This restaurant style mutton biryani is the best ever mutton biryani you will make at home and won’t ever forget its deliciousness! hence it’s worth all the effort and hardwork!
If you want to master one special Indian recipe, then my immediate recommendation would be this best ever mutton biryani recipe! This is one such fantastic recipe of mutton biryani that will delight each and everyone every time you feed them. I can guarantee that they won’t stop praising your cooking skill and you will become the culinary SME of your group! After trying few times to perfect my mutton biryani game, finally I can safely say that I have reached my flawless recipe of mutton biryani which now I can share with ya’all.
This recipe of mutton biryani is not complicated at all and you can trust me on this. Yes, it is a bit time consuming but cooking red meat is anyway a lengthy affair; but here I have speed up things by using a pressure cooker to cook the mutton. I agree that the list of ingredients to make a fabulous mutton biryani is quite long; but again, mutton biryani is a fancy dish to prepare on special occasions and such dishes are supposed to be little snob demanding some extra love and care, isn’t it?
Biryani making process is quite similar irrespective of the meat you choose i.e. chicken or mutton. My chicken biryani is also an unforgettable one and is quite a popular recipe of our blog. Now if you want to amp up your biryani game, then it’s time for you to try this restaurant style mutton biryani of mine. I am sure you are gonna come back to thank me! The best part of making this mutton biryani is that you can do the most complicated part of the recipe i.e. marinating the mutton, a night ahead. That way you will save a lot of time on the day you are actually serving the mutton biryani. You can assemble the final biryani on dum in a jiffy the very next day.
My hub is very fond of this mutton biryani and I treated him with this on his last birthday. Eating out on special occasions have been minimized a lot for us as we love to relish homemade food which we find fresher and more enjoyable. We also get to spend time together while cooking which is a plus as our hectic daily schedule keep us apart for significant amount of time. So you see, making chicken or mutton biryani at home is a win-win situation for all! Hence don’t wait any longer and get into your kitchen with your partner and cook up a storm! Enjoy!
- Mutton (Goat or Lamb Meat) – 1 kg, bone-in pieces
- Basmati rice – 500 gms, wash and soak in plain water for half an hour
- Onion – 7, large
- Ginger paste – 6 tbsp
- Garlic paste – 6 tbsp
- Tomato puree – 4 tbsp
- Ghee – ¼ cup
- Mustard oil – ¼ cup + extra for deep frying
- Yogurt – 1 & ½ cup
- Black pepper – 1 tsp
- Green cardamom – 10
- Black cardamom – 2
- Bay leaf – 2
- Cloves – 10
- Cinnamon – 2-inch piece
- Star anise – 2
- Mace – 1 flower
- Shahi jeera – 1 tsp
- Green chili – 6, slit lengthwise
- Fresh coriander leaves – 2 cups
- Fresh mint leaves – 1 cup
- Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
- Coriander powder – 3 tbsp
- Kashmiri red chili powder – 3 tbsp
- Garam masala – 2 tsp (Make it at home)
- Lemon – 1
- Saffron – few strands dissolved in ¼ cup of warm milk
- Salt to taste
- Slice all the onions thinly. Now heat a kadhai with mustard oil for deep frying the onions. Once the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium-low and fry the sliced onion in batches until they turn golden brown. Take them out on a plate and set aside (* See Notes below).
- Take a large bowl and prepare the marinade for mutton by mixing the yogurt, tomato puree, ¼ cup of mustard oil, ginger & garlic paste, garam masala, turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder, half of coriander leaves, ¼ cup of mint leaves, juice of the lemon, half of the fried onion (crush them roughly while mixing) and about 1 & ½ tsp of salt. Mix them thoroughly.
- Now add the mutton pieces to the prepared marinade and rub them in thoroughly so that all the pieces are coated nicely with the yogurt mixture. Cover the bowl with a cling film and let the mutton chill in refrigerator for about 3 to 4 hours. You can marinate the mutton a night ahead and keep them in the refrigerator overnight. Then it will get ample time to build the flavor.
- Boil about 3 liters of water in a large pan and add 1 bay leaf, a teaspoon of black pepper, couple of cloves and green cardamom and about 2 teaspoons of salt.
- Once the water comes to a rolling boil, drain the soaked rice and add it to the boiling water. Cook the rice until ¾ done which will not take more than 10 minutes. Drain the water out and spread the cooked rice on a large plate to cool down a little.
- When you are ready to cook the biryani, take it out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you start cooking.
- Heat a large pressure cooker and add the ghee to it. Once the ghee is hot, temper it with whole spices – bay leaf, green & black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, mace, shahi jeera or black cumin seeds, star anise. Also add the slit green chilies. Sauté them in for a minute until they become fragrant.
- Then add the marinated mutton pieces reserving the marinating liquid. Sauté the mutton on medium-high flame for good 10 minutes until you get a good searing on the meat i.e. the mutton pieces develop some color on them. This step of searing will add lot of additional flavor to the mutton biryani.
- Now add all the marinating liquid to the pressure cooker and add just half a cup of water. Cover the cooker and pressure cook on high flame upto 3 whistles. Then reduce the flame to minimum and continue pressure cooking for 20 more minutes. Then switch off the flame and let the pressure release on its own (** See Notes below).
- After about 20 minutes, uncover the lid and check the doneness of the mutton. Mutton should have been nicely cooked by now. Check and adjust for seasoning if needed.
- Now it’s time to assemble the biryani. Take a large heavy bottomed pot, preferably non-stick. Smear some ghee on the bottom of the pot.
- Now spread half of the cooked rice on the bottom of the pot. Then sprinkle half of the remaining fried onion, half of the remaining coriander and mint leaves. Then drizzle half of the saffron soaked milk.
- Next arrange the cooked mutton over the bed of rice along with all the mutton gravy. Don’t stir anything.
- Finally spread the remaining rice over the mutton covering all the meat pieces. Sprinkle each of remaining fried onion, coriander and mint leaves, saffron-soaked milk and drizzle about 2 tablespoons of ghee all over the rice.
- Now line the top edge (i.e. the entire circumference) of the pot with some chapati dough. Then place the lid on top of the pot and press it tightly so that any gap between the pot and the lid gets sealed with the dough. If your lid has any steam venting whole, seal it up too with some dough.
- Put the pot on the lowest flame setting for 30 minutes and let it cook on dum. After 30 minutes, shut the flame off and leave it for 15 minutes more.
- Then uncover the pot very carefully as a lot of trapped steam will come out as soon as you lift the lid up.
- Serve the delicious homemade mutton biryani with some raita and salad. Enjoy!
**Tip 2: If you are not pressure cooking, you can cook the meat in a heavy bottomed pan by covering and stirring occasionally to avoid sticking. It would take about an hour or little more to cook the mutton completely.
This biryani recipe looks perfect!! Such a beautiful colour you got on the rice.
Hey thanks a lot! I’m so glad to know you liked it!! ?
Really nice recipe and well-presented instructions. If you love Pulao recipe, do try this one.