Craving lamb curry? Make this recipe on the stovetop or in the pressure cooker. Whatever you choose, slowly cooking the lamb is the key to tender lamb in this dish. Make a pot of rice and dinner is served.

Photography Credit: Elise Bauer

This lamb curry is made by slow cooking lamb shanks and chunks of lamb shoulder in a flavorful curry base with chopped apple, potatoes, onions, garlic, lemon, and raisins until it is fall apart tender.

It’s so good! The apples, onions, and raisins give the lamb curry some sweetness, while a couple slices of lemon add some acidity and bitter to balance the flavors of the dish.

I first encountered this lamb curry at my friend Elizabeth Abbott’s parent’s house and begged her mother Maria for the recipe, which, thankfully, she gave me. I’ve played around with it over the years, upped the spices, added raisins, cooked it on the stovetop, cooked it in an Instant Pot. It all works.

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The Secret to Great Lamb Curry

The key is slow cooking the tougher cuts of lamb. Both the shanks and the shoulders of a young lamb get plenty of exercise, which makes the meat much more flavorful than, say, a delicate lamb chop. But this activity also makes the meat tough, and so you need to cook it for a longer amount of time to soften the connective tissue and make it tender.

Those 1-hour lamb stews? Chewy. You need at least 2 to 2 1/2 hours to get the meat so tender that it is falling off the bone. Want to speed up the process? You can cut the time in half if you use a pressure cooker.

Lamb Curry in the Instant Pot

You can easily make this lamb curry in a stovetop pressure cooker or Instant Pot. Brown the lamb and onions as directed on the stovetop or using the sear function of the Instant Pot. Cook the curry for 50 minutes on high pressure. Then release the pressure, add the potatoes, and cook for another 10 minutes at high pressure.

New to the Instant Pot? Check out our post How To Use an Instant Pot: A First-Timer’s Guide.

Bone-in or Boneless Lamb?

I typically use bone-in lamb shanks, shoulder, and stew meat for lamb curry because of the additional flavor and marrow goodness you can get from the bones. By the end of cooking the meat just falls off the bones making it really easy to pick out the bones before serving.

That said, use boneless if that is what you like and you don’t want to deal with bones. Just make sure you are using meat from the more flavorful cuts like a lamb shoulder or shank.

How to Store and Freeze Leftovers

This curry will keep in the fridge for at least five days, and like many stews, the flavors continue to improve with time.

This recipe also freezes quite well, though the potatoes might be a little on the soft side once thawed. Freeze for up to three months, thaw in the fridge overnight, and reheat over low heat on the stovetop to serve.

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