Authentic Kashmiri Rogan Josh (With Lamb)

Lamb Rogan Josh. This authentic kashmiri rogan josh recipe features succulent braised lamb meat in a yogurt sauce flavored with fennel, dried ginger, cloves and black cardamom. No onion, no garlic, no tomatoes, this slow cooked lamb recipe is a huge favorite in our home- the flavors are rich, intense & complex and build slowly as the slow cooking progresses. Tastes better next day!

Traditionally, kashmiri rogan josh is served with steamed rice, but it also pairs wonderfully with naan or rotis, that perfect for soaking up the flavorful sauce. For an added touch of freshness, you can add refreshing kachumber salad on the side.

When it comes to cooking lamb curries, this simple lamb curry stands as my go-to choice. Yet, there are times when I yearn for something different and that's when I turn to this delightful rogan josh made without the usual onion-garlic-tomato masala. It never fails to satisfy our cravings for a unique and flavorful meat dish.

About Rogan Josh

Rogan Josh, a meat dish with roots in Persia, hails from the beautiful Kashmir region of India. The name of the dish is believed to have Persian origins, with "rogan" meaning "oil" and "josh" meaning "intensity" or "heat," referring to the richness and reddish hue of the dish.

To truly capture the essence of rogan Josh, it is essential that the meat braises in its own fat & juices. Bold and aromatic spices infuse the meat with flavor and yogurt adds an undertone of tang, also helping to counter the richness of meat. The slow cooking allows for the flavors to meld together while the meat becomes tender and the resulting dish has a robust and distinctive flavor profile, elevating rogan rosh to its rightful status.

Kashmiri cuisine is renowned for its rich non-vegetarian cuisine, especially mutton dishes and rogan josh is truly at the heart of it. Preserving its traditional essence is crucial when preparing this iconic delicacy. Opting for lean meats like chicken may result in an improper rendition of rogan dish.

Complex & Rich Flavors

Since onion or garlic are not used in authentic rogan josh, when it comes to flavor, its the spices that do the heavy lifting. The distinctive warming taste is from spices like black and green cardamom, cinnamon, dry ginger powder, cloves, and bay leaves while the aroma is of spices like mace, fennel powder and saffron.

The characteristic color of traditional kashmiri rogan josh is from "ratanjot", an herb & a natural food coloring that gives this famous dish its signature red color. However, homecooks like me use kashmiri red chilli powder to imitate that sanguine color.

In addition to spices, browning the meat, a process called bhunai or bhunana also gives a lot of indian meat dishes like bhuna gosht or rogan josh complex & deep flavors.

Why you will love this recipe

• Authentic - This treasured recipe was handed down to me by my aunt, a proud Kashmiri. Before experiencing her authentic rogan josh, I must admit that I had been enjoying a version that didn't quite do justice to the original.
• Visual Appeal - They say we eat with eyes first. The rich sauce with a reddish brown hue surely appeals to the senses.
• Versatility- I use lamb however, you could use the same recipe with any kind of meat like mutton, goat meat or beef.
• Mild flavors - If you are a fan of mild curries or are craving a meat dish with less of a kick, rogan josh is perfect for that day. It is a dish that is not "hot" rather intensely spiced and stimulates the senses with its color and aroma.
• Fragrant, hearty and comforting - Slow cooked meat is one of the most comforting things. The long period of cooking makes the meat succulent while intensifying the flavors in the sauce. Rogan Josh is a dish of luxuriousness.
• Customizable - The spices that go in harmoniously meld together giving rogan josh a unique taste. That said, the recipe can be adjusted as per your liking for a mild or less spiced version.

Ingredients Needed for Lamb Rogan Josh

Here is a list of ingredients :-

• Lamb/Goat. I use boneless Lamb shoulder or lamb leg because they cook to super tender. You can easily use the lamb stew meat from the meat aisle. If using goat meat, I go for goat mixed pieces because that's the only kind I can find here. Cut the lamb in 2 inch pieces. You don't want to cut too small (the meat shrinks considerably) or too large (take longer to slow cook).
• Spices - The soul of authentic rogan josh are the spices. You can find everything except a few spices like hing (asafoetida) and black cardamom in American stores.

Here are a few wonderful substitutions:-

1) Use Paprika in place of Kashmiri Chili Powder.

2) Skip black cardamom. This spice has a distinctive woody taste which is hard to substitute. Use green cardamom. Green cardamom is not a substitute, nonetheless it will infuse the meat with aroma.

3) Asafetida or Hing is used in Indian cuisine to imitate a umami flavor similar to onion or garlic. I would suggest adding 2-3 cloves of smashed garlic instead.

• Mustard Oil. Authentic Rogan Josh is cooked in virgin mustard oil. Mustard Oil is a very popular cooking oil in North Indian cuisine, however, at the same time it is an acquired taste due to its strong aroma and pungency. You can easily purchase a bottle at indian grocery stores. I suggest using any neutral cooking in place of mustard oil. Add 1-2 tablespoon of ghee for aroma.
• Yogurt- I always use plain whole milk yogurt. Make sure that the yogurt isn't too sour.

How To Make Rogan Josh (Step Photos)

Preparation

1. Place lamb meat in a bowl and add ¼ teaspoon salt and ½ tablespoon mustard oil. Toss the lamb with oil and salt - I use my hands to do so. Set aside for 20 minutes.
2. Add yogurt to a bowl and thin out using water.
3. Add fennel seeds to your spice grinder and make a powder.
4. In a small skillet make the spice blend for finishing the curry. Dry roast the spices on low heat for a few minutes, cool off and grind to a powder using coffee grinder or mortar & pestle. Keep ready.

Tip # 1 Make sure to grind the fennel first and then the finishing spice blend else the fennel aroma would be adulterated.

