It’s kind of surprising to me that one of my most popular recipes on the blog is my slow cooker goat curry. I honestly had no idea that so many of you eat and enjoy goat meat. I absolutely love it and it really makes me happy to see that you all do too! I make my goat curry all the time and while it’s definitely worth the wait… I’m an impatient girl.
I want a big bowl of goat curry that tastes slow cooked… BUT I want it fast. I like my curry… in a hurry.
Since I want dinner on the table ASAP, I figure you guys do too – which is why I’m sharing my recipe for goat curry made in an Instant Pot, an electronic pressure cooker. If you don’t have an Instant Pot, I’m sure a regular pressure cooker will work just fine. The reason I love the Instant Pot is because I can saute the aromatics (onion, garlic, ginger, spices) and cook the curry all in one pot. It’s an amazing device that makes clean up a breeze.
To make this goat stew even more comforting, I cut some potatoes in half and added them to the pot. I prefer eating this curry over basmati rice or cauli-rice, but sometimes I’ll just eat it by itself. It’s one of my favorite recipes to make during the colder months.
You can also serve this with these tangy spiced potatoes also made in an Instant Pot and Indian flatbread (pictured below: roti made with a rotimatic – you can read my rotimatic review here).
Can’t wait to hear what you think of this!

Goat Curry in a Hurry (Instant Pot Recipe)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons oil of choice (I like avocado oil)
- 2 pounds bone-in goat (or lamb) pieces (shoulder or leg)
- 2 onions, diced
- 1 ½ inch knob fresh ginger, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
Spices
- 4 whole cloves
- 4 cardamom pods
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 2 teaspoons salt, adjust to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ – ½ teaspoon cayenne, adjust to taste
- 2 (14 ounce) cans organic diced tomatoes
- ½ cup water
- ½ pound potatoes (leave whole), optional
Instructions
- Press the sauté button on the Instant Pot, and add the oil and goat meat to the pot. Once the outside of the meat begins to brown, add the onion, garlic, ginger and spices. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
- Pour in the diced tomatoes, water and potatoes if using.
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve and cook for 45 minutes at high pressure.
- Allow the pressure to release naturally.
- If you’d like for the dish to have a thicker consistency, press the sauté button to reduce or boil off extra liquid.
Like this recipe? Then check out my cookbook: Indian Food Under Pressure for more Indian Instant Pot Recipes!
Looking for more Instant Pot Recipes? Try these:
Instant Pot Shredded Chicken
Instant Pot Saag
Instant Pot Carne Guisada
Instant Pot Habanero Chili
Instant Pot Dal Makhani
Instant Pot Texas Beef Chili
Instant Pot Ground Lamb Curry
Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Hi. Can I substitute lamb for the goat? Because to be honest, I don’t even know where to buy goat meat.
Sue, yes definitely! I’ve made this with lamb too and it is just as delicious 🙂
Would it be possible to substitute beef in this recipe? I haven’t been able to find goat meat.
I haven’t tried this with beef but I don’t see why not 🙂 Let me know how you like it!
Found it at Walmart by the lamb
Wow, you must have an Amazing Walmart! The Walmarts in my state have neither goat nor lamb! The only places around me that have it are Middle Eastern grocery stores. The quality is fantastic, though.
(For those of you who have a similar problem finding goat, check the Middle Eastern stores out! Most decent sized cities have at least one. Even my relatively small southern city of <200k people has 2 or 3. Also, most Whole Foods stores have lamb, though not goat.)
Hi! I only recently learned about the instant pot and I have yet to add it to my list of kitchen gadgets. For now, I only have a slow cooker. I imagine this could be done that way too. If you have any pointers aside from sautéing prior to putting it in the slow cooker, please let me know. I honestly have never had goat that I liked, but I hope your recipe knocks it out of the park!
Hi Bonnie! Yes, I actually have a slow cooker version of this recipe: myheartbeets.com/slow-cooker-goat-curry-indian/ I hope you love it!
