I have cooked 27 Gordon Ramsay curry recipes over the past few months and this is the order I wish someone had given me when I started. Not alphabetical, not by protein, but by how I actually learned to cook curry: start simple, get confident, then go deep.
Some are official Ramsay recipes from his books and TV shows, and some I built by applying his techniques to traditional dishes. Every one links to the full article with ingredients, steps, and my notes.
1. Chicken Curry
If you make one curry from this list, make this one. Grated butternut squash and onion melt into the sauce and thicken it without flour or cream, and the whole thing is done in 15 minutes.
Serves 4. Prep 5 min, cook 10 min, 385 kcal.
2. Butter Chicken
Once I had the chicken curry down, this was the natural next step: same speed but more richness with a yoghurt marinade and a sauce finished with butter and cream. Ramsay built it on Next Level Kitchen in under 15 minutes.
Serves 4. Prep 5 min, cook 10 min, 480 kcal.
3. Chicken Tikka Masala
The first time I felt like I was actually cooking, not just following steps. Ramsay blends the sauce completely smooth before the chicken goes back in, and that one move is why it tastes like a restaurant made it.
Serves 4. Prep 10 min, cook 25 min, 380 kcal.
4. Chicken Korma
I put off making korma because I thought it was just a mild curry for people who do not like curry. Then I tried Ramsay’s version with blended cashew paste and I understood: korma is not mild, it is subtle.
Serves 4. Prep 15 min, cook 30 min, 450 kcal.
5. Chicken Madras
After korma I wanted heat, and madras delivered: spicy, tomato-heavy, and finished with lemon. Once I made it I realised every takeaway curry I had been ordering was just a madras with extras.
Serves 4. Prep 10 min, cook 40 min, 350 kcal.
6. Chicken Jalfrezi
Completely different from everything above because it is a stir-fry, not a simmer, and the peppers and onions keep their crunch. I avoided this on takeaway menus for years because I did not know what it was.
Serves 4. Prep 15 min, cook 15 min, 320 kcal.
7. Chicken Biryani
The most work on this list and the most reward: layered dum-style with yoghurt-marinated chicken, par-boiled basmati, crispy fried onions, and saffron milk. When you lift the lid and the steam hits, you know you did something real.
Serves 4. Prep 20 min, cook 55 min, 520 kcal.
8. Lamb Curry
After seven chicken curries I needed a break from poultry, and Ramsay’s minced lamb with potatoes and peas in a spiced tomato sauce takes just 30 minutes. From his Quick and Delicious cookbook.
Serves 4. Prep 10 min, cook 30 min, 520 kcal.
9. Spicy Beef Curry
The slow one: three and a half hours of simmering until the beef gives up and the sauce is thick enough to stand a spoon in. I make this on Sundays when I have nowhere to be and the house needs to smell like something is happening.
Serves 4. Prep 20 min, cook 210 min, 450 kcal.
10. Goat Curry
Same patience as the beef curry but a completely different depth, with bone-in goat and whole spices for three hours. I was intimidated by goat until I realised the bones do most of the work.
Serves 4. Prep 20 min, cook 180 min, 480 kcal.
11. Thai Green Curry Rice
A sharp left turn from Indian into Thai, where Ramsay fries homemade green curry paste with day-old rice in a wok. Not a soup-style curry: fragrant fried rice that eats like curry in under 15 minutes.
Serves 2. Prep 5 min, cook 8 min, 285 kcal.
12. Thai Red Curry
I assumed chicken, but Ramsay uses duck with crispy skin over a coconut sauce made from scratch red curry paste in the Great Escape book. It taught me that Thai curries are a completely different discipline from Indian ones.
Serves 4. Prep 20 min, cook 25 min, 520 kcal.
13. Malaysian Chicken Curry
Somewhere between Thai and Indian: a fresh spice paste of lemongrass, ginger, and shallots simmered in coconut milk with kaffir lime leaves and cinnamon. The kind of curry that makes the kitchen smell incredible for hours.
Serves 4. Prep 15 min, cook 45 min, 420 kcal.
