Best 5 Indian Biryani Recipes

AUTHENTIC SOUTH INDIAN BIRYANI

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Heat oil in a large oven-proof pot over medium heat. Add cardamom, clove, and cinnamon stick. Stir in chopped onions, and fry until golden brown. Stir in garlic and ginger. Stir in chicken pieces, and fry about 3 minutes. Stir in chili powder, and cook several minutes. Stir in tomatoes, and cook about 5 minutes. Mix yogurt with 3 tablespoons water and lemon juice; stir into sauce.
• Cover pot, and bake in a preheated oven until the sauce is somewhat thickened and concentrated, about 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, cook rice in enough salted water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until it is half cooked, about 7 minutes. Drain rice, and stir into chicken and sauce. Stir in butter, season to taste with salt, cover pot, and bake 1 hour. Stir in mint and cilantro immediately before serving.

INSTANT POT INDIAN SHRIMP BIRYANI

Steps:

• Mix the yogurt with the mint and cilantro in a small bowl until well combined. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
• Toss the shrimp with 1/4 teaspoon of the curry powder, 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Turn a 6-quart Instant Pot® to the saute setting (see Cook's Note) and add 4 tablespoons of the butter. When melted, add half of the shrimp and cook, tossing once or twice, until the shrimp are just turning orange and starting to brown but are not completely cooked, 3 to 4 minutes; transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining shrimp. Set aside.
• Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the ginger, turmeric, paprika, garlic and remaining 1 teaspoon curry powder and cook until the garlic and ginger are softened and the spices are fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the rice, 1 1/2 cups water, 2 teaspoons salt and a few grinds of black pepper and stir to combine.
• Follow the manufacturer's guide for locking the lid and preparing to cook. Set to pressure cook on high for 3 minutes.
• After the pressure-cook cycle is complete, follow the manufacturer's guide for quick release and wait until the quick-release cycle is complete. Being care of any remaining steam, unlock and remove the lid. Add the shrimp to the pot and stir to combine with the rice. Turn the pot to the normal saute setting and put on the lid. Let the shrimp cook until completely opaque throughout, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve in bowls with a dollop of herbed yogurt.

PLEASURE IN EVERY SPOON INDIAN MUTTON/LAMB BIRYANI

Steps:

• Soak rice for 5-6 hours in water, drain and keep aside.
• Cut half the ginger into juliennes and make a paste of the rest.
• Soak saffron in warm milk and keep aside.
• Marinate the mutton or lamb in a large bowl for 4 hours in a cool place, in a mixture of yogurt, turmeric powder, salt and 1 tbsp.
• each of ginger and garlic pastes.
• Heat oil in a wok and fry half of the onions in it until brown and crisp.
• Drain on a paper towel and keep aside.
• Cook rice in salted 7 cups of boiling water alongwith the cloves, cinnamon, black and green cardamoms and peppercorns till the rice is almost cooked.
• Strain and keep rice warm.
• Heat ghee in a pressure cooker or a thick-bottomed pan.
• Add the remaining sliced onions and green chillies.
• Stir-fry till the onions turn light golden.
• Stir in the remaining ginger and garlic pastes.
• Stir-fry until the raw smell of the same is gone.
• Add the marinated mutton or lamb.
• Cook on high flame for 8 minutes.
• Mix in corriander, cumin and red chilli powders.
• Stir in 3 cups of boiling water.
• Bring to a boil.
• Reduce flame and cook covered till the mutton is almost cooked.
• Add tomatoes, salt and half of the garam masala powder and the fresh corriander leaves.
• Cook for 15 minutes on medium flame, stirring occasionally.
• If you are using a pressure cooker to cook the mutton or lamb, add chopped tomatoes, salt, garam masala powder, 2 cups of water and chopped fresh corriander leaves after adding the dry spices.
• Pressure cook till the mutton is almost cooked.
• (It normally takes 2-3 whistles to cook).
• Ensure that the cooked mutton does not have a thin gravy.
• If that is the case, cook on high flame to reduce the gravy.
• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Arrange half the quantity of cooked mutton in an oven-proof dish.
• Spread half the quantity of cooked rice on top of the mutton.
• Sprinkle a little of the remaining garam masala powder, mint leaves, saffron dissolved in warm milk and half each of ginger juliennes.
• Dot the rice with half the quantity of butter.
• Spread the remaining mutton on top of the rice, followed by cooked rice and repeat the earlier process with the remaining quantity of ginger juliennes, saffron milk, garam masala powder, mint leaves and butter.
• Cover it with aluminium foil.
• Cook in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes at 180C.
• Garnish with the fried sliced onions and serve with mixed fruit and vegetable raita as an accompaniment.
• Enjoy!