Yum. I’ll be trying this recipe tonight with lamb in my Instant Pot. I wish that the were more Indian curry recipes for Instant Pot. I cannot wait to use this new kitchen gadget more often.
Awesome! I’ll try to keep developing more Instant Pot Indian recipes 🙂 All slow cooker recipes are really easy to adapt.
Hey Kseniya, there’s and Instant Pot for Indian Cooking Facebook group that has lots of Indian curry recipes too! The only problem is, sometimes there’s not the exact amount of ingredients needed etc… That is why I prefer this blog and it is actually where I learned about this fantastic website (myheartbeets!) Someone was praising it so i decided to check it out! Thanks My Heart Beets… I enjoy your humor as a fellow millenial Indian girl… and your recipes are awesome! I tried the butter chicken which came out great, and I can’t wait to try this one out too bc I’ve been hankering for some mutton. I’m assuming I can use this recipe with mutton too though instead of goat?
Priya, I’m so glad you found my blog through that group! It’s a great group 🙂 Can’t wait to hear what you think of this recipe – and yes mutton will work!
Thanks for this recipe. I have recently got an Instant Pot and can’t wait to cook this recipe. How do I turn this into goat biryani? M family loves goat biryanyi.
I’ve made the regular version about three times. Once we actually had little goat chops and it was amazing! I tried buffalo but it was too dry. I like to use 1 lb. of lamb and 1 lb. of beef stew meat. I always add vegetables to my stew. The last time I made it I added green tops from, I think the daichon radish. That particular batch fermented with a kind of vinegary flavor, so sadly we tossed the leftovers. I wonder if this has ever happened to anyone else? I make stews all the time with veggies and have never had this happen before. Thoughts?
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We made this tonight and loved it! Just wondering though….do you really only do 1/2 lbs of potatoes? I had two russet potatoes and they weighed more than 1/2 lbs just the two of them. Any reason we couldn’t add more?
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Glad you liked it, Jen! You can add as many potatoes as you’d like – totally up to you! 🙂
Do you peel the potatoes?
Totally up to you – either way works 🙂 I switch it up
Hi, this came out really nicely, more sauce than I imagined, was it 2 x 14 ounce cans or 14 ounce in total of Tomatoes?
As it came out it gives a lot of servings for the cost, really nice.
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Glad to hear you liked it! The recipe calls for 2 cans of diced tomatoes, so 28 ounces total. If you want to reduce the sauce, just hit the “saute” button once it’s done cooking to boil off extra liquid.
Such a fabulous recipe. We made it with lamb and a nighshade free version by, substituting grated 1.5 lbs butternut squash for the tomato + 1/4 C ACV; and parsnips for the potato. I also used ground spices instead of whole. Thank you for the awesome recipe with easy to follow Instant Pot instructions!
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Thanks Shari and John! I’m so glad you liked the recipe – and thanks for sharing your substitutions! 🙂
We used lamb (leg, bone in) and substituted grated butternut squash and cubed parsnips for the nightshades (tomato and potato) and substituted white and black pepper for the paprika and chili (also nightshades.) it might have a slightly sweeter flavor due to our substitutions, but it’s all the rest of your spices in the ratios you’ve listed that make it so fantastic and tasty, so the substitutions worked perfectly well. The instructions were very easy to follow (my hubs actually made it!)
Thank you for this AWESOME recipe.
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Hi, I just got an instant pot and this was the first meal i cooked in it. Im not sure if i did something wrong but it was more soupy than i expected. The flavor was great but i’m accustomed to Indian curries having a thicker consistency, did I do something wrong?
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Hi Andy! Meat releases water as it cooks and that water content can vary so that’s probably why – once the curry is done, remove the lid and press the “saute” button to reduce the liquid until it reaches the consistency you prefer. I hope that helps! Let me know how this works for you!
