| Total: | 2 hr 50 min |
| Prep: | 50 min |
| Cook: | 2 hr |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boned leg of lamb, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoons papaya paste (tenderizing agent)
- 2 tablespoons grated ginger
- 2 tablespoons garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 2 teaspoons red chile powder
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 cloves
- 10 cardamom pods with shell
- Refined peanut oil or sunflower oil, for frying
- 1 large white onion thinly sliced
- 5 tablespoons whole Greek yogurt
- 2 lemons, juiced
- 1/4 cup chopped mint
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 2 green chiles, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons ghee or oil
- 3 cups basmati rice
- 1 teaspoon saffron (or 10 threads fresh saffron) boiled in 1-cup milk for 5 minutes
- Nan, 1 piece per person
- Salad, as an accompaniment
Instructions
- Lay the lamb pieces in the bottom of a flat copper dish or Dutch oven. Add papaya paste, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt, turmeric, chile powder, cinnamon stick, cloves, and cardamom pods. Mix the spices into the meat with your hands.
- Heat 1-inch of refined peanut oil or sunflower oil in a saute pan to 360 degrees F. Add the thinly sliced onions and fry until light golden and crisp. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Reserve the oil. Crush the fried onions onto meat and mix with hands. Add yogurt and mix again. Add lemon juice, fresh herbs, and 2 tablespoons of the oil that is leftover from the onions. Cover and refrigerate for 40 to 45 minutes, for the flavor to develop.
- While the meat is marinating, par boil the rice as if it were pasta in a 6 cups of salted boiling water. When the rice is still crunchy in the middle, remove from the heat and strain, reserving the cooking liquid. In a small bowl, mix the ghee with 2 cups of the water from the boiling rice and pour over the rice. Add the saffron and milk mixture to the rice and pour over the meat mixture. Place a lid over the dish, but do not remove it until completely cooked. Cook in a preheated 350 degree F, oven for 40 minutes. Serve with Nan bread and salad.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 1804 |
| Total Fat | 120 g |
| Saturated Fat | 34 g |
| Carbohydrates | 125 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Sugar | 5 g |
| Protein | 56 g |
| Cholesterol | 182 mg |
| Sodium | 775 mg |
Reviews
orignally the curry for biryani is not marinated its cooked over heat and the curry is not dry its little bit liquidy and when rice are semi cbiled(crunchy from middle) this meat curry is placed in the centre of rice (like sandwich) and cooked in very low heat covered
and rice are boiled with cloves big cardemon cinamon
and rice are boiled with cloves big cardemon cinamon
Fantastic recipe!!! It’s finger licking good!!
I substitute Lawry’s meat tenderizer for the Papaya paste because it contains the same papaya enzyme used in the Papaya paste.
By the way you can watch him make the biryani with the Hot Padma Lakhsmi on YouTube.
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Delish! Authentic to a Hyderabadi or not, this recipe, bastardized with the Yogurt Marinated Lamb with Tri-Masala and Basmati Rice recipe and made with catfish instead of lamb was superb!
The writer missed some very important steps in preparing. The recipe is not 100% authentic though. However, most of the readers are not cooks and might not have tried the authentic biryani. One cannot prepare this dish by reading and following steps. It’s bit complex. Cooking is an art…Those who know hospitality and those who love food can understand this. To conclude it was a good attempt.
I am from Hyderabad and have been looking for a recipe that comes close to my mom’s traditional biryani. I made this and was SHOCKED I could see my mom making it exactly the way he did. I didnt use the papaya paste (mom never did) and it turned out so good, my husband was so impressed and it came out so professional. When parboiling the rice you have to stand right there and keep checking it, it’s not something you can just leave or the rice will end up too dried out. Great recipe, thanks foodnetwork for posting this!
We have not only tried Hyderabadi Biryani several times but in fact miss All the excellent food dishes Nawab Mehboob Alam Khan use to make when he invited my family when I was back in Hyderabad.
My family ,friends and colleagues love it and cant wait to get a copy of this recipe to try on their own.
My family ,friends and colleagues love it and cant wait to get a copy of this recipe to try on their own.
Made this recipe step by step with directions, but used brown basmati rice instead of white (trying to stay away from white rice and bread). First, the flavor is wonderful, very authentic and one you won’t get tired of eating. However, I believe I lost something in the substitution of white rice for brown. I cooked the rice til it was still crunchy in the middle, but even after mixing the saffon milk, ghee and water then putting in it into the over, the rice never fully cooked. I didn’t want to overcook the dish and have the meat dry out, so I ended up with too much crunch in the rice, but otherwise perfect dish. I plan to make this again, in a couple of months and this time I will use white basmati rice. I can already taste the difference in texture and flavor.
I have dozens of books on indian cooking. I have cooked Biryani all of my life but I could never get the consistancy because I cooked it without the correct measurements. The rice either turned out mushy or raw. This time it was perfect.
the recipe is the original recipe and its very tasty…….
just try it
just try it
Basmati rice should always be soaked for 30 minutes, the texture of rice turns out much better than when this step is omitted. During soaking, rice turns from transparent to white. Also, Biryani is good when served with salad and chutney, or plain yoghurt based salad (Raita), not Naan.