This slow cooker goat curry is one of my most popular recipes on the blog, and everyone who tries it seems to love it! Slow-cooking goat meat with Indian spices results in a perfectly tender, juicy, and flavorful curry.
(Update: a lot of you are asking about an Instant Pot version of this recipe – you can find my Instant Pot Goat Curry!)
What is Goat Curry?
Whenever I make this slow cooker goat curry, I make sure to relish every bite of it. It disappears quickly around here. The sauce is full of flavor, and the meat, when cooked slow, becomes perfectly tender and juicy.
If you haven’t had goat meat before, you’re in for a treat. Goat meat is prevalent in North India; it’s more popular than lamb or beef. My parents were both born in North India, and they ate goat meat once a week. Neither of them tried lamb until they moved to the States. Growing up, my mom cooked goat meat very often at our house. Unfortunately, I missed out on too many of those tasty meals. When I was younger, I’d turn my nose up at anything other than chicken breast. Oh, how times have changed (for the better). If you’ve never eaten goat meat, I encourage you to give it a try. It’s fairly similar to lamb or beef, and when cooked properly, it’s fantastic.
How to Make Goat Curry
When you make this goat curry recipe, add all of the ingredients listed below to your crockpot except for the tomatoes, water, and garam masala. You’ll add these three things an hour before serving. You don’t want to add any liquid to start because you want the onions to caramelize in the crockpot. It’ll make for a more tasty masala.
Set the slow cooker on high for four hours, stirring every hour or so to make sure nothing burns. After four hours, you’ll add the final ingredients and let it all stew together for another hour or until the meat is falling apart. Serve it with my Plain Basmati Rice or use my Paleo Naan, or Paleo Roti to help you scoop up this deliciously spiced, melt-in-your-mouth goat meat curry.
If you’re feeling adventurous, give this a try. Trust me, your taste buds will thank you.
For those who already eat and enjoy goat meat, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment letting others know why you like goat meat (and also what you think of my recipe!) 🙂
And I’m guessing that since you’ve read this far, you’re probably a fan of Indian food? If so, check out my cookbooks for even more recipes!
More Indian Recipes
Ingredients
- 2 pounds goat meat
- 4 whole cloves or a pinch of ground cloves
- 2 cardamom pods or a pinch of ground cardamom
- 2 red onions chopped
- 1 ½ inch knob fresh ginger minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1-2 Serrano pepper minced
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 2 teaspoons salt adjust to taste
- 2 teaspoons Kashmiri chili powder or Paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- ⅛ – ¼ teaspoon cayenne to taste
Add later:
- 1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon garam masala to taste
- ½ – 1 cup water depending on how thick you’d like the curry
Instructions
- In a coffee grinder, finely grind cloves and cardamom.
- In crock pot, add all ingredients listed except tomatoes, water and garam masala (you will add this at the end).
- Set to high and cook for 4 hours – stirring the curry every hour or so.
- After four hours, add tomatoes, garam masala and water. Cook on high for another hour or until the meat is tender.
Notes
- You don’t need to add liquid in this recipe until the very end. The goat meat releases its own liquid! The reason you don’t want to add water in the beginning is because you want the onions to caramelize in the crockpot. It’ll make for a more tasty masala. Trust the recipe as written 😉
- you can use boneless or bone-in goat stew meat. Typically we get goat leg cut into pieces.
- Looking for an instant pot version of this recipe? You can find my instant pot goat curry here.
Phil says
I love this recipe. It’s easily one of my favourite curry’s and perfect for the tougher cuts I often get from wild goats I hunt. I’ve been making it a few years now and it never fails me.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Phil, that’s so great to hear! Thanks for letting me know how much you love this recipe! 🙂
Jimmy says
Would Lamb work with this recipe
John says
Hello Ashley,
After several Indian food “fizzles”, I tried your recipe for goat curry. I must admit that I read the part about not adding any water for the first four hours twice to be sure I was reading it right. Even, then I was worried. Can meat really produce sufficient water for four looong hours of simmering in a dutch oven?
But…. just like you said it would, the goat meat produced its own water for stewing. I was amazed at the water and stewed tenderness Your recipe was my first Indian food success!! I bought some more goat meat and will be going for success number two soon. Cant wait to try your other recipes!!
Mike says
I assume this is cooked with the crockpot lid on? It was much more liquid/thinner than your picture suggests. The instructions say nothing about lid on or off.
Tessi Sakai says
Mike,
I too have found this recipe too soupy for my liking. Next time I use this recipe, I’ll cut the tomatoes ingredient in half to one 14 ounce of crushed tomatoes.
On your question whether to or not cook with the lid on, a crockpot has to have its lid on to achieve it cooking temperature.
Trish says
We can’t get goat very often,but whenever I do, its this recipe. Been doing it for around 2-3 years now. The easiest set n forget recipe. Tonights again was awesome, added a couple of potatoes and carrots. Also used some home made tomatoe soup instead of can tomatoes. Can make it mild or spicy for hubby. Going to try it with lamb next time, just because its more accessible. It just brilliant !
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Happy to hear that you like this dish so much! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Emubrew says
Amazing, Delicious and so so easy
Celina says
Great recipe! I follow the recipe exactly. The flavour is rich and the meat is tender. The amount of the sauce is perfect. Yummy and hassle free! Highly recommended. Thank you for sharing this Ashley!❤️
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Celina, that’s so great to hear! I’m glad you like this dish so much 🙂
Paulene says
Absolutely delicious. Can’t wait to try the other recipes. My late husband and I love curry. He used to make Goat curry for me all the time.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Thanks for sharing, Paulene. I hope you enjoy all the recipes you try. So sweet to hear how he made you curry all the time – love when a man shows his love through cooking 🙂
Ian says
Made this but modified the recipe to use my pressure cooker.
Sliced the onions and sauted in cooker with ghee.
Added all spices and sauted for a few mins but used 1 teaspoon of minced garlic and ginger each.
Added a tin of tomatoes plus washed the tin out with 1/4 tin water.
Mixed all and added diced lamb shoulder chops.
Mixed all and set the cooker on low pressure and 25mins.
Was very nice.
Great the second day.
Susan says
Hi Ashley,
Would this work with goat neck? If not, what would you recommend for the neck?
Thank you!
Susanna says
My mum tried this with kangaroo meat and passed it on 🙂 Apparently it was amazing!