Impress Your Guests With This Mughlai Biryani Recipe (2024)

Petrina Verma Sarkar

Food writer Petrina Verma Sarkar is a native of India with extensive knowledge of the country's regional cuisines.

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Updated on 05/15/21

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Ingredients

1/2 cup almonds
2 teaspoons garlic paste
2 teaspoons ginger paste
2 cups basmati rice
Salt, as needed
6 tablespoons ghee, canola, or sunflower oil, more as needed
4 large thinly sliced onions, divided
1-inch cinnamon stick
8 whole peppercorns
5 whole cloves
3 cardamom pods
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin, optional
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 pounds lamb, chicken breasts, or thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 cup plain yogurt
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 cup chicken or beef stock
2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves
2 tablespoons finely chopped mint leaves
3 drops each orange and green food coloring, optional

Steps to Make It

Gather the ingredients.
Put the almonds in a bowl of hot water (enough to cover them) and set aside for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, remove the skins from all the almonds by pressing each one between your thumb and forefinger. The almonds will slip out of their skins.
Mix the garlic and ginger pastes and the peeled almonds and grind the mixture into a smooth paste in a food processor.
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Wash the rice in a sieve and add enough water to fully cover the rice—at least 4 inches over the surface of the rice. Add salt to taste.
Boil the rice until it is almost done. To determine when the rice has reached that stage, remove a few grains from the pot and press them between your thumb and forefinger. The rice should mostly mash but will have a firm, white core. Turn off the burner.
Strain the rice through a colander and set it aside.
Heat 3 tablespoons of ghee or oil in a pan and fry half the onions until they are caramelized and golden brown. Drain and set the onions aside on paper towels.
Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of ghee or oil in another pan and add the whole spices—cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves, and cardamom. Fry the mixture until the spices turn a little darker.
Add the remaining onions and fry them until they are translucent.
Add the ginger-garlic-almond paste and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add all the spice powders—coriander, cumin, and garam masala—and mix well.
Fry the mixture until the oil begins to separate from the masala and then add the lamb or chicken. Continue frying until the meat is fully coated in the mixture and becomes opaque and loses its pink color.
Add the yogurt, lime juice, stock, coriander and mint leaves, and salt to taste (if needed). Mix well.
Cover the pot and allow the dish to cook until the meat is tender.
If you are using food coloring, divide the rice into 3 equal portions and put each portion into a separate dish. Add the orange food coloring to 1 portion of the rice and the green food coloring to another portion. Leave the third portion white.
With each portion, mix the rice until all the grains are well colored.
Set the rice aside for 10 minutes and then mix the 3 portions in a bowl.
Grease a deep baking dish and evenly layer the cooked rice and meat (and its gravy) to form at least 2 sets of layers—rice-meat-rice-meat-rice. Garnish with the previously caramelized onions.
Cover the dish tightly. If the dish does not have a cover, use 2 layers of aluminum foil with the shiny side of both layers pointing down toward the rice, and secure the foil to the dish with baking string.
Put the dish in a preheated oven set at 350 F. Bake for 20 minutes.
Turn off the oven and let the dish sit in the oven until you are ready to eat. Remove the foil only when you are ready to eat.
Serve and enjoy.

Tips

To serve Biryani, gently dig in with a spoon so that you get through the layers.
While Mughlai biryani tastes great by itself, add a raita-like chatpata channa raita(chickpeas in hot-sour yogurt) to really perk up the flavor.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
799	Calories
53g	Fat
35g	Carbs
46g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4to 6
Amount per serving
Calories	799
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 53g	68%
Saturated Fat 23g	113%
Cholesterol 183mg	61%
Sodium 410mg	18%
Total Carbohydrate 35g	13%
Dietary Fiber 4g	15%
Total Sugars 8g
Protein 46g
Vitamin C 9mg	45%
Calcium 183mg	14%
Iron 5mg	28%
Potassium 937mg	20%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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Impress Your Guests With This Mughlai Biryani Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the meaning of Mughlai biryani? ›

Mughlai Biryani is made with succulent chunks of perfectly spiced meat, a lot of hot green chilies, almond paste, basmati rice cooked with whole aromatic spices, garnished with a handful of roasted nuts, mint-coriander leaves, fried onions, and aromatized with kewra water.

