The 3 Best Beef Cuts For Curry

There are many types of curry out there, that mostly come down to the variety of rich-flavored spiced sauces that the meat or vegetables are braised in. If you've chosen to make beef the protein star of your next curry, there are a few things to know when picking your cut. That's because, of the cuts and grades of beef that you can request from a butcher, not all of them are ideal for curry dishes. To prevent you from trying to add ground beef to your Goan-style curry, we talked to Varun Inamdar, chef and owner of restaurants New Light in Kashmir, Anokhi in Shanghai, and 27° West in Singapore, to find out his suggestions.

"The best cut of beef for curry is chuck, brisket, or short ribs," he says. "These cuts have a good balance of meat, fat, and connective tissue, which breaks down beautifully during slow cooking, resulting in rich, tender, and flavorful curries." Cuts of beef like brisket are best for slow-cooked curries so the meat breaks down during the low-and-slow process like chef Inamdar suggests. Braising the beef in your go-to curry recipe will result in next-level flavor that's worth the wait. If you're looking for a quick-to-make beef curry, you could go for a keema-style curry (keema means minced meat) instead, using ground beef.

Whether you use chuck, brisket, or short ribs in your next homemade curry, there are some cooking tips and techniques that will benefit all of the cuts. The first option is to trim off any excess fat, because while the fat will break down and add flavor to curry, you don't want fatty chunks in the dish. Curry is often a form of braising, so make sure to cut any large pieces of beef into bite-sized pieces. Before you start to cook all of the aromatics and other ingredients, sear the beef first to lock in the flavor and start a base. Every recipe is different, but you can do this first then remove from the pan to work on the other ingredients, then add the meat back in. And regardless of the cut, it's ready to eat when it's fork tender — no knife required.

Our super-tender beef rendang recipe is the perfect place to utilize chef Varun Inamdar's suggestion for cuts that work best when slow-cooked. In this recipe, any of Inamdar's suggestions will result in a flavorful curry. Alternatively, a Goan-style beef curry using cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, black pepper, and cumin and a mixture of coconut milk and stock, will also yield tasty results with slow-cooking.