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plate of curry with lamb and coconut milk, served with pickled onions and red peppercorns.
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4.75 from 4 votes

Slow Cooker Lamb Curry

Meltingly tender slow cooker lamb curry in a flavorful and spicy coconut sauce. You can cook it in advance; it is even better when reheated.
Prep Time40 minutes
Cook Time6 hours 30 minutes
Course: Asian and Indian Recipes, Beef, Pork and Lamb, Main Course
Cuisine: Indian
Servings: 6 people
Calories: 483kcal
Author: Adina

Equipment

  • Slow cooker or crockpot

Ingredients

Lamb:

  • 3.5– 4 lbs bone-in lamb leg 1.6 – 1.8 kg, Notes 12, 3
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt or Kosher
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil more if needed

Onions:

  • 2-3 onions 250 g/ 9 oz, thinly sliced
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil + 1 tablespoon later

Curry paste:

  • 6 large garlic cloves roughly chopped
  • 1 medium onion 120 g/ 4 oz chopped
  • 1 ginger 30 g/ 1 oz, peeled and chopped
  • 1 tablespoon cumin
  • 1 tablespoon coriander
  • 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
  • 2 teaspoons turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes Note 4
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt or Kosher
  • a bit of water

Lamb curry:

  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • ½ cup lamb stock or chicken/ beef stock low sodium
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • sea salt or Kosher to taste

Instructions

Lamb:

  • Remove the fat layer from the leg of the lamb.
  • Debone lamb: Use a sharp boning knife. Cut straight down the length of the leg. Cut away the meat from the bone, trying to leave as little meat on the bone as possible. Get the knife tip under the bone and cut towards a joint. When you reach the joint, cut the meat around it to loosen it from the joint. Repeat in the other direction (towards the other joint). Cut around it and remove the bone.
  • Chop the meat: First, remove the hard connective tissues found where the joints were. Next, chop the meat into 1.5 inches/ 4 cm chunks.
  • Pat the cubes dry with a paper towel.
  • Season lamb: Place them into a large bowl, and sprinkle them with flour, salt, and pepper.
    2 tablespoon flour + ¾ teaspoon salt + ½ teaspoon pepper
  • Brown the meat in batches: Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large heavy-bottom pan or Dutch oven. Fry the lamb chunks in 3-4 batches depending on the pan size; the pan should not be overcrowded. This will take 4-5 minutes per batch; keep turning the pieces in the pan so that they can brown all over. Add more oil when necessary between the batches.
    2 tablespoon oil, divided between the batches
  • Transfer the meat to the slow cooker.

Onions:

  • Cook them while the lamb pieces brown.
  • Slice: Halve the onions and slice the halves thinly.
    9 oz/ 250 g onions
  • Fry onions: Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onions on low heat for about 10 minutes or until soft and lightly browned. Stir often. If necessary, add 1-2 splashes of water during cooking to prevent the onions from sticking to the pan and browning too much.
    2 tablespoon oil

Curry paste:

  • You can start preparing the paste while the meat and the sliced onions cook.
  • Chop the onion and the garlic, and peel and chop the ginger. Place them in a food processor, and add all the spices and 2 tablespoons of water. If the food processor is small (like mine was), process the paste in two batches.
    6 garlic cloves + 1 onion + 1 oz/ 30 g ginger + 1 tablespoon cumin + 1 tablespoon coriander + 1 tablespoon sweet paprika + 1 teaspoon turmeric + 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds + 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes + ½ teaspoon sea salt + 2 tablespoon water
  • Process the mixture to a smooth paste scraping the walls of the food processor a couple of times in between. If necessary, add one extra tablespoon of water to help the spices blend.

Lamb curry:

  • Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the onions in the pan.
  • Add the curry paste and 2 tablespoons of water. Stir to combine and cook gently for 5 minutes, stirring very often until the mixture just begins to darken.
  • Pour the coconut milk and the stock and stir well to dissolve the paste clumps into the sauce.
    1 cup coconut milk + ½ cup stock
  • Check for salt; I added another ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt, but it depends on the saltiness of the stock.
  • Slow cook: Pour everything over the meat in the slow cooker and add the bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Cook on HIGH for 30 minutes and then on LOW for 6 hours.
    2 bay leaves + 1 cinnamon stick
  • Check the meat; it should be very tender.

Notes

  1. Boneless meat: 2.5 lb/ 1.2 kg left after removing the bone.
  2. Bone: Don’t discard the bone; it makes excellent lamb stock. You can debone the leg in advance, make stock with the bone and use the stock for the lamb curry.#
  3. A shoulder of lamb can be used instead.
  4. Hot curry: This recipe is very spicy but not particularly hot. You can make it hotter by replacing the red pepper flakes with cayenne pepper (½ - 1 tsp) or with 2-3 chilies which you will blend together with the paste ingredients.

Nutrition

Serving: 1portion from 6 | Calories: 483kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 41g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 122mg | Sodium: 679mg | Potassium: 846mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 707IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 73mg | Iron: 6mg