Mutton Biryani is a very popular and delicious dish. It is usually made with rice and meat. There are also biryanis made with vegetables, eggs, or fish as well. On special occasions and celebrations, it is sometimes one of the main dishes served.
Although there are claims it originated in Persia and was brought to India by the Mughals, there are others who claim it was already known in India much before the Mughals arrived! There are so many varieties of Biryanis as I mentioned earlier, and every type from all the different states in India tastes unique!
The recipe I have today is my mother's no-fail recipe which I have been following from the time I learned to make biryani. This is not the recipe for the popular Hyderabadi dum biryani usually available in Indian restaurants in the US or the Kozhikode biryani from Kerala .
I used goat meat (mutton) for this recipe and you can substitute it with lamb as well. Serve this biryani with appetizers like fish cutlet Kerala style and sides like Chemmeen thengakothu (Spicy Shrimp roast), papad (fritters), and curd salad. Finish off with a nice dessert like pineapple pudding or matta rice payasam. Your guests will enjoy a gala feast!
Why you will love this biryani?
- This biryani is simpler to prepare when compared to the other ones as it uses the layering method and does not need to be cooked on dum. You prepare the gravy and rice and then layer them together with garnishes.
- The taste is exceptional, mutton biryani can never go wrong in my humble opinion.
- Great dish for special occasions when treating your family and friends.
- Homemade biryanis have a unique taste and are always special.
How to make Mutton Biryani Layered?
The preparation starts with the marination of the meat, after which follows the frying of onions, nuts, and rice. Finally, the marinated meat is pressure cooked. Lastly, we layer the rice and meat and garnish it. Please continue reading for the detailed version of the recipe. Hope you enjoy making and eating it!
The meat marination is the important step, the meat is marinated in a green sauce made with ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, green chilies, cinnamon, and cloves. We also add yogurt and spices along with chopped tomatoes.
While this is marinating, the onions are browned in ghee until crispy. This is used for garnishing. You can also add nuts and raisins. Next, the rice is cooked by first frying in ghee with spices and cooked until done. The meat is pressure-cooked until done. Add authentic homemade garam masala at the end. The layering of the biryani comes next, first with a layer of rice followed by mutton gravy and garnishes. Chopped coriander and mint leaves are also added.
Mutton Biryani Layered
Ingredients
For Rice
- 4 cups Basmati Rice
- 4 tsp Ghee or Clarified Butter
- 4 tsp oil
- 3-4 cloves
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 2 bay leaves
- 5-6 cardamoms
- ½ onion diced
- salt
- 5 cups Water
For Mutton Gravy
- 1 ½ pounds mutton
- 3 cups yogurt
- 3 medium tomatoes diced
- 3-4 mint leaves chopped
- 5 tsp coriander powder
- 2 tsp Kashmiri chilly powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Biryani Masala (optional)
- ½ tsp Garam Masala
- salt to taste
To Grind For Marinade
- 1 inch ginger
- 10 -12 cloves garlic
- 1 bunch coriander leaves
- 4 green chillies
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 4-5 cloves
For Meat Preparation
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 tomato diced
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- ½ lemon
For Garnish
- 2 onion cut into long thin stripes
- 10 cashews
- 10 raisins
- 2 cups ghee for frying
- 1 sprig mint leaves
- 1 cup coriander leaves chopped finally
Instructions
Meat Marination
- Wash the meat thoroughly with salt and lemon and drain water completely
- Grind the ingredients in the "to grind for marinade" section with minimum water to get a green paste
- Add the yogurt, tomatoes, green paste,mint leaves and the spice powders in the "for meat marination" section to the meat
- Mix well and Marinate for about 2 to 3 hours in a referigrator
Rice Preparation and garnishes
- Wash the rice, drain and keep aside
- Heat a thick bottomed pan , add the ghee and oil
- Add the thin sliced onions and fry until crisp golden brown
- Drain and keep aside.
- Add the cashews and raisins ,brown it as well
- Drain and keep aside.
- The thin fried onions, cashews and raisins will be used for garnishing.In the remaining ghee and oil, add the spices under the "For rice" section
- Next add the diced onions and sautée
- After 2 mins add the washed rice
- Fry for about 5 to 7 mins until the rice turns opaque!
- Add the salt and water and cook until done in a rice cooker
- Wait for the steam to be released and rice to be cooled.
Meat Preparation
- Next for the preparation of the meat , take ghee and oil in the pressure cookerried shrimp /fish or salad , Enjoy
- Add onions and sautée it for 10 mins
- Add tomatoes and ginger garlic paste ,sautée for another 5 mins
- Next add the marinated meat and fry it for a while.
- Pressure cook for about 4 or 5 whistles (depending on the meat) until the meat is cooked.
- Once steam is released, check that the meat is cooked well .If the gravy is runny , heat and reduce until you get a thick gravy.
- Add some chopped coriander leaves and squeeze a little lemon.
Layering biryani and garnishing
- Next process is layering of the biryani, transfer the cooked rice into a serving bowl and garnish with fried onions,cashews ,raisins,chopped mint and coriander leaves.
- Then add a layer of the meat gravy and repeat layering with rice, meat and again layer with garnish onions , nuts ,raisins, mint and coriander leaves.
- Gently mix so the gravy is evenly mixed into the rice.
- Squeeze half a lemon if you like (optional).
- Finally garnish with chopped coriander leaves and the remaining garnishes.
- Mutton Biryani is finally ready !!Serve with Papad (rice fritters) or fried fish.
Nutrition
It is so tempting, but sorry for me, I am a vegetarian. 😐
Thanks for the comment, I will post a vegetarian biryani soon 🙂
Looks great and well explained..
Thank you so much Saumya!