Instant Pot Lamb Curry is a pressure cooker version of the signature North Indian Kashmiri curry called rogan josh. Tender morsels of lamb or beef are pressure-cooked to perfection in a vibrant aromatic sauce. [Stovetop instructions also included.]
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This Instant Pot lamb curry is my take on the popular North Indian dish rogan josh (pronounced row-gun joe-sh), which is from the Kashmir region of India.
Fragrant whole spices such as cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom combine with ground Indian spices such as coriander, cumin, and chili powder to create a flavor-packed combination.
The name rogan josh (rogan gosht) means ‘red meat’. Traditionally, it’s cooked with goat or mutton. However, lamb, beef, and chicken versions have become popular.
Some lamb rogan josh recipes incorporate tomatoes, resulting in a tomato flavor and a deeper red color.
My version of this Indian lamb curry does not have tomatoes. But it does have yogurt, which gives the curry a slight tart flavor. Paprika gives this lamb curry its vibrant color.
➡ If you enjoyed this recipe, you might like some of my other Indian curry recipes like Instant Pot Chicken Korma, my Pork Vindaloo Instant Pot adaptation, Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala, Instant Pot Healthy Butter Chicken, or Instant Pot Fish Curry.
Ingredients and Tips
Before getting into how to cook the curry, let’s go over the necessary ingredients and some valuable tips to perfect your rogan josh.
🧂 Ingredients you’ll need for lamb curry
💡 Tips and Substitutions
🥄 Oil vs. Ghee: Use ghee instead of oil when sautéing the whole spices for extra flavor. Ghee is available at most grocery stores, or you can easily make homemade ghee.
🧅 Onions: Sauté onions until light golden if you’re short on time. For best flavor, cook them longer until deep golden brown, without burning. If they start to stick or burn, add a tablespoon of water or broth to deglaze.
🌿 Garam Masala: The whole spices (bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves) are part of garam masala. You can remove them before serving or let each person set them aside. Optionally, sprinkle ¼ teaspoon of powdered garam masala into the dish before serving for extra flavor. Try my homemade garam masala recipe.
🌶️ Spiciness: This curry is mildly spicy. For more heat, add an extra teaspoon of Kashmiri chili powder or substitute cayenne pepper to taste.
🍅 Tomatoes: This recipe is delicious without tomatoes. For a tomato flavor, add a tablespoon of tomato paste or ¼ cup of puree or tomato sauce (passata) on top of the lamb and yogurt mixture before pressure cooking. Don’t stir it in to avoid the burn message.
🍖 Meat Options: Pre-cut lamb stew meat is so convenient. Or buy a larger piece of lamb, trim the fat, and cut it into cubes. Pre-cut beef stew meat is an easy substitution. For a non-traditional option, chicken thighs work well too; cut them into 1½-inch pieces and cook for 4 minutes under pressure.
🥛 Yogurt: Whole milk yogurt won’t curdle during pressure cooking. Even if it looks curdled initially, it will smooth out upon stirring. I use it in a few Instant Pot Indian recipes.
💧 Broth: You can use beef or chicken broth, or substitute water if preferred. Make sure there’s enough liquid to avoid the burn message.
🔥 Food Burn Message: This recipe has enough liquid for pressure cooking. If using an 8-quart Instant Pot, increase the yogurt and broth by 50% to prevent the food burn message.
How to Make Lamb Curry
⏲️ Instant Pot Method
- Saute whole spices, onions, garlic, ginger.
- Saute ground spices and add the lamb.
- Stir in yogurt and broth.
- Pressure cook.
- Release pressure.
- Reduce to thicken.
- Turn on Saute mode and once the inner pot has heated up, add oil or ghee. When the oil is hot, add whole spices (bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves) and stir until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
- Add onion, garlic, and ginger. Saute the onion mixture until onions are golden brown, about 5 minutes to 7 minutes. Press Cancel. Let the spices cook in the residual heat in the next step.
- Stir in coriander, cumin, chili powder, paprika, black pepper, and salt. Saute the spices with the onion mixture for about 30 seconds. Deglaze as needed.
- Stir in the lamb and spices until combined. Add yogurt and broth and stir till combined. Make sure there’s nothing stuck to the bottom of the inner pot.
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and cook on high pressure for 22 minutes.
- The display will go from On to 22:00. The float valve will go up after a few minutes. The display will count down to 00:00.
- Do a natural release of pressure. Once the float valve goes down, the lid can be opened.
- Stir the curry and select Saute mode.
- Cook for 5 to 7 minutes until thickened and heated through, stirring frequently. Use a splatter screen to prevent splatter. Press Cancel and stir in chopped cilantro if desired. Serve with hot buttered naan or steamed Instant Pot basmati or jasmine rice.
➡ Looking for Instant Pot beef recipes? Try my Instant Pot beef curry, Instant Pot beef rendang or Instant Pot beef lo mein. You’ll love them as much as I do!
♨️ Stovetop Method
- Heat the oil or ghee.
- Brown the meat in batches and set aside.
- Saute the whole spices.
- Saute the onion, garlic, ginger.
- Saute the powdered spices.