INDIAN MUTTON BIRYANI

Steps:

• First of all, cut potatoes into quarters.
• Apply salt to them.
• Deep fry.
• Pour oil/ghee in a skillet.
• Fry the onions until pink in colour and crisp, remove them and keep aside before adding the cinnamon, cloves and the pastes.
• Add cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaves and green cardamoms.
• Add ginger-garlic pastes.
• Fry for 3 minutes.
• Add in the washed mutton pieces.
• Saute until the mutton gives out its own juices.
• Add the slit green chillies.
• Add turmeric, chilli and cumin powders.
• Mix well.
• Saute for 5 minutes, stirring continuously.
• Mix in fresh yogurt.
• Simmer until the mutton is cooked.
• Add salt.
• Continue to cook until the oil separates from the meat.
• Add finely chopped corriander and mint leaves.
• In a separate pot, parboil rice until the grains are half cooked.
• Strain the rice.
• Spread out the mutton mixture in a heavy bottom pan.
• Sprinkle the rice on top.
• Add fried potatoes.
• Sprinkle saffron milk over this.
• Sprinkle crisp fried onions on top.
• Cover the platter with a tight fitting lid.
• Cook on low flame for 20 minutes.
• Serve with plain chilled yogurt or raita (I'd love to have cucumber raita as it's my favourite) and pappadams.
• ENJOY!

INDIAN MOGHUL CHICKEN BIRYANI

Steps:

• First you have to make the marinade for the chicken.
• Peel and coarsely chop 3 of the onions.
• Place the chopped onion, garlic, and ginger in an electric blender, along with the cloves, peppercorns, the seeds only from the 8 cardamoms, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, poppy seeds, mace, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and the lemon juice. Blend all of these at high speed until you have a smooth paste. Place this paste in a large bowl. Add the yogurt and mix well.
• Now peel the 3 remaining onions. Slice them into very fine rings, and halve all the rings.
• In a 10 inch heavy bottomed skillet, heat the oil over medium flame. When hot, add the bay leaves and 4 black cardamoms. Fry for about 10 to 15 seconds. Now put in the onions and fry them, stirring, for about 10 minutes or until they get brown and crisp (but not burned). Remove them carefully with a slotted spoon, squeezing out as much of the oil as possible. Reserve all the onion flavored oil, the black cardamoms, and the bay leaves. You will need them later. Mix in 2/3 of the fried onions with the marinade paste. Place the rest on a paper towel to drain. Set aside for garnishing.
• Remove skin from the chicken legs and breasts. Cut the legs into two pieces each (drumstick and thigh), and quarter all the breasts. Pierce the chicken pieces with a fork and place in the bowl with the marinade paste. Mix well. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Turn occasionally.
• After 2 hours (or more), remove the bowl from the refrigerator and place all its contents in a 3 to 4 quart heavy bottomed pot. Bring slowly to a boil, cover, lower heat, and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove only the chicken pieces, place them in a 5 quart casserole dish, and cover. Set aside. On a medium flame, boil down the marinade paste, stirring, until you have about 9 to 10 tablespoons left. Spoon the paste over the chicken. Cover again.
• Preheat oven to 300°F.
• Soak the saffron in 2 tablespoons hot (not boiling) milk.
• Bring about 13 cups of water with 3 teaspoons of salt to a boil in a 4 quart pot, then add the rice. After it has come to a boil again, cook 5 minutes, timing very carefully (the rice must not cook through). DRAIN the rice in a colander, then place it on top of the chicken in the casserole. Pour the saffron milk over the rice, streaking it with orange lines. Spoon out the onion flavored oil from the pan, RESERVING a level tablespoon to fry the raisins if you like. Sprinkle the oil, cardamom, and bay leaves over the rice. Cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil, cut 2 inches wider than the rim of the dish. Now put the lid on and use the protruding foil edges to seal the dish as best you can by crinkling it and pushing it against the sides. Bake 1 hour.
• GARNISHES: There are several garnishes that can be used for biryani; you can use them all, or only what you like, but the fried onions are a must. If you wish to use raisins, you can fry them in a tablespoon of the onion flavored oil just after you have fried the onions.
• TO SERVE: As you lift the cover off your casserole dish you will see beautiful saffron streaks on the white rice. Spoon the rice and chicken out onto a large platter. Sprinkle fried onions and other garnishes of your choice over, and serve hot. With biryani, serve Koftas and some yogurt dish-Yogurt with Tiny dumplings, or Yogurt with Potatoes. If you wish to serve a vegetable, Cauliflower with Ginger and Chinese Parsley would be very good. Serves 6-8.
• Biryani is quite definitely not an everyday dish. It is served at weddings and important dinners. Try serving it at a late supper party. It was, and is, a dish worthy of a king.
• NOTE: This very expensive stigma of the crocus flower is used in Moghlai meat and rice dishes as well as in desserts. Ideally, saffron stigmas or "leaf" saffron should be lightly roasted in a hot skillet, crumbled, and allowed to soak in a tablespoon or so of warm milk for half an hour before being used.
• Madhur Jaffrey An Invitations to Indian Cooking.