Craving Biryani? Take A Look At This 10-Minute Recipe By Chef Kunal Kapur

If there was ever a contest for the most popular dish in the country, it would be tough to beat biryani. This aromatic dish, cooked into a host of spices, vegetables and meat, has different variations across India. While some focus on the meat, others cannot get over the flavoured aromatic rice.  If you are someone who enjoys flavoured rice over vegetables and meat, this simple recipe by chef Kunal Kapur is for you. He captioned the recipe post saying, “Craving a delicious plate of biryani but too lazy to follow up the long process? To satisfy your cravings here’s my easy recipe for biryani rice, which you can make quickly and every bite is super delicious.”  

(Also Read: Love Biryani? Try These 5 Hyderabadi Biryani Recipes To Amp Up Your Dinner Table)

In the video, he also revealed that the word biryani and the dish itself originated in India itself. Pulao may have had Persian influence but not biryani.   

Find the ingredients to make biryani here:

1. Basmati rice – 3 cups

2. Water – 2 litres

3. Saffron – a pinch

4. Milk – ¼ cup

For biryani stock (Jhol)

1. Oil – ¼ cup
2. Bay leaves – 2
3. Cinnamon (2” piece) – 2
4. Cloves – 7-8nos
5. Peppercorns – 8-10
6. Cardamom – 10-12
7. Javitri whole (mace) – 2
8. Shahi jeera – 2 Tablespoon
9. Onion sliced – 1½ cups
10. Green chilli slit – 2
11. Garlic roughly chopped – 1½ tablespoons
12. Ginger roughly chopped – 1½ tablespoons
13. Orange (kinnu) – 1
14. Mint leaves – 1 small bunch
15. Water – 6 cups
16. Salt to taste
17. Rosewater – 1 tablespoon
18. Kewra – 2 tablespoons
19. Meetha Ittar – 2 drops
20. Ghee – 2 tablespoons

Procedure to make biryani

1)  First and foremost, add bay leaves in hot oil followed by cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom, javitri whole and shahi jeera. Kunal Kapur added that javitri is one of the most important ingredients to bring flavour to your biryani.

2) The next step includes adding green chillis, roughly chopped garlic and ginger to the preparation. Now, first, add the orange juice and the remaining kinnu followed by mint leaves along with the stems. Mix it well and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Now, add water. Wondering why orange? Because it gives a citrus flavour to your recipe and ultimately cuts starch from the rice, Kunal added.   

3) Now, use a filter and separate all the stock from the preparation. Take the stock — which now carries all the different flavours of biryani in it — and boil it into a pan. Now, add salt, rosewater, kewra, mere 2 drops of meetha ittar along with some javitri powder and cardamom powder.

4) Finally, now you can add the soaked rice into the mixture. Remember that the level of rice and water (the stock you boiled) much be the same. Now, add kesar (saffron) dissolved in milk. Cover the container with a lid and let it cook on low flame. Check after some time, biryani rice is ready.

Take a look:

Tips and tricks related to biryani by Kunal Kapur:

1) Usually, people feel that only long and thin rice like Basmati rice could make for a good biryani but that’s not true. Even sella rice which is comparatively thicker and smaller tastes good in the form of biryani.

2) While making biryani, it is very important to soak rice fully. This process reduces your cooking time and gets the rice cooked properly.

3) It is always good to first know the ratio of water and the chosen variety of rice before you start preparing a rice dish like biryani. You can test the ratio with a cup of rice and water at first.

4) Always remember that the water to which you add the biryani rice should be oversalted. This is because rice soaks salt and the level of excess salt gets balanced in the final dish.

5) If the rice is undercooked, you can sprinkle some hot water from above and let it cook in steam for some time. If you end up overcooking the rice, take them out on a plate and spread the rice particles so that it doesn’t take the form of khichdi.