Aloo Gosht

Get an authentic Pakistani aloo gosht recipe that has uniform gravy with a traditional comforting taste. Use the same ingredients with 2 cooking methods for a variety of tastes. The no-fine-chopping method is my favorite!

Ingredients

Aloo gosht is a staple stew that has many versions. The ingredients are more or less the same, the real difference is in the cooking style, timings, and temperatures.

What's more interesting is that most home-cooks use visual estimation. So when I cook aloo gosht, it tastes different from my mom's version.

• Meat: Beef, lamb, or mutton, all work fine for this recipe. I love lamb shank or shoulder best for this recipe as they have super soft meat with enough fat from the bone. We need bones for this stew, like bone marrow or chops. The more the better.
• Onions: Purple onions are commonly used in South Asian cooking, you can use white or yellow onions as well.
• Tomatoes: Adding tomatoes cuts in chunks or finely chopped or puree is a personal preference. Puree or tomato paste gives the best texture. Cutting in large chunks also helps better cooking and dissolving of tomatoes. Chopped tomatoes don't dissolve well.
• Potatoes: Some people would add loads of potatoes in this gravy and some would add just one for background taste so adjust as you like.
• Oil: Any neutral oil can be used. I like olive oil best. You can use canola or mustard oil as well.
• Spices: Most of the spices are common Indian spices. You can sub whole spices for ground spices. If you do not have 1-2 whole spices. Just skip it.
• Cilantro and green chilies: These ingredients provide the authentic aroma to the dish.
• Salt: Add salt after tasting as ginger garlic paste already have some added salt.

How to make?

The pictorial shows lamb aloo gosht recipe but you can make it with beef too, cooking time for beef will be more.

Method 1

I make this aloo gosht recipe in two versions. One with brown onions like I did in this recipe. With fried/brown onions, the taste is distinctly different than the below version. And a little searing (bhunnofying), till oil separates, does the job.

1. First thing, when you start cooking is fry onions for 15 minutes on low heat with occasional stirring. Cover the pot and stir at regular intervals. Meanwhile, wash your dishes and do other preps. The slow cooking of onion for about 15 minutes makes it very soft and more likely to dissolve into a thin smooth gravy.
2. When onion are very soft, turn heat to medium and fry until light golden.
3. Now, the visual sign is that when the onion slices start to separate clearly, you stir constantly for few second until they are golden. Adjust heat as needed. You need medium golden color as shown in step 3. If you burn your few onions slices, it will spoil both color and taste of stew.
4. In this pic, you can see the spices.

5. Add spices to fried onion and fry for 30 seconds. (If using pre-fried brown onions, just crush crispy onions with your hands and add along with spices. I have mentioned measures fried onions too in recipe card.)
6. Stir in mutton and fry for 5 minutes on high heat until color changes.
7. The color has changed.
8. Add tomatoes and mix well. Cover and cook until tomato changes it color and some of its water dries.

9. Add ½ cup warm water. Mix and cover the lid tightly. Cook on medium heat until meat is tender. (30-45 minutes depending on meat and altitude.) Add more warm water as needed. You can also use a pressure cooker to speed up the process.
10. When meat is tender. We cook the stew on high heat for 10-15 minutes stirring frequently until oil separates on sides of pot. (Bhunnofying)
11. Now, we'll add potatoes and water. Mix well, make sure potatoes are immersed in gravy. Cook for 10 minutes on medium heat with lid tightly covered until potatoes are fork tender.
12. Aloo gosht is ready. Garnish with loads of chopped fresh green coriander leaves and slitted green chillies.

1. I take onions and tomatoes, cut each in four pieces. Then i add it in the pot along with all other ingredients except potatoes and garnish. Then, let it pressure cook on medium heat until meat is tender. You can do this in pressure cooker or instant pot. Cooking time will vary betweem 15-25 minutes. You just the need the meat to be super soft. (If you are slow-cooking in regular pot, it will take 30-60 minutes to cook on low heat.)
2. By the time meat is cooked, all ingredients will be soft.
3. Remove the lid and continue to cook on high heat for atleast 7-10 minutes with continuous stirring. A lot of searing on high heat has to be done until oil separates on both sides of pan to get that distinct roasted (bhunna) taste. With bare minimum stirring you can see the ingredients melted in to smooth gravy. (I did bare minimum bhunai but ideally you should bhonofy until most of water dries. Be vigilent and do not let it burn.)
4. Finally, I add potatoes and some water.

5. Cover the lid and continue to cook until potatoes are tender. When potatoes are tender, my aloo gosht is ready.
6. Garnish with cilantro and thick green chillies which lend authentic aroma to the dish.
7. Serve with rice and roti with fresh salad on the side.

Tips

• What is most important in cooking aloo gosht is getting a thin single-thread gravy. 2nd method provides more homogenised gravy.
• Potatoes absorb salt and spices from the gravy so you need to begin with more spices in the meat.
• Some prefer adding fried golden potatoes to the gravy, I didn't in this recipe to keep it simple.
• If you don't add potatoes and stop cooking on 4th step, you'll have delicious Bhunna gosht which is amazing too.
• Another method that is not traditional is when you blend the gravy in processor for a smooth texture. If you fry onions on low heat for 15 minutes, your onions will dissolve without the need to pulse the onion tomato gravy in food processor. The pulsing never gives the same result as this, even the color is different.)
• Adding yogurt or not is a personal preference. And I don't recommend it as it undermines the bhunna flavor and colors of curry. I like to see potato flavor shine in the meat stew.

FAQ

More classic South Asian curries: