This Old Delhi Style Mughlai Mutton Stew recipe is a royal, delicious assemblage of fine flavors brewed with mutton and spices. Learn to make Karim style (Lucknowi or Awadhi) Stew at home using this easy pressure cooker recipe.
With guests at home this week, I was super occupied with their hospitality and feasts were made back to back.
They just left before a while after gifting us good memories to cherish for a lifetime.
I had to catch-up with some me-time, after all, I needed to rejuvenate after back to back work, shopping!
So, just took a nice, long nap and even ideated a couple of recipes in my dreams – yes, because I just cannot outgrow the thought of experimenting with dozens of different recipes even in sleep, ha!
Right now, while I am writing this, I am parallelly making Mughlai Mutton Stew Recipe for our trio.
This recipe is very close to my heart as this is a typical Old Delhi Style (Karim) stew recipe which I grew up eating.
We used to visit the capital at least once a year and a trip to Old Delhi was inevitable.
It was this stew that we ordered year after year at Karim’s or Al Jawahar and mopping the luscious curry with the thick tandoori bread and gorging on the succulent pieces of mutton was what we looked forward to every year.
My mom experimented with the recipe a few times and came up with this version which is very close in taste to the original ones at Karim or Al Jawahar.
This Mutton recipe is an Old Delhi style stew recipe and just like any other stews, it’s rich with subtle yet complex flavors.
Mutton stewed with onion, ginger, garlic and dry fruits with very few dry masalas added in the curry gives it a very unique flavor.
Previously, I had prepared Kerala Style Chicken Stew, which had this authentic taste and typical South Indian taste which every one of us liked and I am going to make Kerala Style Mutton Stew very soon but for now, this Mughlai recipe is what you want to try in your kitchen.
Mughlai Stew is a royal, delicious assemblage of majestic flavors brewed with mutton and spices. Its warmth spreads through the body as en elixir and tastes supremely satiating.
Perfect to be served for lunch or dinner, Mughlai Mutton Stew Recipe is considerably easy to prepare as well.
So, definitely try making it while the winter is still around. Gorge on the chunks of mutton and sip its luscious gravy this weekend and thank me later, here’s its recipe:
What is Mutton Stew?
Stew is a dish where vegetables and meat pieces are cooked in liquid.
There are many variations of stew and a lot of countries have their own variations.
Pakistani, Irish, Chinese, South African, Sri Lankan, all these places have their own style of cooking stew.
Even in India, there are various styles of cooking mutton stew – Kerala, Mangalorean, Bengali and this Mughlai.
Mughlai Mutton Stew is a rich curry of goat meat cooked with onion, spices and dry fruits. Oil floats on top of this rich curry and is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
In earlier days, this stew was cooked over a slow wood flame for long hours but now with time a constraint, you can cook it in a pressure cooker too.
Karim’s in Old Delhi serves a delicious Stew and I have tried to match the recipe to quite an extent.
Serving Suggestions
This Mutton curry tastes wonderful with fluffy Naan or Mughlai Paratha.
However, you can serve it with any Indian bread.
At Karim’s it is served with thick tandoori roti to mop all the luscious curry.
My personal favorite to serve with this curry is Bakarkhani Roti.
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Step by Step Recipe
Heat ghee and oil in a pressure cooker.
Crush the dry garam masala. Once the ghee is hot, add crushed cloves, black peppercorn, green cardamom, cinnamon, javitri, and bay leaf.
Add onion paste and fry until it is slightly browned.
Now add ginger and garlic paste and fry until onion is nicely browned. Keep adding little water while frying.
Add the masala paste ingredients in a blender along with some water.
Make a smooth paste.
Add mutton and fry on high heat for 4-5 minutes.
Add yogurt, salt and the masala paste made using the ingredients listed under ‘to make a paste’.
Now add 2 cups of water and close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook until mutton is cooked. Let the pressure release. Add kewra essence and mix well.