Brown(Fry) Lamb With Spices

5. In a heavy bottomed pot (I use my braiser), heat up the mustard oil on medium flame. Mustard oil needs to be heated more than the usual oil to do away the raw smell. Heat till you start seeing ripples on the surface oil.

Tip #2 Reduce the stove to low flame or take the pot off the stove for a few minutes(to make sure that spices don't burn in next step.

5. Add bay leaf and green cardamom to oil followed by cumin seeds and hing. Saute the spices in oil for a few seconds. Wait for the aroma. About 10 seconds.
6. Introduce the lamb.Bump up the heat to medium and start stirring. In 1-2 minutes, you will see that the lamb will start browning.

Tip # 3 Add 1-2 tablespoon of water as soon as you add lamb. This will make sure that lamb wont stick to the bottom of pot.

7. Brown, or bhuno the lamb on medium high heat for 7-8 minutes stirring regularly. We want all the pink to go away and browned edges to start appearing.
8. Now, reduce to low flame. Add the kashmiri chilli powder a little at a time and immediately drizzle thin yogurt mixture. Stir around gently. Do this till all the chili powder and yogurt are exhausted, adding yogurt last.
9. Continue on low heat so that the yogurt does not curdle and the chili powder does not burn.

Tip # 4 - If at any point you feel that the pot is way too hot, take off the stove for a while and return back.

10. After about 2 minutes, bump up the heat to medium and add the dry ginger powder, ground fennel, red chili powder(hot) and salt. Stir around, you will see a lot of liquid in the pot but that's okay. Fry (bhuno) the meat for next 10-12 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Slow Cook Rogan Josh

10. Introduce ¾ cup hot water. Cover and let slow cook covered on low heat for about 1 hour and 10 minutes (or more, depending on how large the meat pieces are) till the lamb is almost 95% cooked. You will need to check the pot 3-4 times in between to ensure that it is not sticking to the bottom, add a splash of water as needed.
11. Once the lamb is 95% cooked, add the spice blend that we prepared. There will be enough liquid in the pot. Cover and let simmer for another 20 minutes till the lamb is cooked through(fork tender). 
12. Switch off the stove. Add saffron if using and let rest for 20-30 before serving. Garnish with chopped coriander, reheat and serve.

Using Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot

Pressure Cooker - Follow steps 5-10 in a stove top pressure cooker. Please adjust the heat levels as I have mentioned in each step. After adding the lamb, close the lid and pressure cook for 35 minutes.

Electric Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot - Follow the steps 5-10 on saute mode of IP. Cancel saute mode and select pressure cook. Pressure cook for 20 minutes and let pressure release naturally.

Troubleshooting Rogan Josh

• Overcooked or Undercooked Meat - Lamb rogan josh tastes best when its fork tender. The meat should not fall apart while slow cooking. I recommend keeping a close eye during last 15-20 minutes of cooking to avoid overcooking. If you feel that the meat is chewy and not tender, cook longer to fix it.
• Intensely Spiced - We are not using any onions, tomatoes or garlic in this recipe and building flavor base using just spices. It is entirely possible to feel that the sauce is intensely flavored especially if you have less tolerance towards spices. In that case 1) you could add extra beaten yogurt(1 or 2 tablespoon) at the end or 2) thin down the sauce with water. 3) You could also counter the over powering taste using some acid element (like lemon juice). Serving with a fresh salad like kachumber really helps too.
• Too Oily - This can happen if the lamb wasn't trimmed properly to start with. Secondly, sometimes the meat renders too much fat while cooking and we really have no control over that. A simple way to fix this is by skimming off the excess oil from the surface using a spoon.
• Runny Gravy- If you feel that the meat has cooked but the sauce is too thin, take out the lamb and cook off excess moisture from the sauce. Once its desired consistency, add back the lamb.
• Not Reddish Enough- Yes its quite possible. The funny thing is that while cooking, you will notice that the color is gorgeous red right after adding the yogurt and kashmiri red chilli powder. However, most of the time when I cook lamb josh, it turns reddish brown color by the end of cooking which is quite normal for a meat dish. I don't recommend adding any more paprika at this stage, it will just make the sauce taste chalky.

Recipe Tips & Notes

Rogan Josh is not at all a difficult dish. However we need to do few steps right to get the maximum flavors.

• Use trimmed meat - I say this in all my meat curry posts. Its very disappointing to spend all the time and effort making a dish only to find unappetizing pool of oil at the end 🙁
• Choose a Heavy Pot - For slow cooking, you would want to choose a heavy pot with a wide mouth. A wide mouth pot allows for easy stirring.
• For the Color - Slowly add the kashmiri chili powder and thinned out yogurt simultaneously to the browned lamb meat. The logic behind this step is to incorporate and give the red chilli powder a chance to bloom to bring out its beautiful color. The moisture of the yogurt prevents the kashmiri chili from burning and the fat of yogurt helps in bringing out their beautiful color.
• Toast The Spices - Use fresh toast spices to finish if possible. Roasting the spices awakens the oils in them and once udder freshly ground, they taste so much better. That said, you can definitely use garam masala to finish the dish.
• Keep It Thickish - Rogan josh is not too saucy. The masala base is thick enough to stick to the meat and the oil forms major part of the sauce. The meat cooks in its own juices and we just use ½ cup water for a pound and half of meat.
• A note about fennel - Fresh ground fennel is really strong. I usually grind the fennel a day ahead and leave covered on countertop.

Serving Lamb Rogan Josh

• Steamed Basmati Rice: Serve lamb rogan josh with aromatic basmati rice. I have basmati rice recipe in this post. Plain rice truly soaked up the rich flavors of the curry.
• You could pair rogan josh with indian flatbreads like naan, roti or paratha. Add refreshing sides like green chutney or boondi raita.

FAQ