Ask Icelanders of a certain age about the dinners they grew up on, and kjöt í karrí comes up surprisingly often. It is a mild lamb stew in a pale yellow curry sauce, served over white rice, and it has been a weeknight staple in Icelandic homes for decades.
It is not a fiery curry in the Indian or Thai sense. Think of it as a gentle, buttery lamb stew with a warm hint of spice, closer to Danish home cooking than to anything you would order from a curry house.
Here is where the dish comes from, how it is made, and a reliable recipe you can cook in about two hours, most of it hands-off.
What kjöt í karrí is
The name simply means meat in curry. The meat is almost always lamb, usually bony stewing cuts such as neck, shoulder or breast, the same pieces that go into kjötsúpa.
The lamb is simmered in salted water until tender. That cooking liquid then becomes the base of the sauce, which is thickened with a butter and flour roux and seasoned with curry powder and onion.
The result is a thick, glossy sauce that coats every piece of meat. It is spooned over rice, and many families add carrots or potatoes to the pot so the meal stretches further.
A Danish-influenced Icelandic classic
Curry powder reached Scandinavia in the 1800s, and mild curry sauces became a fixture of Danish home cooking. The best-known example is boller i karry, meatballs in curry sauce.
Iceland was under Danish rule until the early twentieth century, and Danish cookbooks and kitchen habits shaped Icelandic home cooking for a long time. A curry sauce built on a roux fits that tradition perfectly.
Icelanders applied the idea to the meat they had most of: lamb. Kjöt í karrí became one of those thrifty, comforting family dinners, alongside fish stews and lamb soup, that turned cheaper cuts into something everyone looked forward to.
Ingredients for Icelandic lamb stew
This recipe serves four to five. Use bone-in cuts if you can, because the bones give the broth, and therefore the sauce, much more flavour.
- 1.2 to 1.5 kg (2.5 to 3.3 lb) bone-in lamb pieces, such as neck, shoulder or breast
- About 1.5 litres (6 cups) cold water
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 onion, cut in half
- 2 to 3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks (optional)
- 1 bay leaf (optional)
For the curry sauce:
- 50 g (3 1/2 tbsp) butter
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 to 2 tbsp mild curry powder
- 50 g (about 1/3 cup) plain flour
- 7 to 8 dl (about 3 cups) lamb broth from the pot
- 1 dl (scant 1/2 cup) milk or cream (optional)
- Salt and pepper to taste
To serve: cooked white rice, about 75 g (1/3 cup) uncooked rice per person.
How to make kjöt í karrí
Put the lamb in a large pot and cover it with the cold water. Bring it slowly to the boil and skim off the grey foam that rises to the surface.
Add the salt, the halved onion and the bay leaf. Turn the heat down, cover with the lid slightly ajar, and simmer gently for about 1 hour, until the meat is tender but not yet falling apart.
If you are using carrots, add them for the last 20 minutes. Lift the meat and vegetables out with a slotted spoon, then strain the broth and measure out 7 to 8 dl. Skim off some of the fat if there is a thick layer.
Melt the butter in a clean pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook for 5 minutes until soft, then stir in the curry powder and cook for another minute so the spice releases its aroma.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir for a minute or two to make a paste. Pour in the hot broth a ladle at a time, whisking well after each addition so the sauce stays smooth.
Simmer the sauce for about 5 minutes, until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. Stir in the milk or cream if you like a softer, paler sauce, then taste and season with salt and pepper.
Return the lamb and carrots to the sauce and heat everything through for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve it straight away over hot rice.
Getting the curry sauce right
The most common mistake is using too much curry powder or a hot blend. The traditional sauce is mild, so start with one tablespoon of a mild powder and add more only after tasting.
Cooking the curry powder briefly in the butter before adding the flour makes a real difference. Raw spice tastes dusty, while toasted spice tastes rounded and warm.
Some Icelandic cooks add a grated apple or a spoonful of mango chutney to the sauce for a touch of sweetness. Both are optional, but they suit the lamb well.
What to serve with lamb curry stew
White rice is the classic partner, and many families would not consider anything else. Plain boiled potatoes are a good alternative if you prefer them.
A simple side of sweet pickled red cabbage, rauðkál, or a fresh green salad balances the richness of the sauce. Some households also put a jar of mango chutney on the table.
If you have leftover broth, keep it. It is the same lamb stock that makes kjötsúpa, Icelandic lamb soup, and it freezes well.
Iceland lamb stew variations
Not every Icelandic lamb stew is a curry. Kjötsúpa is the brothy, vegetable-packed cousin, and many homes alternate between the two through the winter.
Some cooks swap the bony pieces for boneless shoulder cut into chunks, which makes the dish easier to eat but gives a slightly thinner sauce. If you do this, use a good lamb stock instead of plain water.
You can also replace the lamb with chicken thighs, which is a common shortcut today. Simmer them for about 30 minutes instead of an hour and make the sauce in exactly the same way.
If you have a whole leg instead of stewing cuts, it is better suited to roasting; our Sunday leg of lamb shows how Icelanders handle it.
Storing and reheating
Kjöt í karrí keeps well in a covered container in the fridge for up to three days. Like most stews, it often tastes better the next day.
The sauce thickens as it cools, so add a splash of water or broth when you reheat it over gentle heat. Cook fresh rice rather than reheating old rice when you can.
The stew also freezes well for up to three months, though potatoes, if you added any, can turn slightly grainy after thawing.
A dish for the dark months
Lamb dishes like this one come into their own in autumn, when fresh lamb reaches the shops after the réttir sheep round-up. A pot of curried lamb on the stove is a very Icelandic way to welcome the long evenings.
Make it once with good lamb and a mild curry powder, and it may well become one of your own family dinners too.
Cover photo: "Mutton Curry with Rice" by UserWiki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
About Sigrún Ólafsdóttir
Sigrún grew up baking rúgbrauð with her grandmother in Akureyri and has spent the last decade collecting recipes from kitchens all over Iceland. She writes Icelandic MAT's recipes, one dish at a time.