Recipe Card
Mughlai Mutton Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg Mutton (curry Cut)
- ¼ cup Ghee
- 3 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
- 5-6 Cloves (Crushed)
- 5-6 Black peppercorn (Crsuhed)
- 2 Black Cardamom (Crushed)
- 2 Green Cardamom (Crushed)
- 1 inch Cinnamon Stick (Crushed)
- 1 Javitri (Crushed)
- 2 Bay Leaf
- 1 cup Onion (Paste)
- 2 teaspoon Ginger (Paste)
- 2 teaspoon Garlic (Paste)
- ½ cup Curd
- Salt to taste
- 5-6 drops Kewra Essence
To make a paste
- 1 and ½ cup Golden Fried Onion
- 4-5 Dry Red Chilli
- ¼ cup Cashew Nuts
- 2 tablespoon Poppy Seeds
- 2 tablespoon Melon Seeds
Instructions
- Heat ghee and oil in a pressure cooker.
- Crush the dry garam masala.
- Once the ghee is hot, add crushed cloves, black peppercorn, green cardamom, cinnamon, javitri and bay leaf.
- Add onion paste and fry until it is slightly browned.
- Add ginger and garlic paste and fry until onion is nicely browned.
- Keep adding little water while frying.
- Add mutton and fry on high heat for 4-5 minutes.
- Add yogurt, salt and the masala paste made using the ingredients listed under ‘to make a paste.'
- Now add 2 cups of water and close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook until mutton is cooked.
- Let the pressure release.
- Add kewra essence and mix well.
- Serve hot with Naan or Mughlai paratha.
Anindya Sundar Basu
Only real genuine foodies can dram of food in their dreams 🙂
Meena
Really tasty ! Easy to make too , thanks to the photos of steps of making
Neha Mathur
Thnx 🙂
Fiza mirza
We can not make so much tasty Food even while being mughal. Thank you hopefully you will write similar recipes.muito obrigado.
Neha Mathur
Thnx 🙂
Rakesh Kumar Kapoor
Dear Neha
It is amazingly pleasing that someone can authoritatively and authentically write with minutest of details on such cuisines/food items as mutton stew. Apparently, the logical sequential procedures of the recipes detailed by you are well researched and professionally experimented.
under the underlying circumstances where myriads of websites and blogs have been churning fake and absurd/unauthentic recipes, you are doing a much remarkable effort of introducing to the not-so-connoisseurs, naive foodies.
Be Blessed – Be Blissed!
(Note : could you sometime write on Mutton Pasanda. It should not be the pasandas which we get at old Delhi eateries, which are just fake)
Neha Mathur
Thanks Rakesh for taking out time and writing a feedback. I am glad you like the posts. I have a very traditional Mutton Pasanda recipe which I will try to share soon.
Rakesh Kumar Kapoor
Great!!
Must be only kayasht dynasty pasanda recipe which your forefathers might have shared with the mughals!
Will be a great contribution towards reviving the almost dead cuisine!!
My sincere reverence to you in much advance!
Avishek Dan
I made this recipe with chicken. Great flavor and taste. Adding kewra water at the end really elevated the flavor.
Neha Mathur
Happy to know that 🙂
Henry Hogeterp
Love this recipe. I think it’s pretty close to authentic! Let it stew in the crock pot for 5 hours and came out nice and tender. My favorite cuisine in Indian and I’m always looking to learn what I can about it. Made this for Easter dinner.
Neha Mathur
Happy to hear this Henry 🙂
Himani
It tastes scrumptious . Was finding out for this recipe since long time.
Only I could not turn the colour in the same way. Please guide
Neha Mathur
It could depend on the quality of spices.
FarahU
Where can one find melon seeds in the USA?
Neha Mathur
It is available in all Indian stores or you can order online.
Shailesh Verma
I have tried it twice and has come off very well. And yes, the taste improves with time. So next day it is better. While it is a perfect recipe since I want it a bit spicy and prefer to stew it in a slow cooked, have added 6-8 extra black peppers and 3-4 extra dry red chillies in the paste. Further took sliced onion rather than onion paste, and browned it well before adding chopped ginger garlic and then meat. After bhunoing thrice with the paste, added 2 cups of water and put it in a slow cooker (medium) for 4 hours. Excellent recipe. Thanks for sharing it.
Angshuman Ganguly
very easy to make different normal recipes yet very tasty. thanx for the excellent demostration. my family loved it.