#Biriyani
Mutton
Fried onions
Mint and coriander leaves
Par cooked and flavoured basmati rice
Saffron milk mixture
Ghee
steps in making mutton biryani
I’ve broken down the steps involved in making mutton biryani, so that you have all the elements ready before you begin layering away.
Start by marinating the mutton. For this recipe, 20-30 minutes is sufficientg
Wash and soak the basmati rice while the mutton masala cooks
Make mutton masala in the pressure cooker - it's the easiest and fastest way to cook really tender mutton or goat meat
Cook the basmati rice till its par boiled
Layer the mutton masala and rice, and cook on a low flame till the mutton is fork tender and the rice is perfectly cooked
Garnish and serve
best rice for mutton biryani
There are so many varieties of rice used in biryani and it can be a little confusing. I always insist on using aged basmati rice for a mutton biryani like this one. Look for basmati rice and not 'long grain rice' which doesn't have any aroma. Basmati is fragrant and gives off a deep, rich aroma to the biryani unlike other varieties of rice. In this biryani recipe, the rice is first par-cooked before layering and steaming it with mutton masala to let the flavours come together.
Here are the steps to prepare the rice before layering the biryani:
Wash the basmati rice at least thrice to get rid of starch and any impurities
Soak the rice in water for at least half an hour so that it cooks faster
Rice for biryani should always be par-cooked to 70% doneness. The rest of the cooking happens in the pot with layers of mutton and rice so that the rice can take on the aroma and flavours. If you cook the rice fully beforehand the end result will be mushy and over cooked rice
Make the rice after making the mutton masala because it should be hot when it's layered with the mutton masala.
best cut of mutton for biryani
For mutton biryani, I've used the shoulder cut. Shoulder meat has some fat, and remains tender through the cooking process. The meat is cut into 1.5-2 inch pieces. It's important to get bone-in pieces as they remain juicier, and the marrow in the bones is delicious. You can use either goat or lamb meat for this recipe.
marination
This is a really simple 3 ingredient marinade. It's made with yoghurt, turmeric powder, and salt. This marinade acts more as a tender of the mutton pieces than as a flavouring agent. Make sure you pat dry the washed mutton pieces before putting them in the marinade! In this case we only marinate it for as long as it takes to cook the masala. So 20-30 minutes is sufficient.
homemade mutton masala
This mutton masala packs tonnes of flavour because it's got everything from roasted spices to fried onions to oodles of ghee! What I love about this masala is that it's made with pantry staples, so I can literally make biryani any day I want without stressing out about ingredients.
Pro Tip: It’s important to let the biryani ‘rest’ after cooking. Resting the biryani actually elevates the flavour, and gives the mutton and rice time to settle as I like to say!
Garnish the biryani with fried onions!
Serve hot mutton biryani