Recipes with mutton or goat on the bone

11 recipes that use mutton or goat on the bone, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Aloo gosht, takes 90 minutes. It is most often cooked with ginger-garlic paste, onion and garam masala.

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Yakhni pulao

Where biryani shouts, yakhni pulao murmurs: basmati rice cooked in a clear, aromatic mutton stock (the yakhni) with fennel, coriander seed, garlic and whole spices, so every grain is light brown, separate and scented, with tender pieces of meat folded through. Many Pakistani families, especially in Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Karachi's older neighbourhoods, prefer it to biryani for Eid lunch and wedding dinners, and it comes with raita, kachumber salad and sometimes a shami kebab on the side. Its depth comes only from the stock, so that part cannot be rushed. Getting the liquid ratio wrong is what spoils it most often; measure the strained stock exactly rather than pouring it in by eye. Chef's tip: tie the fennel and coriander seeds in a muslin bag for the stock, so you can lift them out and keep the rice clean.

120 min

Pakistani Rice & Grains

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Kunna gosht

Chiniot, the furniture town on the Chenab, claims this dish as its own: mutton and marrow bones packed into a narrow-necked clay pot called a kunna, sealed with dough and left to cook slowly in the embers of a bakery oven. The result is a deep red, almost syrupy gravy that clings to every piece, with a layer of spiced ghee floating on top, and it is eaten on Sundays and at family gatherings with hot naan straight from the tandoor. At home a heavy casserole sealed with foil under the lid does the same job. People often lift the lid to check, and every peek lets out the steam that makes the gravy glossy; trust the clock and the low heat. Chef's tip: ask for a few pieces of shank and marrow bone in the mix, because the gelatine from them gives kunna its sticky shine.

170 min

Pakistani Meat

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Shab deg

Shab deg is the "night pot": in old Lahore and in Kashmiri families the deg really was set on dying embers after the evening meal and opened at dawn, by which time whole turnips had soaked up the mutton juices and turned almost sweet. It is a winter dish made when turnips are at their best, usually for a wedding breakfast or a cold Sunday, and it arrives as tender meat on the bone, soft meatballs and golden turnips in a thick saffron-scented gravy, eaten with naan or sheermal. A low oven gives the same slow, even heat without anyone staying up. Many cooks drop the meatballs in raw and stir hard, and they fall apart; fry them first and slide them in without stirring. Chef's tip: prick the turnips all over and rub them with a little salt and sugar before frying, which draws out their bitterness and helps them colour.

315 min

Pakistani Meat

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Aloo gosht

If one curry stands for a weekday dinner in a Pakistani house, from Rawalpindi flats to Karachi's Nazimabad, it is aloo gosht: mutton on the bone and halved potatoes in a loose, peppery shorba meant to be soaked up with chapati or poured over plain rice. Nothing about it is fancy; its comfort comes from a long bhuna of onion, tomato and spice before any water goes in, so the thin gravy still tastes deep. The potatoes go in once the meat is half done and come out soft at the edges, having drunk the gravy. Adding them at the start leaves them falling apart while the meat is still chewy, so wait. Chef's tip: when the masala is fully fried, add the water boiling hot, not cold, so the meat keeps cooking and the shorba stays clear rather than greasy.

90 min

Pakistani Meat

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Dal gosht

Stretching a kilo of mutton to feed a big family is an old Pakistani household skill, and dal gosht is its most loved result: chana dal cooked with the meat until the lentils melt into a thick, golden, peppery gravy that is half curry, half stew. It turns up for Friday lunch in Punjab and for everyday dinners in Karachi Urdu-speaking homes, eaten with hot chapati, rice and a sharp salad of onion and tomato. Done right, some dal stays whole while the rest thickens the gravy. A common slip is adding raw dal to the pot at the same time as the meat; dal cooks faster, so it collapses into paste before the mutton is tender. Chef's tip: finish with a tarka of ghee, cumin and fried garlic for a Sunday version, or leave it plain with oil for an everyday pot that stays dairy free.

100 min

Pakistani Meat

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Bhindi gosht

Summer in Punjab means okra in every bazaar, and the moment small, tender pods appear, households start making bhindi gosht for lunch: a dry-ish mutton curry with whole fried okra folded through at the end, tasting of tomato, green chilli and a little dried mango. It is eaten with chapati and a bowl of plain yogurt or raita on the side, and leftovers are even better packed in a tiffin the next day. The okra should be tender and bright, not slimy. That stringy texture comes from washing the okra and cutting it while wet, so wash and dry it completely before you trim it. Chef's tip: fry the okra separately until its edges blister, then add it to the meat only in the last ten minutes; it keeps its shape and the gravy stays clean.

