Mutton Dum Biryani is a flavourful biryani cooked with layers of rice and meat and cooked in dum. This is my usual go to recipe when I want to make a quick biryani but yet flavourful. I have cooked the meat in the pressure cooker to reduce the cook timings.

The most important step in making mutton biryani is the choice of meat. I used lamb meat because they are tender and tastes much better than goat’s meat. The next important step is the marination. Marination of meat must be done overnight or for a maximum of 8 hrs. The yoghurt helps to tenderise the meat. Since this is a pakki biryani I have not used papaya paste here. Papaya paste is usually used when making a kachi biryani.

If you are not a fan of mutton biryani, do check out my Malabar Chicken Biryani recipe on my blog.

Mutton Dum Biryani

Ingredients

For marination

• Mutton- 1 kg
• Chilli powder- 1 tbsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tbsp
• Cumin powder-1/2 tbsp
• turmeric powder- 1 tsp
• garam masala powder- 1 and 1/2 tsp
• ginger- garlic paste- 2 tbsp
• yoghurt- 1 cup
• salt- 2 tsp

Other ingredients

• Basmati Rice- 3 cups
• Ghee- 6 tbsp
• cinnamon stick- 1
• cloves- 4-5
• cardamom- 3-4
• bay leaves- 2
• cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Onions- 4 medium, sliced
• Tomatoes- 4 medium, sliced
• Green chillies- 4, slit lengthwise
• Coriander leaves- 1/2 cup, chopped
• Mint leaves- 1/2 cup, chopped
• Salt- to taste

Instructions

1. Marinate the meat with the above mentioned ingredients given under marination. Marinate overnight or a maximum of 8 hrs. Soak the rice for 30 minutes.
2. In a pressure cooker, on medium high heat add ghee fry one cup of the sliced onions till they become brown. Remove and keep it aside. This onions is used for garnish.
3. To the remaining ghee add cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves. Then add the cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds are fried add the onions and fry till they turn golden brown. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry till they become mushy. Next add the marinated meat and green chillies. Add 1 cup of water. Stir everything well. Add salt if required. Pressure cook the meat for 4 whistles.
4. After 4 whistles, let the pressure come down, then open the lid and add a handful of chopped coriander and mint leaves. Give it a boil and switch off the flame. Remove some of the gravy from the cooked meat. This can be served as a gravy for the biryani.
5. In another vessel boil 2 litres of water and season it with salt. Once the water comes to a boil add the rice. Cook the rice till half done. Strain the rice.
6. For the dum– In another deep bottomed vessel, add a layer of the meat with some gravy. Then add a layer of rice. Add the fried onions and few chopped coriander and mint leaves. Repeat the entire process till all the rice and meat gravy is used. The last layer has to be rice. Close the vessel with a lid. Keep a weight on top of the lid so that steam does not escape. Keep it on dum for 20 min on low flame. After 20 min switch off the flame. Leave it undisturbed for 10 min. Remove the lid and serve the biryani with gravy and raita.