Biryani Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 to 2 kg mutton or chicken (preferably bony & fatty)
• 1 kg basmati rice
• 100 to 150 grm. Yogurt
• 3 to 4 tsp. salt (according to taste)
• 1 medium onion
• 6 garlic (Lehsan) cloves
• 1 tbs. ginger (Adrak) paste
• 12-16 green cardamom (Chhoti Ilaichi)
• 1½ to 2 tbs. garlic (Lehsan) paste
• 16-20 cloves (Laung)
• 1 cup oil, preferably ghee
• 2-3 tbs. Kewra
• ½ tsp. yellow food colour
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 pinch saffron (Zafran)
• ½ tbs. lemon juice

Instructions

• Add mutton, salt and garlic (Lehsan) cloves in a pot with 2 glasses of water. If you are using chicken you can do with only one glass of water or less.
• Cook on low flame till the meat is tender and the water dries.
• Take one medium onion slice it and fry it in about 1 cup of oil/ghee till it is light brown. Add the rest of the spices, yogurt and fry it little and then add the meat.
• Simultaneously soak the rice in water for half an hour.
• Boil the rice with 1 tbs. of salt and ½ tbs. of lemon juice till it is ¾ cooked. Drain the water and keep it aside.
• Transfer a little rice to a pot and on top of that add some of the meat masala combo so as to make layers of rice and masala keeping rice layer at the bottom and top.
• Sprinkle on it a solution of Kewra, yellow food colour, 1 tsp. of sugar and a pinch of Saffron (Zafran) soaked in a tbs. of milk or water.
• Keep it covered and on a low flame for about 10 minutes keeping the pot tightly closed to steam cook (dum).
• When the rice is done, the biryani is ready.
• Serve with salad or Garlic (Lehsan) chutney and Raita.