Lamb · Air fryer adaptation

Mughlai Lamb Curry (Gosht) in the Air Fryer

Mughlai lamb curry cooked in clarified butter with nutmeg and mace, mild but packed with flavour, served with naan and nothing else. This is the sort of regal dish that stops conversation at the table. Shamster's made countless curries, but this one's his favourite.

R By Richard · Adapted from My Little Kitchen · Published 10 June 2026
👁 159.6k source views ❤️ 4.5k source likes
⏱Prep 40 min
🌡Temp 160°C
⏲Air fry 50 min
🍽Serves 4
This Is The BEST Lamb Curry I Have EVER Made To Date!

Source video by My Little Kitchen on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules and is marked for human review.

Mughlai Gosht is a regal, mildly spiced lamb curry from My Little Kitchen, built on clarified butter (ghee), a fragrant cashew-cardamom-clove paste, and warming notes of nutmeg and mace. The original is cooked on the hob for around an hour. This adaptation keeps the same flavour-building stages (marinated lamb, bhuna with tomatoes, then a slow simmer) but moves the long simmer into an air fryer using an oven-safe dish. Serve with naan, as the source suggests.

Air fryer notes: Source is a hob recipe (heat setting 7 for searing, setting 4 for the 45-min simmer). Adapted to a covered air fryer dish: 180°C for the searing and bhuna stages mirrors a hot hob, 160°C covered with foil replicates the low simmer. Total cook time kept similar (around 65-75 min) because braising lamb on the bone needs that time regardless of heat source. Liquid quantity (500 ml) kept as-is since the dish is covered.

Ingredients

Lamb and marinade
  • 1 kglamb leg, bone-in, cut into medium pieces, medium-sized pieces
  • 3 tbspgarlic and ginger paste
  • 2 tspsalt
  • 2 tspKashmiri chilli powder
  • 1 tspcumin powder
  • 4 tspcoriander powder
  • 0.5 tspturmeric powder
Curry base
  • 250 mlclarified butter (ghee)
  • 4 wholebay leaves
  • 2 wholecinnamon sticks
  • 450 gfresh tomatoes, puréed with skin on, blitzed to a purée, no water added
  • 60 gshop-bought pre-fried onions, ground to a paste, ground to a fine purée
Cashew paste
  • 30 gunsalted cashews, ground to a paste with the cardamom, cloves and about 2 tbsp water
  • 8 wholegreen cardamom pods, ground with the cashews
  • 8 wholecloves, ground with the cashews
To finish
  • 0.25 tspnutmeg powder
  • 0.25 tspmace powder
  • 4 wholegreen chillies, slit halfway (add late)
  • 500 mlboiling water

Method

  1. Grind the pre-fried onions to a fine purée. Separately, grind the cashews with the green cardamom pods and cloves using about 2 tbsp water, to a smooth paste. Set both aside.

    ~5 min

  2. Put the lamb in a large bowl, add the salt, Kashmiri chilli powder, cumin, coriander, turmeric and the ginger-garlic paste. Mix well, cover and marinate for 30 minutes.

    ~30 min

  3. Preheat the air fryer to 180°C. Put the clarified butter into a deep air-fryer-safe dish or tin that fits your basket, and warm it for 2 minutes until melted and hot.

    ~3 min

  4. Add the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks to the hot ghee and cook for 15-30 seconds to infuse.

    ~1 min

  5. Add the marinated lamb to the dish and air fry at 180°C for 10 minutes, stirring at the 5-minute mark, until the ghee starts to separate around the edges and the rawness of the ginger and garlic has cooked off.

    ~10 min

  6. Stir in the tomato purée and cook at 180°C for 10 minutes, stirring twice, until the moisture has cooked down and the ghee returns to the surface.

    ~10 min

  7. Stir in the ground fried-onion paste, the cashew paste, and the nutmeg and mace. Cook at 170°C for 4-5 minutes, stirring once.

    ~5 min

  8. Pour in 500 ml boiling water and stir well. Cover the dish tightly with foil (this is what replaces the lidded pot on the hob).

    ~2 min

  9. Reduce the air fryer to 160°C and cook the covered curry for 40-50 minutes, stirring once at the halfway point, until the lamb is fork-tender.

    ~45 min

  10. Uncover, scatter over the slit green chillies, and let the curry rest for 5 minutes. Serve with naan.

    ~5 min

Frequently asked

Do I need to preheat my air fryer for this curry?
Yes. You want the ghee hot before the whole spices go in, so preheat to 180°C for 2-3 minutes. It mimics dropping spices into a hot pan on the hob.
Why cover the dish with foil for the long cook?
An air fryer is essentially a small convection oven, so it will evaporate liquid quickly. Covering tightly with foil traps the steam, lets the lamb braise properly in the 500 ml of water, and stops the sauce from drying out before the meat is tender.
Can I use boneless lamb instead?
Yes. Boneless diced lamb shoulder will cook through faster, check it at 30 minutes in the covered stage. Bone-in leg, as used here, gives more flavour but needs the full 40-50 minutes.
Can I swap the ghee for oil?
You can, and the curry will still work, but ghee is what gives Mughlai Gosht its signature richness. If you do swap, use a neutral oil and consider adding a tablespoon of butter at the end to bring some of that flavour back.
Is this curry spicy?
No. It uses Kashmiri chilli powder for colour rather than heat, and the green chillies are added whole and slit, mainly for fragrance. If you want it hotter, add 0.5-1 tsp of regular chilli powder with the other spices in the marinade.
Extraction notes (transparency): Source is a hob-cooked curry, not an air fryer recipe. It translates reasonably to an air fryer using a covered oven-safe dish, but timings and temperatures for the air fryer stages are inferred from standard air-fryer braising practice, not the transcript. The transcript's quantities, spices and stages are all grounded. Serving size (4) is inferred from 1 kg lamb. Reviewer should verify the covered-braise stage works in their specific air fryer model. | Second-pass critique flagged 10 fabricated and 1 quantified issues. See critique.issues for detail.