Best Mutton Biryani Recipe -- from Sanhita

Mutton Biryani | Kolkata Mutton Biryani

Mutton Biryani is a famous dish where fargrant rice is cooked with pieces of mutton. The Kolkata Style Biryani is famous for it subtle taste and use of potatoes along with the meat.In this Mutton Biryani recipe, I have used readymade Biryani masala, making the process simpler.

Kolkata Chicken Biryani with homemade Biryani Masala

If you have been following me for a while you know about my Biryani woes. How I am never able to get that perfect Biryani rice

This year I was on a quest to a perfect my Biryani and the journey started with Neha Murad's Mom's Kolkata Biryani. It is a beautiful recipe and worked perfectly well and everything was good until it came to the rice part, when I faltered. It was always the rice which I either overcooked or it had extra moisture or something. I never got the "jhor jhore" Biryani rice where every grain is separate and independent.

Now two of my friends make excellent Biryani -- Moumita and Sanhita. Their Biryani is literally to die for and beats any restaurant Biryani that we get. I realized that the only way to salvage my Biryani was to shadow these experts in their kitchen and correct my errors.

Say Hello to Sanhita

My friend Sanhita kindly volunteered to teach me her excellent Biryani a couple of days back. Her approach to the dish was very simple, which caught my interest. She did not ask for any fancy ingredients and her style of Biriyani making seemed pretty simple with delicious results.

So I packed up 5lbs of goat meat, long grained Basmati rice, and arrived at her home on a hot summer afternoon to learn tricks of the trade.

Since none of us had time, we went with store bought Shan Bombay Biryani Masala. Next time I will be making Neha's mom's masala.

I am uploading 2 videos to show how the mutton was made and the rice was layered. The mutton is made with almost no water. After "koshaoing" or "bhuna-ing" for an hour, the mutton was transferred to a pressure cooker where it finished cooking. Point to be noted -- the oil from the mutton was not used in the Biryani.

 Cooking Mutton for Biryani

The rice grains were cooked al-dente and cold water was run through them to stop further cooking. The rice was then spread out in a tray and left to dry.

Layering Biryani

We made a very simple but utterly delicious Biryani. We did not waste our time in making the Birista(fried onions) to layer etc. The taste was subtle and clean, with the meat, spices, kewra and saffron flavoring each grain of rice.

Looks like my Biryani quest has finally come to an end with this delicious stop.

Mutton Biryani

Serves 6-8

Main Ingredients

Mutton/Goat Meat -- 5 lbs
Rice -- 3 Cups of long grained Basmati

Marinating Mutton

Yogurt -- 1/2 Cup
Shan Bombay Biryani Masala -- 1/2 packet


Other Ingredients 

Onion - 3 large onions
Garlic -- 1 whole head of garlic
Ginger -- 2" piece of ginger grated

Shan Bombay Biriyani Masala -- 1/2 packet for meat + 3/4th packet for rice
Ghee -- 3-4 Tbsp (Anil Ghosh's Ghee or Jharna Ghee)
Kewra water -- 2-3 Tbsp
Saffron -- 1 pinch
Milk -- 4 Tbsp to soak saffron

Vegetable Oil -- for cooking meat

Marinate Mutton

Marinate Mutton with Yogurt + Biryani Masala for 5-6 hours or overnight

Prep Ingredients

Prep the masala

Chop 3 medium onion in large chunks and saute until soft. Cool and make a paste

Make a paste of about 12-14 cloves of garlic from one whole head of garlic

Grate 2-3" piece of ginger.

Cook Mutton

Heat Oil in a deep bottomed pan

Add the onion paste and fry until it starts browning.

Add the garlic paste and the grated ginger.

Fry the masala until there is no raw smell. About 10-15 minutes

Now add the mutton pieces and toss them with the masala. Add salt to taste.

Cook with occasional stirring until all the water released from the mutton has almost dried up. This is called kashano. About 45 minutes

Once the mutton is nice and browned, transfer everything to a pressure cooker. Sprinkle a little water at the bottom of the pressure cooker. Cook at full pressure for 8-10 minutes. This is the time taken in my Futura pressure cooker.

Cook Rice

Wash rice in several changes of water.

Bring a big pot of water to boil

Add washed and strained rice to the boiling water. Cook for 2 minutes less than recommended time. So I cooked the rice for 8 minutes instead of the 10 minutes recommended by the brand.

Drain the rice in a colander and shake off the water. Run some cold water to stop any cooking from latent heat.

When he rice is drained, spread it out in a big aluminum tray and let it dry

Add half of the melted ghee to the rice and toss it gently

Layering

Once the mutton is cooked, drain the excess oil.

In the tray you will serve the Biryani, layer half of the rice as the first layer.

Sprinkle on the rice
Biryani Masala
Orange Food coloring
Kewra Water

Add the meat pieces on top of the rice layer distributing evenly

Now add rest of the rice on top of the meat.

Sprinkle on the rice
Biryani Masala
Orange Food coloring
Kewra Water

Drizzle the saffron milk on top of the rice

Drizzle about 3 tbsp of melted ghee on the rice

Optional: Add the fried onion or birista on the rice and add boiled eggs chopped in half

Cover the tray tightly with an aluminum foil

Heat oven to 400F

Cook for 20-25 minutes

Switch off the oven and let it sit for 10 more minutes.

Serve with raita and a salad

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