14. Massaman Curry
The richest Thai curry on this list: slow-cooked beef chuck with potatoes, roasted peanuts, tamarind, and fish sauce in coconut milk. I nearly skipped this one because I could not find an official Ramsay recipe, but his technique applied to the traditional method worked perfectly.
Serves 4. Prep 15 min, cook 70 min, 560 kcal.
15. Fish Curry
A lighter change of pace after all that beef and goat. Southern Indian style with tamarind, mustard seeds, and white fish that cooks in the sauce for just 3-4 minutes at the end so it stays flaky.
Serves 4. Prep 10 min, cook 30 min, 310 kcal.
16. Prawn Curry
Bengali-style, and the marinating step is what separates this from just dumping prawns into sauce. Turmeric and salt on the prawns first, then into a coconut sauce with green chillies.
Serves 4. Prep 15 min, cook 20 min, 320 kcal.
17. Pork Neck Curry
The oddest pairing on this list: slow-simmered pork neck in coconut lemongrass sauce, topped with fresh mango salsa from the Ultimate Cookery Course. I did not think mango belonged on a curry until I tried it.
Serves 4. Prep 15 min, cook 75 min, 580 kcal.
18. Turkey Curry
The Boxing Day rescue: leftover Christmas turkey in a coconut and lemongrass curry, done in under 20 minutes. If you are tired of cold turkey sandwiches by December 27th, this is the one.
Serves 4. Prep 10 min, cook 20 min, 380 kcal.
19. Katsu Curry
The crossover: panko-breaded chicken fried golden, sliced over rice, drowned in a smooth curry sauce you make from scratch. I was annoyed at myself for years of buying the jar version when the homemade sauce takes 20 minutes.
Serves 4. Prep 15 min, cook 35 min, 480 kcal.
20. Vegetable Curry
The fastest proper Gordon Ramsay Indian curry on this list: Madras paste, celeriac, cauliflower, broccoli, and courgette (zucchini) in one pan finished with Greek yoghurt. 247 calories and five of your five-a-day.
Serves 4. Prep 10 min, cook 18 min, 247 kcal.
21. Lentil Curry
I already made lentil curry every week before I found Ramsay’s version, but his recipe taught me the tempering step I had been skipping for years. Hot butter with panch phoran poured over the dhal right before serving changes everything.
Serves 4. Prep 5 min, cook 30 min, 280 kcal.
22. Chickpea Curry
Made this for a vegetarian friend and expected nobody to care about it, then I ate the leftovers cold from the fridge the next morning and kept making it. Tinned chickpeas, garam masala, lime, done in 15 minutes.
Serves 4. Prep 5 min, cook 15 min, 240 kcal.
23. Pumpkin Curry
The autumn one: roasted pumpkin wedges coated in a spiced coconut sauce with red curry paste, and the roasting stops the pumpkin turning to mush. From Ramsay’s Around the World series.
Serves 4. Prep 10 min, cook 35 min, 310 kcal.
24. Curry Meatballs
The wildcard: beef meatballs in a fragrant coconut broth with lemongrass, cardamom, and lime, more like a Thai soup than a heavy curry. From Ramsay’s Home Cooking book, page 180.
Serves 4. Prep 15 min, cook 20 min, 420 kcal.
25. Cauliflower Soup
Not a curry, but it belongs here because the curried version uses the same spice logic: cauliflower blended with stock and garlic, drizzled with brown butter. I burnt the brown butter the first time and it still tasted good.
Serves 4. Prep 10 min, cook 25 min, 280 kcal.
26. Curry Sauce
The building block that makes half this list easier: onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, and curry powder cooked down and blended smooth. Make a batch, fridge it, and you have the base for any Indian curry you want to improvise.
Serves 4. Prep 5 min, cook 20 min, 140 kcal.
27. Curry Paste
And this is the building block for the Thai half: green and red curry paste from scratch in under 2 minutes using a food processor. I batch-freeze it in ice cube trays, and that turned every Thai curry on this list into a 15-minute dinner.
Serves 8. Prep 5 min, cook 2 min, 15 kcal per serving.
