West Indian Lamb Curry Recipe (2024)

As a Jamaican-Canadian, might I suggest that people do not use a generic "curry powder" as the recipe infers as curries differ across cultures (even within the Caribbean). Instead, try to purchase Jamaican curry powder at a grocery store that sells Caribbean groceries, or better yet, make the curry powder yourself by searching out "Jamaican curry recipe" online.

Allspice powder is just ground allspice. 4 berries will give you about ½ tsp of powder

I don't find anything wrong with Ms. Clark's presentation here, although I'm sure it's a lot of fun to whine and complain. She said goat can be hard to find "in the United States," not in NYC. That is not an incorrect statement. Regarding the curry powder, even first thing in the morning before the caffeine kicked in I managed to type "recipe for west indian curry powder" into Google and got three promising candidates right at the top.

Don't do boneless meat! The bones in the goat / lamb add a great layer of flavor and thick texture.

Not every town, village or hamlet has the accessibility of ingredients that NYC and its environs has. I would suggest a little leeway for newer home cooks and people who don't have the advantage to stores that we have. Put together your own curry powder or garam masala, or find one you like and use it. Melissa Clark and the @nytfood group are just trying to provide us with recipes and ideas. There's no need to follow exactly. Chill and enjoy.

Loved this variation on Indian-style curries! Like the other curry powder snobs on the list, I don't have a generic curry p. at home. I winged it as follows (approx. mmts.): 1 tbs sweet paprika, 0,5 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp grnd. cumin, 1 tbs grnd. coriander, 1 tsp turmeric, 1tsp grnd. black pepper, 0,25 tsp grnd. cinnamon, 0,5 tsp dried onion pdr. I substituted the scotch bonnet with one largish habanero and nearly created a weapon of mass destruction! Lime juice and brown sugar helped balance out

I let whatever marinade easily drips off a piece of meat go ahead and drip off, then add the meat to the very hot pan. As Melissa said, do not crowd the pan! And don't turn the pieces too soon. It's better to let them get too brown than not brown enough. Usually, if you can easily turn the meat with your tongs, it's ready to be turned. If you have to pry much, it hasn't developed the brown crust you're looking for.

Any recipe which has curry powder listed as an ingredient is suspect and misleading at best and ignorant at worst in my opinion. There is no such thing as a generic 'curry powder'.
What is sold as curry powder in western countries in commercial concoctions vary widely in composition and effect.
It is time that NY times makes a more informed effort !

With no exaggeration, this is probably the most delicious meal I've ever made. Followed the recipe exactly; served over coconut rice. Just perfect. I made a huge mess while cooking, and was sure I had burned the meat and everything else beyond all hope during the initial browning. Clearly wasn't a problem. Everything came together beautifully.

Great flavors. Only changes were to put in scotch bonnet cut in half and then remove before serving. Cooked lamb for one hour and then added vegetables, more boiling water, curry powder and a sliced onion. Cooked for 1/2 hour more.

Do you have a specific recommendation regarding type of curry powder to use?

This recipe yields a delicious end result. It might be nice, however, when a recipe tells us to 'dice' an ingredient (e.g. the potatoes and carrots) that it notes small, medium, or large dice. I used a medium dice (1/2" cube) and they easily cooked through within 30 minutes.

I just got an Instant Pot so I tried this as a pressure cooker recipe. I sauteed all the meat in the pot itself, then after I added the water, (I actually used some leftover whey from some cheese I made instead) I immediately added potatoes and carrots, popped the top on, and pressure cooked for 20 minutes. It was great, and the meat was way tender.

I am Boricua. As with all things West Indian, everyone has their own way. I used a combination of this and two other kid curry recipes from North Martinique and Jamaica, to cut down on the cook time. I added powdered garlic and lime juice to the meat marinade and left it at that. I used the pureed garlic, ginger, etc mixture like a sofrito base and cooked it down after browning the meat. Then in lieu of the water, I used half a can of coconut milk and canned puréed I pumpkin.

Followed measurements exactly and the wet part of the marinade was enough to coat the meat twice over. Meant that there was a lot on the meat, making it difficult to brown as all the lovely gloppy sauce stuck in the pan while browning the meat. Left a very dark and sticky fond. So, I had to first add the water and scrape all the fond before I could put the meat back in the pot. Used cut up leg of lamb; took at least 2 hours to soften up- added veg after 1.5 hours. Delicious.

Did this in a pressure cooker for 21 minutes (boneless lamb) adding 1/4 cup of water and skipping the browning process. I roasted sweet potatoes and carrots separately and added them after the curry was finished. Slow released for 5 minutes, and after a quick pressure release, removed the lid and enjoyed the amazing and salivating sensation of being transported back and waiting in line for a roti at Toronto’s Island Foods. Thanks, NYT!!!

Marinated for 8 hours. Put meat into Dutch oven and the marinade burned giving the sauce a burnt onion flavor. Very bitter. I would rinse marinade off next time. Also can’t I just bring to a boil and then Lowe heat to simmer. I didn’t understand bring to a boil covered then uncover. I add coconut milk to try and smooth out the flavor. Maybe it will work.

This recipe takes a while, but very worth it. My kids loved it. I used local goat. It took a long time to get soft and fall off the bone. We struggled finding good scotch bonnet or habaneros. I used a little dried scotch bonnet pepper powder and that seemed to work. And some pepper sauce to serve with. A little lime on top was perfect.

This was the most amazing dish! Wanted to try to make this at home after eating at Jambo in Santa Fe. Made it as written, used bone-in goat (not hard to find in Albuquerque, NM) and it was fantastic. Two friends had never had goat before and they both absolutely loved it. Worth the prep time. I was worried about there being too much of the marinade for it to brown well, but had no problem. Didn't find it too salty as some said in comments. Make this as soon as you can! It's delicious!

I could only find habanero peppers. Next time I’d use one instead of two. However, this is a great blend of flavors.

I've made this dish several times and I love it. I use sweet potatoes instead of white, and use homeade kashmiri curry powder. I skip the spicy peppers as the curry already has heat. Excellent dish!

Best curry powder to us is proper jamaican Betapac. By far the best. I use it in most of my jamican currys.

I’ve made this at least five times. It is very creative and delicious. Depending on the audience I add or subtract scotch bonnet peppers. Wouldn’t change a thing.

Best curry I’ve ever made! Used lamb.

I managed to get my hands on some goat and made the dish as written. I made my own curry powder from an online recipe ( there are lots of them.) I let it cool and sit overnight and reheated it the next day. Fantastic

Made with leftover roast venison haunch, and it was excellent. The venison would’ve benefited from a little more time in the water simmer, perhaps 60 min. Used a combination of Caribbean-style curry power and vadouvan curry, and 2 dried Arbol peppers in place of fresh scotch bonnet, because that’s what we had in the house.

Used with venison.

Besides the lamb, I made this using completely different ingredients. It was delicious! Next time I might substitute chicken.