Beef Chilli Curry is fast and easy to make!

This beef chilli curry recipe is proof that curries do not need a long list of ingredients to be absolutely fantastic! A friend of mine stopped by the other day to show it to me. From start to finish, the curry only took 30 minutes to make and most of that time we were drinking beer and watching TV while it simmered away in the background.
Beef is not eaten a lot in India for religious reasons. Even in southern India where there is a large beef eating Christian population, you will normally find curries like this in restaurants but not served at home. Many Christians like to serve beef chilli curry at weddings and other special events.
This is a great curry for using up your Sunday dinner beef roast. All of the ingredients are easily found in the supermarket but can also be purchased at good Asian markets. If you are serving beef chilli curry to friends, you can make it the day before and then warm it up again at the last minute. In fact, the taste improves with time.
How to Make Indian Beef Chilli Curry

Ingredients
- 700g beef rump or sirloin cut into cubes - raw or left over meat can be used here.
- 1 two inch piece of ginger
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 4 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil
- 2 large red onions - finely cut
- 3 Large tomatoes finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 red pepper finely sliced
- 4 green chillies sliced in half down the middle
- 1 glass of red wine (optional)
Instructions
- Smash the garlic and cut the ginger finely. Place it all in a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder with a little water and grind to a fine paste.
- In a small frying pan, roast the cumin seeds and coriander seeds over medium heat until they begin to smoke a little. Be sure to move the seeds around a little so that they roast evenly.
- Grind the seeds in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder to a fine powder and set aside.
- In a large heavy bottomed frying pan, warm the oil over medium heat at then add the chopped onions.
- Fry the onions until they are nice and brown.
- Add the garlic and ginger paste along with with turmeric, garam masala and the coriander and cumin powder.
- Bring to a nice sizzle and then add the meat. If you are using raw meat, brown it for about two minutes.
- Now add the chopped tomatoes and about 600ml of water along with the red wine if using. You may need to add a bit more liquid if cooking the beef from raw.
- Throw in the sliced red bell peppers and green chillies and allow to simmer covered for about 20 if using cooked meat or an hour if cooking from raw. Allow to simmer until the meat is very tender.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Sprinkle with chopped coriander and serve with white rice or chapati bread.
- Let me know how you like this recipe.
Beef chilli curry is a tasty meal for groups large and small!
Mark says
Hi Dan.
You are doing great things here. This quick beef curry looks right up my street. Going to try at tonight 🙂
Dan Toombs says
Cheers for that Mark.
I'm glad you're giving this recipe a go. Let me know how it turns out.
Dan
Emma says
Hi Dan. All your curries are delicious. I loved this dish.
Dan Toombs says
Hi
Great to hear, thank you for letting me know.
Dan
Art says
Hi Dan! I stumbled across your fine blog earlier this week and I am blown away! Fabulous site, I will be spending a lot of time here as well as following you on Twitter. I made the Indian Beef Chili Curry today and it tasted fantastic. I made a few minor substitutions for things I didn't have/couldn't find but otherwise followed your instructions to the letter. The final product seemed a bit watery to me, as I am used to curries that are a bit thicker. Next time around I will decrease the water some. I also like my beef to be a bit more tender so I think I will let the final product stew a bit longer than 20 minutes. Thank you for a great Indian food resource Dan.
Dan Toombs says
Hi and thank you for stopping by Art.
There were a couple of problems with my recipe and I have now corrected them because of your comment. I agree that the beef should be very tender. The 20 minute cooking time was only if you were using leftover meat.
If cooking the meat from raw, you will need an hour to 90 minutes which makes a really nice broth too. Thanks a lot and I'm glad you spotted that for me.
Pete says
Hey dan an absolute beast of a dish, followed it to the letter
Then added some fenugreek just for good measure and spinach it came our so so tasty, the wine is an excellent additive, thanks a lot, be using this time and time again:)
Dan Toombs says
Thank you very much Pete. Really glad you liked the recipe. 🙂
Dan
Janet says
Hi dan,
I tried your recipe and it it tastes really really awsome...just loved it...thank you so much...!!
Dan Toombs says
Thank you Janet. Really glad you liked it. 🙂
Dan
Ian says
I was searching for a recipe using the things I had in my fridge and this showed up, just reading it has made me very hungry!
Its Friday and my takeaway is not delivering at the moment.
Going to have a go at this and report back.
Sorry, dont do FaceBook
Dan Toombs says
Hi Ian
Hope it went well.
Thanks
Dan