I’m sorry, I don’t know how i missed the sauté comment in the earlier post. I dumped it all (what was left) back in the pot a day later and put it on sauté till it reduced. It came out amazing, all the flavors intensified and came together.. Thank you 🙂
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I’m happy to hear that! 🙂
Hi, made this today and while it taste great, the curry came out more like a stew than a curry. I followed the directions – any idea what i may have done wrong?
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I see the comment above now 🙂
Hi Adit, do you mean that it’s a thinner consistency than a curry? If that’s the case, just press the saute button once you remove the lid to reduce the liquid.
Dumb question, but when do I put in the bay leaf?
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Hi Neil, that’s not a dumb question! Add it in with the ginger, garlic and spices. I just fixed the directions to include that information – sorry about that!
How many people is this recipe for please?
Hi, it should feed 4-5, depending on what else you serve.
I added a squeeze of lemon to the end and it was delicious! Thanks for this amazing recipe!
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That’s great to hear! Thank you for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
This today with fresh tomatoes and it turned into a big watery mess. How did you avoid that in your steps
Farah, you can hit saute at the end to boil off extra liquid. Hope that helps!
Just made this over the weekend. AMAZING!!! Just like everything else I have ever made from the website or the cookbooks. Thanx Ash.
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So happy to hear that! Loved the pic on Insta too! Thanks for the review 🙂
Awesome! We found goat meat at a Middle Eastern market, followed the recipe exactly except we used closer to 1 lb of Yukon gold potatoes and cooked for 1 hour under pressure. It smelled fantastic the whole time. After removing the lid after pressure cooking, it looked a bit watery, but the favor was perfect and we ate it straight away with basmati rice and flat bread. Would not change a thing. What an excellent recipe! So easy and so delicious.
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Tina, that’s great to hear! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Honestly if you have a cookbook and this is ur full time job like be considerate for those that are just starting out. Why would you not add important details to the recipe like cook on manual? Wait 20ish minutes for natural release. I am just so frustrated after making this, it was such a dinner fail. Please add more details to ur recipes, I just know not to follow ur recipes from now on. I did not have a good experience. I chose this goat curry recipe over mumsicle kitchen based on these reviews under this recipe, people are giving it 5 stars and raving about it, but now it makes sense you only selectively approve comments to be shown that are raving. These comments like mine of course aren’t going to be featured on ur recipe on ur website, makes the whole thing such a misleading recipe. I don’t know how you ever will have any success in your business if your not honest with ur feedback.
Hi Kiran, I’m sorry this didn’t work out. If you have questions now or in the future, I am happy to help you via the blog, email or on social media. Sometimes it takes me a little while to reply because I’m also a stay-at-home mom and I consider that (not my blog) my main job. I write the directions this way because all Instant Pot models are different. For example, my Instant Pot Ultra does not have a “manual” button. Also, for the record – I approve negative comments on my website too – I just happen to get more positive feedback than negative, thankfully. Best, Ashley
This was delicious!!
Divya, I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Made this tonight with lamb and it was delicious!! I used the sauté mode to reduce the amount of gravy-it was perfect!
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Nikki, I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Sorry if this is an obvious question, but how do I manage the meat? Do I cut some pieces off the shoulder and just cook the pieces, do I just put the shoulder/leg in whole and cut the pieces later or do I cut the meat off the bone and also add the bone? Thanks.
Hi Jules! When you buy it, ask the butcher to cut the pieces up for you – they usually have a special saw/machine to cut through the bone (I watch my butcher do it and it takes him less than a minute) or if you buy it frozen from an Indian grocery store then it’s usually already cut with the bone. If you’ve already bought a whole piece of meat then just remove the meat from the bone and cut the meat into smaller pieces – then add the meat pieces and the bone to the pot. Hope that helps! Let me know what you think of it 🙂
About what size should they be?
Do you sauté the meat from frozen if I have frozen goat pieces?