Keep Reading ›

What are the different types of Mughlai biryani? ›

It has two primary types: the kacchi (raw) biryani and the pakki (cooked) biryani. The kacchi biryani is made by layering marinated meat with partially cooked rice and slow-cooking them together. The pakki biryani involves cooking meat separately before layering it with cooked rice.

Read On ›

Is Mughal biryani spicy? ›

Mughlai cusines are famous for their mild ,spicy and aroma of ground or whole spices. Mughlai cusines are combination of Persian and West Asian cooking . The curries are based on nuts and dry fruits , Indian spices and other things.

What are the condiments of biryani? ›

The spices and condiments used in biryani may include fennel seeds, ghee (clarified butter), nutmeg, mace, pepper, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, coriander, mint, ginger, onions, tomatoes, green chilies, and garlic.

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What is the Speciality of Mughlai biryani? ›

The dish is made with flavored rice, chunks of spiced and browned meat (usually lamb), fried onions, sultanas, and dry fruits such as almonds, which are layered in a pot, and then cooked together, yielding a highly-aromatic specialty said to be fit for a king.

What makes a dish Mughlai? ›

Mughlai cuisine is renowned for the richness and aromaticity of the meals due to extensive use of spices like saffron, cardamom, black pepper, dry fruits and nuts, as well as rich cream, milk and butter in preparation of curry bases. This has influenced the development of North Indian cuisine.

What is the difference between Hyderabadi biryani and Mughlai biryani? ›

The basic difference between both biryani is that hyderbadi is more spicy and and have sharp smell while lucknowi biryani is less spicy and pleasant aroma. Another main difference is that whole spices are used in Lucknowi biryani along with biryani masala whereas only grounded spices are used in hyderbadi biryani.

Tell Me More ›

What is the difference between Mughlai and dum biryani? ›

In a normal Biryani, the meat is separately fried and added whereas in but in dum biryani the entire rice, meat, potatoes cooked by the steam and pressure. Thus Fried chicken biryani will be more oily and spicy, and dum will be more flavourful.

Find Out More ›

What is Hyderabadi vs Mughlai biryani? ›

Both these varieties are world-renowned for their taste of the meat and vegetables and the aroma of the spices. While Lucknowi biryani is smooth, with the meat marinated in herbs and yogurt, its Hyderabadi counterpart is usually spicy and meaty, with a liberal zaffron color.

Read The Full Story ›

Which is the tastiest biryani? ›

Hyderabadi Biryani is the most popular biryani in India because of its meticulous blend of spices, nestled with the tenderness of meat and veggies. Its colorful texture and flavorful aroma reach your senses to transform your meals into a satisfying experience. No other biryani matches the number of spices used in it.

Discover More Details ›

Is Mughlai biryani boneless? ›

Rich and flavorful layered indian dish, long grained rice flavored with exotic spices & is layered with slow cooked chicken pieces and a thick gravy. Non-veg item. Mughlai Chicken Biryani (boneless).

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What is the difference between Mughlai and Indian cuisine? ›

Mughlai food uses an array of aromatic spices that give the cuisine a spicier palette than the other North-Indian cuisines. The dishes are also a tad heavier compared to other cuisines, given the amount of dry fruits, heavy cream, and milk used to prepare them - a virtue that highlights the cuisine's Persian influence.

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What is the secret ingredient for biryani? ›

Zafrani biryani: One of the links to the biryani with royalty remains is that of saffron-infused milk or ghee added to the layers of rice to bring oomph and separate the dish from plebeian food.

Get More Info Here ›

Why do we add yogurt to biryani? ›

Yogurt helps to soften the meat or chicken and also helps in uniform assimilation of spices,when mixed with rice. Yogurt is what gives the Biryani gravy its richness.

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What is the difference between Mughal and Hyderabadi biryani? ›

The tussle between Hyderabad and Lucknow

Adjusting the rich Mughal dish to milder palates, Nawabs gave birth to luck. Southerners, on the other hand, added more spice and richness to the dish, giving birth to the Hyderabadi biryani. What's unique to Hyderabadi biryani is its strong blend of flavors and spice.