Bhuna Gosht is essentially a goat curry, made by slow-cooking the meat in a slew of whole spices until soft and tender.
Unlike most other North Indian and Pakistani curry recipes, this curry is on the drier side. The mutton pieces coated in a delicious and aromatic masala and served with hot roti or spicy naan to make a delicious, filling meal.
I’ve recently been experimenting a lot with mutton and lamb recipes. While Achari Gosht and goat Paya still remain among my family’s top favorites, this mutton Bhuna recipe always has us licking our fingers.
This spicy Bhuna masala, is an absolute riot of flavors, and the tender meat pairs beautifully with both Jeera rice and bread.
Quick Look: Bhuna Gosht
- 🔪 Prep time: 5 minutes.
- ⏲️ Cook time: 25 minutes.
- 👪 Servings: 2.
- 📋 Main ingredients: Mutton or goat meat, onions, tomatoes, ginger garlic paste, garam masala, whole spices.
- ♨️ Cooking method: Sauté → pressure cook → finish with ghee and garam masala → serve.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy.
- 🥣 Serving ideas: Pair with naan, roti, jeera rice, mix veg raita, laccha onions, or minty Indian buttermilk.
Jump to:
What's So Great About the Recipe?
- It is quite different from most lamb curry recipes you’ll find out there. Everything comes together in your pressure cooker, which makes it so easy too!
- Pressure cooking helps cut down the cooking time and gets you the perfect tender lamb chunks you’re looking for.
- This curry comes together in under 30 minutes, and is a great recipe to turn to on a tiring weeknight- just like my white chicken Karahi.
Recipe Ingredients
Lamb or goat meat: You can use either goat or lamb meat for this recipe. The idea is to stick to using red meat for this curry dish.
Aromatics: Some sliced onions and a generous spoonful of homemade ginger garlic paste.
Tomatoes: The base for the gravy. You can use canned or fresh tomatoes- whatever you have at hand.
Spices: The classic Indian pantry staples- some turmeric, coriander powder, red chili powder, whole cloves and black cardamom, and of course, a dash of homemade garam masala powder.
Lime juice: To balance out the heat and amp up the flavors of the curry.
Oil + ghee: For that rich, smoky depth.
Cilantro: To garnish.
See recipe card for quantities.
Substitutions & Variations
- If you’re concerned about the heat, use Kashmiri chili powder, which lends the base of the curry that beautiful red color without adding too much spice.
- To add some more heat to the dish, you can also add some finely chopped green chillies into the curry. I did this when I made my Karahi Kheema too.
- If you don’t have fresh tomatoes that the recipe calls for, tomato paste can work wonderfully too!
How to Make Bhuna Gosht
- Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add the whole spices in.
- Fry them for about a minute, and then add in the sliced onions and saute for 2-5 minutes or until they start browning.
- Now add the tomatoes, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder and cook for 5-7 minutes on low to medium heat.
- Now add in the meat with about 1-1 ½ cups of water, close the lid and pressure cook the meat for about 12-15 minutes or until the meat is tender.
- In a small tempering pan, heat the ghee and add the garam masala powder. Pour this over the curry and sprinkle lots of chopped coriander leaves before serving!
💭Top Tip
To add some more rustic flavor to the dish, you can swap your regular cooking oil with mustard oil.
Tips & Tricks to Nail the Recipe
- If the curry seems too dry for your liking, you can add a cup of whisked yogurt into the meat with spices, and keep stirring it while letting it simmer on low heat.
- If the curry ends up being too runny, you can reduce it to lose some of that water. Simply open the lid, reduce the heat and let the curry cook for 10-15 minutes.
- This recipe for Bhuna Gosht calls for the use of bone-in mutton or lamb, because it packs in the maximum flavor. You can also choose to use the boneless variety if you want to.
- Don't forget to top it with some crispy Air Fryer shallots for a bit of extra flavor.
How to Serve Bhuna Gosht
Traditionally, this mutton curry is served with some soft naan, paratha or rotis. The bread pairs perfectly with the spicy masala that clings to the meat.
You can also enjoy this recipe with an Indian side dish like Indian roasted sweet potatoes, some crunchy masala papad or pair it with a cooling salad like cucumber and mint raita or boondi raita. Appetizers like Paneer Shashlik and Indian roasted cauliflower work wonderfully with this robust gravy.
And of course, you can also serve the Bhuna Gosht with some refreshing mango lassi or rose lassi to wash it down. For dessert, put together a simple mango Shrikhand or make a jar full of Gulkand to freshen up your taste buds.
Troubleshooting & FAQs
If you have a tougher cut of meat that you’re worried about getting undercooked, you can choose to add half a teaspoon of meat tenderizer into the washed mutton before you pressure cook it.
You totally can! The idea is to pressure cook the meat to get the perfect, tender mutton pieces for this authentic Bhuna Gosht.
Let it cool down completely and then transfer to a clean container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
You can reheat leftover Bhuna Gosht on the stovetop on medium heat. Add a splash of water to it to get it back to the perfect saucy consistency too!
More Delicious Indian Mains
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If you tried this Bhuna Gosht or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Bhuna Gosht
Ingredients
- 200 g mutton
- 2 onions sliced
- 2 tomatoes chopped
- 1 tablespoon red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
- ½ teaspoon ginger paste
- ½ teaspoon garlic paste
- 1-2 black cardamom
- 3-4 cloves
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- 2 tablespoon coriander leaves chopped
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add the whole spices in.
- Fry them for about a minute, and then add in the sliced onions and saute for 2-5 minutes or until they start browning.
- Now add the tomatoes, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, salt, turmeric powder and coriander powder and cook for 5-7 minutes on low to medium heat.
- Now add in the meat with about 1-1 ½ cups of water, close the lid and pressure cook the meat for about 12-15 minutes or until the meat is tender.
- In a small tempering pan, heat the ghee and add the garam masala powder. Pour this over the curry and sprinkle lots of chopped coriander leaves before serving!
