splash of water and cook for 1 minute, then add the tomatoes and cook for 8–10 minutes until thick and the oil starts to separate.
Add the lamb with all its marinade and turn up the heat. Cook, stirring, for 8–10 minutes until the meat has lost its raw colour and the yoghurt has been absorbed into the sauce.
Pour in the hot water, bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 1½ hours, stirring now and then, until the lamb is very tender. Take the lid off for the last 15 minutes if the sauce needs thickening.
Stir in the garam masala, check the salt and scatter with coriander. Serve with rice or chapatis.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Chef’s notes
- Lamb shoulder has enough fat and connective tissue to stay juicy over a long, slow cook; leg is leaner and can turn dry.
- Like most curries, it tastes even better the next day. Keeps 3 days in the fridge or 3 months frozen.
How this recipe was developed
The old Cookeryonline page reproduced a published recipe, so we wrote a new one. We drew on Anjum Anand’s lamb curries for BBC Food and BBC Good Food and Madhur Jaffrey’s use of lamb shoulder.
- Lamb shoulder. Anjum Anand’s lamb with green chillies and Madhur Jaffrey’s paalag gosht both use boneless lamb shoulder for a long simmer.
- Yoghurt. Anjum Anand’s Kashmiri rogan josh (4.4/5 from 15 ratings) cooks the lamb with full-fat yoghurt; we use it as a marinade that then becomes part of the sauce. Her rogan josh uses leg; we prefer shoulder for a long simmer.
- Well-browned onions. Madhur Jaffrey fries her onions until golden and crisp; browning them deeply is where the sauce gets its depth.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- BBC Food (Anjum Anand): Lamb with green chillies (4.8/5 from 5 ratings)
- BBC Good Food (Anjum Anand): Kashmiri rogan josh (4.4/5 from 15 ratings)
- The Guardian (Madhur Jaffrey): Masroor Ahmed’s paalag gosht
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.