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Handiہانڈیاردو
Nihari, haleem & slow-cooked

Mutton Paye Recipe

مٹن پائے بنانے کا طریقہ

Slow-cooked mutton paye: goat trotters simmered for hours with browned onion and whole spices until the shorba turns sticky and rich on its own.
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Illustration of Mutton Paye

Prep

40 min

Cook

5 hr 30 min

Total

6 hr 10 min

Serves

6

Difficulty

Medium

Spice

Medium hot

Paye are trotters cooked slowly until the skin and tendons melt and the shorba becomes thick and lip-sticking without any flour. They are a winter breakfast across Punjab and a fixture after Eid ul Adha, when every house has trotters from the qurbani. Most of the work is in the cleaning; after that, the pot just needs low heat and time.

Ingredients

6 servings

For 6 servings

Measures

Whole spices

To serve

Method

  1. Even if the butcher has cleaned them, scrape the trotters with a knife, burn off any remaining hair over a flame, and wash well. Boil them in plain water, throw that water away and rinse again; this removes the strong smell.

    ⏱ 10 min

  2. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot and fry the sliced onions on medium heat until golden brown.

    ⏱ 12 min

  3. Add the whole spices and ginger-garlic paste and fry for a minute. Add the trotters, salt, red chilli, turmeric and coriander powder and bhuno well.

    ⏱ 8 min

  4. Add the yogurt a little at a time and keep frying until it is absorbed and the oil comes to the surface.

    ⏱ 7 min

  5. Pour in the 12 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover and cook on the lowest heat until the skin and tendons are completely soft and come away from the bones. Top up with hot water if the level drops too low.

    ⏱ 300 min

  6. Uncover and simmer until the shorba is thick and sticky between your fingers. Stir in the garam masala.

    ⏱ 15 min

  7. Serve in bowls topped with ginger, green chillies, coriander and a squeeze of lemon.

Tips for the best result

  • For beef paye, use 2 cow trotters cut into pieces by the butcher and allow 7–8 hours, or pressure cook.
  • Many Lahori cooks cook paye overnight on the lowest flame on a tawa under the pot. The slower they go, the stickier the shorba.

Common mistakes

  • Skipping the first boil. Without it, paye can smell strongly and the shorba turns murky.
  • Thickening with flour. Well-cooked paye thicken by themselves; if yours are thin, they need more time, not atta.

How to serve

Serve very hot for breakfast with naan or kulcha, and the garnishes on the side.

Storing and reheating

Keeps 3 days in the fridge and 2 months in the freezer. It sets like jelly when cold; reheat slowly with a little water.

Nutrition and cost

Worked out from the ingredients, not measured in a lab. Treat both as a rough guide.

Per serving Estimate

Calories
310kcal
Protein
2g
Fat
28g
Carbs
14g
Fibre
2.5g
Sodium
980mg

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain values for the raw ingredients (32% of the recipe by weight had data). Deep-frying oil is counted at 20%; bones and water lost in cooking are not subtracted, so bone-in and fried dishes can read high. Not medical advice. Method

Cost per servingEstimate

≈ Rs 37

Whole dish ≈ Rs 220 · 23% of ingredients by weight priced

From the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics weekly SPI, week ended 29 Oct 2026. Spices, herbs and some vegetables are not in the SPI and are left out unless you add your price, so the real cost is a little higher. How this works

Mutton Paye: questions people ask

Can I make paye in a pressure cooker?

Yes. After adding the water, cook goat trotters at full pressure for about 1 hour (beef trotters about 1.5 hours), then simmer uncovered for 15 minutes to thicken.

How do I get rid of the smell of paye?

Clean off every bit of hair, then boil the trotters once in plain water and discard it. Some cooks add a little turmeric and vinegar to that first boil.

Serve it with, and similar recipes

All slow-cooked recipes

Read this recipe in Urdu: مٹن پائے بنانے کا طریقہ

https://handi.danixsoft.com/recipes/paye · Handi, DanixSoft