Hyderabadi Mutton Dum Biryani

by Shaheen Ali

Whenever i die i would love to die with a spoon full of Biryani in my mouth! The only mutton delicacy i believe is worth dying for is non other than Biryani. Slow cooked meat with whole spices and curd when comes with long grain rice, the flavor and the aroma is simply unbeatable. My love for biryani mainly begun when i was in college. Despite of being born and brought up in a Muslim family, Biryani has though been one of our staple food, still the journey of falling in love with the delicacy started after i went to Bhopal for my higher studies.


Bhopal serves it’s own traditional biryani that is adapted from the Nawabs of the region. The texture is light and the flavours are mild. You may not like it much as it tastes more like mutton tahri. But my journey started from a restaurant in Bhopal that use to serve authentic Hyderabadi Biryani. The layered biryani with authentic flavors adapted from the Nizami culture of Hyderabad was something to die for. I still remember the moment i use to get a leave from my college, me and few of my friends use to run straight away to the restaurant to enjoy the hyderabadi dum biryani. Slow cooked meat in sour curd takes hell lot of a time to cook but it’s anyday worth the wait. In hyderabadi biryani, cinnamom and the spices have a prominent flavor. Sometimes it’s hard to judge that which spice is giving more aroma to the dish. So after all this description, who won’t like to make some for yourself and family. To put on your kitchen aprons and sharpen your knife. Pick this flawless recipe and make your weekend special.

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HYDERABADI MUTTON DUM KI BIRYANI
Course main course
Cuisine hyderabadi
Prep Time 30 minutes
Servings
serving
Ingredients
Whole spices :
For Garnishing :
Course main course
Cuisine hyderabadi
Prep Time 30 minutes
Servings
serving
Ingredients
Whole spices :
For Garnishing :
Instructions
For making Yakhni :
  1. First take a deep thick bottomed handi in which you want to make biryani. You can either directly cook in the same handi or you can prepare yakhni separately and assemble in a different vessel. I prefer doing it separately. So my recipe shall be followed that way only.
  2. So in a thick bottomed broad base vessel also known as a handi, heat oil till piping hot.
  3. As soon as the oil is hot, add shah jeera and the other whole spices immediately.
  4. The moment those spices starts to pop and splutter, add ginger garlic paste and saute.
  5. Now add coarsely grounded onions and mix well. Fry all together till they change their color and raw smell goes off.
  6. Now add the mutton pieces and sour curd with slit green chilies, grated coconut and mix all well. After a while you will see the curd leaving water. This is when you have to cook the mutton till it goes tender.
  7. Add chopped mint and coriander, mix well and close the lid. Let the mutton cook now in slow flame till it becomes soft and tender. This may take 30-35 mins or even more than that. Depends on the quality of the mutton as well as the size of the pieces too.
  8. Once the mutton is done, add coriander powder and salt as per you taste and fry it all nicely in high flame. You can now see oil oozing out from here and there. Just make sure the oil is sufficient for the yakhni. It should not be too less or too much. And that you will have to check it by yourself.
  9. The consistency of the yakhni should not be too dry. Turn off the gas and keep the yakhni aside.
For making rice :
  1. Long grain rice are the best for making biryani. You can use them directly but i would suggest you to soak the rice 1 hour before cooking biryani. This enhances the size of the long grain and also increases the quantity of the rice being used.
  2. Take another thick bottomed vessel in which you wish to cook the rice. Add water in double quantity of rice and boil it.
  3. While the water boils, add 1 tbsp of lemon juice and 1 tbsp ghee and salt in the water before adding rice.
  4. Once the water starts boiling, add rice into it and cook till the rice is 3/4th cooked. You can check it by pressing the grain with your finger. Well here the rice is kept 1/4th raw because that will be cooked after assembling the biryani on Dum.
  5. When the rice is done, turn off the gas and immediately drain water and train the rice through a strainer and spread it on a big tray to avoid getting sticky. Here i use the traditional way what we have been doing in our family, that is when the rice is trained, we keep the rice in a bamboo bucket. Don't know the actual reason behind doing that but my grand mom use to say that by doing this the rice doesn't stick to each other.
  6. Anyways, as now the rice is done, so let's proceed to assemble is before the rice gets cooked completely in heat.
How to assemble the biryani for dum :
  1. Take a thick flat iron tawa and place it on the gas and heat. Place another thick bottomed vessel over the tawa.
  2. Sprinkle some curd all over the bottom to avoid the yakhni getting burnt during dum.
  3. Spread yakhni all over the bottom of the vessel evenly.
  4. Sprinkle some mint and coriander over it.
  5. Now spread the semi cooked rice all over and cover it completely.
  6. Now add lemon juice on the rice all over, spread saffron milk (soak pinch of saffron in 1/2 cup milk for 30 mins in fridge).
  7. Sprinkle kewda water and spread slit green chilies here and there.
  8. Now add chopped mint, coriander and lots of fried onions and seal the vessel with aluminium foil properly from all sides.
  9. Place the lid on top of the foil cover and keep a heavy pan on it such that the heat gets no place to come out.
  10. Keep the biryani on dum in slow flames for around 20-25 mins.
Serving suggestions :
  1. Once the biryani is done, remove the foil and cut the rice from one side and shuffle it gently such that the rice and the yakhni mix evenly and the rice also does not breaks.
  2. Serve hot with your favorite raita and salad.
  3. Enjoy the Mutton Dum Biryani and make your Sunday meal special and memorable.
Recipe Notes

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