I’m actually trying this recipe as we speak and it’s my first time using the instant pot. Do I keep it in the sauté setting the entire time? Once everything Was added after 30 min the instant pot just shut off. Help
Hi Arza, once you’re done sautéing in step 1, then you’ll need to pressure cook the goat. So press the “manual” or “pressure cook” button on your IP and set the time to 45 minutes. Hope that helps!
can you use frozen goat this way and brown the onion with the spices, then add the goat and the can of tomatoes?
Hi Leah! I’m sure you can use frozen goat but you may want to add an extra 5-10 minutes to the cook time. Hope that helps 🙂
Hi! This looks fantastic! I wasn’t able to find bone in meat. Should I adjust the cooking time for chunks of meat without a bone? Or should it still cook for 45 minutes? The meat is a little fatty! So excited to try this!
Cathlin, you can probably reduce the cook time to 30 minutes – if the meat isn’t tender, then just cook it for another 10 but I think it’ll be fine. Let me know what you think! 🙂
Hi Mam,
I planning to buy instant pot and debating between LUX and Duo Version (which has setting for Low and High pressure).
With Indian cooking /curries in mind – which one do you recommend ? do we need the one with pressure control ?
Appreciate your response!!
Thanks
Hi Sam, here is a link for the instant pots (and accessories) that I recommend: https://myheartbeets.com/product-category/instant-pot-accessories/
Hi there – if I half the recipe (cooking for two) other than taking half the ingredients how long would the cooking time be instead?
You can keep the cook time the same – it’ll reach pressure faster due to less contents in the pot but the cook time can stay the same.
If you make half the recipe how long do you cook it for?
If i want to cook with mutton,how many minutes should i put in pressure cook
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If you’re using lamb then you can do a 20 min cook time with NPR 🙂
I made this last week but felt the tomato portion was far too much for our liking. If we cut back the tomato portion how do we adjust the cook time and water content?
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You tag this recipe as keto, but it is still a bit too carb heavy for me. 2 onions is about 20g carbs. 28 oz of diced tomatoes is another 28g carbs. With incidental carbs (assuming no potatoes) and 4 services, that gives this about 12g of net carbs per serving. What else could substitute for the sugary tomatoes? How would the recipe be adjusted for that or using onion powder instead of onion?
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Hi Ethan, it is under the low carb/keto category – since everyone has different carb limits please adjust the servings according to your diet. You can try using onion powder but I haven’t tried it this way – if I do, I will be sure to update the recipe. Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Ashley. Do we drain the to tomatoes before using?
Thanks
Michelle
No need to drain the tomatoes 🙂
Won’t the potatoes get super mushy if pressure cooked for 45 minutes?
They will definitely be soft, you can leave them whole too if you’d like. Or you can wait until it’s done then add chopped potatoes and pressure cook for 5 more mins.
I cook my goat meat in a regular pressure cooker for no more than 15-20 minutes. Will cooking them for 45 minutes in the IP over-cook the meat?
45 mins always works for me, but you can try it out for less time if you’d like – and then always add more time if you decide it needs to be cooked further. Hope that helps!
Tried it… It was great. Now I’m making double the portion. Does the pressure cook time change?
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Alex, that’s great to hear! You can leave the cook time the same – it’ll take longer to reach pressure and that should be enough. If not though you can always just add another 5-10 mins if it’s not done.
Should drain the tomato’s? Can you give a more accurate amount of ginger? Maybe ounces or grams?
Would this work with lamb shanks? Would the duration for pressure cooking change? (Thinking 4 lamb shanks). Thanks!
Do you have to use canned tomatoes?
How long to wait natural pressure release before releasing it manually to open the lid?
I have always liked your recipes which are so simple and yet taste sooo goood !
Thanks for sharing the recipes .
I have a quick question – I really wanted to know that why are we given canned tomato as ingredients ( even in butter chicken ) and not fresh .
Is it possible for you to provide substitutes .
I avoid using canned and frozen as much as I can .
Thanks so much
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