90 min

Pakistani Meat

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Palak gosht

When the winter spinach comes in around Gujranwala and Sheikhupura, bunches of it are piled on carts by the armful, and palak gosht is what many Punjabi kitchens make with them. The spinach is cooked into the mutton until it collapses into a dark green, garlicky gravy, loose but not soupy, with flecks of ginger and the warmth of green chilli rather than a lot of red spice. It is eaten with makki ki roti or plain chapati and a glass of lassi. Puréeing the spinach to a smooth paste is a frequent misstep; Punjabi cooks chop it and let it melt so you can still see the leaves. Chef's tip: add a knob of butter or ghee and a pinch of dried fenugreek leaves at the end, which rounds off the iron edge of the spinach.

95 min

Pakistani Meat

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Achar gosht

Sour, hot and pungent, achar gosht borrows its whole flavour from a jar of pickle: fennel, nigella, fenugreek, mustard seed and cumin fried in mustard oil, with lemon and long green chillies stuffed with the same spices. It belongs to the Urdu-speaking kitchens of Karachi and Hyderabad, where it is made for dinner guests and shared at office lunches, and it is eaten with naan or tandoori roti, never with a delicate pulao. The gravy is thick and clings to the meat, glistening with oil. The step people rush is roasting the pickling spices; they must be toasted and coarsely crushed, not used whole, or the curry tastes raw and seedy. Chef's tip: mustard oil gives the true pickle tang; heat it until it smokes, then let it cool for a minute before adding anything, so it loses its harsh edge.

95 min

Pakistani Meat

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Marchwangan korma

The name says it all: marchwangan means chilli, and this is the wazwan's hottest course, mutton cooked in a deep crimson gravy of Kashmiri chillies, mustard oil, fennel, dry ginger and a breath of cinnamon, with a spoonful of tamarind for sharpness. Kashmiri chillies bring colour more than ferocity, so you need a lot of them, and a few hotter dried chillies give the real kick. It is served at weddings and family feasts in Azad Kashmir and by Kashmiri households in Lahore and Rawalpindi with plain rice, alongside milder dishes like gushtaba to cool the palate. Scorching the chilli paste is how it goes wrong; it turns bitter and brown, so fry it on a moderate heat with a splash of water. Chef's tip: soak the whole dried chillies in hot water and blend them rather than using only powder, for a smoother, glossier gravy.

110 min

Pakistani Meat

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Aab gosht

Pale, gentle and fragrant with green cardamom, aab gosht is the Kashmiri kitchen's answer to anyone who thinks the cuisine is all chilli. Mutton on the bone is first boiled with whole spices, then finished in reduced milk with fennel and dry ginger until the sauce turns ivory and thick, almost like a savoury kheer. It is a wazwan dish and a family favourite for Sunday lunch among Kashmiri households in Muzaffarabad and Lahore, eaten over plain rice with a sharp green chutney on the side for contrast. Boiling the milk hard is what ruins it, since it catches on the base and leaves a scorched taste through the whole pot. Chef's tip: reduce the milk in a separate wide pan while the meat cooks, then combine them; it thickens faster and is far less likely to burn.

100 min

Pakistani Meat

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Kacchi biryani

Kacchi biryani is the wedding dish of Old Dhaka: at every Bangladeshi biye the huge copper pots come out, and the lanes around Nazira Bazar are famous for it. 'Kacchi' means raw: the mutton goes into the pot uncooked, marinated in yogurt and spices, under a layer of half-cooked aromatic rice and fried potatoes, and everything steams together for over an hour so the meat juices cook the rice. Serve it with borhani, the spiced yogurt drink, and a salad of sliced cucumber and onion. The common mistake is under-marinating or using lean meat cut too large; small pieces of shoulder with some fat, marinated overnight in the fridge, cook through in time. Chef's tip: seal the lid with a rope of dough; if no steam escapes, the meat at the bottom becomes tender without you ever opening the pot.

150 min

Bangladeshi Rice & Grains

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Goes well with mutton or goat on the bone