- Return lamb or beef to pan.
- Add yogurt in 1 tablespoon increments and saute 30 seconds each.
- Add 1 cup of broth or water.
- Cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours or until meat is tender.
- Stir occasionally and add more water as needed.
See the recipe card below for detailed instructions.
Lamb Curry – Rogan Josh (Instant Pot and Stovetop)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil or ghee
- 2 small bay leaves or 1 large
- 1 cinnamon stick 2 inches
- 5 cardamom pods
- 5 whole cloves
- 2 cups onion chopped
- 2 tablespoon garlic minced
- 2 tablespoon ginger minced
- 2 teaspoon coriander powder
- 2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon black pepper powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste!
- 2 lb lamb (1 kg) cut into 1 ½ inch cubes, trimmed of fat (or beef)
- ¼ cup beef broth or chicken broth or water
- ¼ cup plain yogurt whole milk
- ¼ cup cilantro chopped, to garnish
Instructions
Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Instructions
- Select Saute and allow the Instant Pot to heat up. Once the inner pot has heated up, add oil or ghee.
- Once the oil has heated up, add bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves and stir until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
- Stir in onion, garlic, and ginger and saute the onion mixture until onions are light golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. *
- Press Cancel. The spices in the next step will cook in the residual heat.
- Stir in coriander, cumin, chili powder, paprika, black pepper and salt.
- Stir the spices with the onion mixture for about 30 seconds. Deglaze with a small amount of water or broth if you find that the spices are burning.
- Add the lamb and stir to coat the lamb with the spices. Scrape the bottom of the inner pot to make sure there are no brown bits stuck to the bottom.
- Add broth and yogurt and stir till combined.
- Close the lid and pressure cook on High Pressure for 22 minutes.
- Do a Natural Pressure Release (NPR). If you're short on time, you can do a 15 minute Natural Pressure Release (NPR 15). [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
- Open the lid and select Saute mode.
- Heat through until thickened to your liking, stirring frequently, about 5 to 7 minutes. Use a splatter screen to prevent splatter.
- Press Cancel and stir in chopped cilantro.
- Serve with toasted naan or basmati rice.
Stovetop Instructions
- Heat the oil or ghee in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat.
- Brown the meat in batches, transfer to a separate container, and set aside.
- Add more oil or ghee if necessary. Saute the bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves and stir until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
- Stir in onion, garlic, and ginger and saute the onion mixture until onions are light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Deglaze as needed.
- Stir in the spices and saute for 30 seconds or until fragrant, making sure they don't burn.
- Return the meat to the pot and stir to coat the meat with the spice mixture.
- Add yogurt, one tablespoon at a time and saute until incorporated into the sauce, about 30 seconds to 1 minute each time.
- Add a cup of broth or water and stir everything together. (Note that the stovetop recipe requires more liquid due to evaporation.)
- Cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours or until the meat is tender. Stir occasionally and add more water if needed.
- The final curry will be a thick gravy with tender meat.
- Garnish with cilantro.
- Serve with toasted naan or basmati rice.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. cut up lamb, chopped onion, etc.
- * If the onion starts to stick to the bottom or burn, add a tablespoon of broth to deglaze and continue sauteing. Do this as often as needed until the onions are cooked properly.
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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Aaron says
This recipe is EXCELLENT without any modifications or substitutions needed. Ghee, fresh lamb (find a Halal butcher shop near by, its worth it!), the whole spices, and the Kashmiri chili powder are critical for an authentic Indian flavor and this delivers. I want to double this recipe in a 6oz Instant Pot as there seems to be plenty of room to do so during the cooking process. Do pressure/sauteing cooking times need to be adjusted to accommodate 4lbs of lamb versus 2lbs? Thank you again for an absolutely outstanding recipe!
Neena Panicker says
Hi Aaron, thank you for your kind words! I’m so happy to hear you loved the lamb curry recipe and thanks for sharing your thoughts. Yes, you can double the recipe without changing the pressure cooking time, assuming the size of the lamb pieces is the same as the recipe indicates!
Llewellyn Miller says
I used lamb chops cut off the bone. I didn’t have Kashimiri chili powder, so I used yellow curry powder and a bit of vindaloo spice, plus one cut up fresh tabasco pepper; 20 minutes in the Instant Pot, and it came out great. I probably used a little more liquid than called for, but it wasn’t soupy, and cleanup was very easy. Thanks!
Paint the Kitchen Red says
I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Caleb says
Oh my! My wife and I loved this recipe. I used beef though but followed the recipe as written. Very tasty. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I’ll be trying more.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hey Caleb, thank you for your comment. I’m glad you liked the recipe and making it with beef is a great option.
Chris says
Terrific recipe! I doubled the recipe and we all loved it. Thank you for your thorough instructions.
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Thank you for your comment Chris – I’m so glad your family enjoyed the recipe!
Bob Rosenberg says
Oh, Boy!! Rogan Josh. Thanks for this. RJ is one of our very favorites and now we have a recipe. No more Pataks Simmer Sauce. Can’t wait to try itl
Paint the Kitchen Red says
Hope you like it, Bob!