Lamb Biryani
Published March 11, 2020
- Total Time
- 4½ hours, plus overnight marinating
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
- 4green finger chiles (or serrano chiles), stems removed
- 8garlic cloves, peeled
- 1(4-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled
- 2medium yellow onions, peeled and quartered
- 2Roma tomatoes, quartered
- 1cup full-fat yogurt
- 1cup fresh mint leaves
- 1cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 1tablespoon ground coriander
- 1tablespoon ground cumin
- 1teaspoon Kashmiri chile powder, plus more as needed
- ½teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2teaspoons kosher salt, plus more as needed
- 2½ to 3pounds lamb chops (or boneless or bone-in lamb shoulder pieces)
- 3(½-inch) Indian cinnamon sticks, or 1 large cinnamon stick
- 12whole black peppercorns
- 6cloves
- 6green cardamom pods
- 1tablespoon garam masala
- 1cup neutral oil, such as grapeseed or canola
- 2yellow onions, thinly sliced
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- Kosher salt
- 3cups basmati rice
- 6tablespoons whole milk
- ½teaspoon saffron threads
- 2cups mixed fresh cilantro and mint leaves
- 6tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced
For the Lamb
For the Fried Onions
For the Rice
For Assembly
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the lamb marinade: Add the finger chiles, garlic and ginger to a food processor and process until finely chopped. Add the onions and tomatoes, process until smooth, and scrape into a bowl that will hold all the lamb and fit in your fridge. Add the yogurt, mint, cilantro, coriander, cumin, chile powder, turmeric and salt, and stir to combine. Add the lamb to the bowl and toss to coat in the marinade, then cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Step 2
Prepare the fried onions: In a Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat the oil over medium. Add the onions, season with salt, and sauté until browned, stirring occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer fried onions to a paper towel-lined plate. Using your hands, pull apart the fried onions to separate to prevent them from sticking together, and set aside.
- Step 3
Add the cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves and cardamom to the remaining hot oil, and fry over medium until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the meat, its marinade and 1 cup water, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender and the sauce is very thick and dark, about 2½ hours, adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a low simmer. Stir in the garam masala and taste, adjusting with salt and chile powder as needed. Set aside.
- Step 4
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the rice: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil and add the rice. Stir well and cook for 3 minutes, transfer to a colander in the sink to drain. Run some cool water on top to cool the rice; set aside.
- Step 5
Prepare the saffron milk for assembly: Warm the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat just until it steams. Remove from heat and add the saffron, crumbling it with your fingertips as you drop it into the milk. Set aside.
- Step 6
In a large, heavy, lidded pot, add about a third of the meat mixture in an even layer covering the bottom of the pot. Sprinkle the meat with a third of the herbs and a third of the rice, assembling lightly without packing the layers. Drizzle 2 tablespoons saffron milk over the rice and add about a third of the fried onions. Build two more layers of meat, herbs, rice, saffron milk and onions. Top with pats of butter and cover the pot with foil.
- Step 7
Put the lid on the pot of rice, transfer to the oven and bake until piping hot, about 1 hour. Let rest for about 10 minutes, then serve hot, digging all the way to the bottom of the pot with the serving spoon. To reheat, warm the biryani covered in the oven, or microwave.
Private Notes
Comments
the oil is for deep frying the onions, but you wouldn’t need that if it’s going to simmer for over 2 hours. It won’t change the taste and lamb has enough of its own fat to cook in. Eliminating the butter on top of the rice may leave it less rich, But having made biryani growing up, it’s still going to be really really delicious without. These seem like restaurant style additions that sacrifice health for additional flavor. Save yourself the 2600 calories. It’s still going to be awesome.
Made this with chicken, and as an Indian person who grew up eating biryani and is really critical of everyone’s biryani that’s not my mom or my grandma’s, this is a really solid recipe.
Am I reading this correctly that in Step 3 we're supposed to use ALL of the remaining 1 cup of oil? In other words, the finished biryani has 1 full cup of oil (in addition to the 6 Tbsp of butter)? If so, it is what it is (no judgement) but just wanted to confirm.
I ran short on time and did not want to be eating at midnight so I followed all of the instructions up to the 2 1/2 hour cook time. I put the meat mixture into the Instant Pot and set it on High for 30 minutes. I did a 5 minute NR and then did a quick release. I did not add the butter because there was a lot of oil from frying the onions. I baked it for 1 hour & 15 minutes. It was delicious! Perfectly cooked rice and tender meat. I only added 3 Serrano peppers with the seeds removed.
Can this be made with a rice cooker ?
Im still stuck on the fried onion part of the recipe. Why would I deep fry onions until crispy only to layer them in a casserole where they will surely soften? And there are already two onions doing their thing in the marinade.