As a kid, I had at least two trips to Delhi every year. The lovely restaurants in Purani Dilli served awesome Biryanis like, Doodh Biryani and Sponge Biryani, and my favorite Dumpukht Biryani.
I love the way the the Biryani is slightly soft and have strong taste of spice as well, since it has Mace as one of the main spices. The screw pine water and saffron gives out a lovely fragrance and makes the Biryani look and smell even more delicious.
This Biryani requires you to marinate the chicken and you can do it overnight as well. The cooking time isn’t too much and its a great recipe for beginners.
This recipe was given to me by a Nepali house maid, who belonged to Uttarakhand. She learnt cooking during her stints in various Delhi homes, where she happened to also work in a high class Muslim homes, where she learnt how to make their authentic family recipe. She happened to be working for a friend’s family in Bangalore and seeing my love for biryani, shared the recipe.
Its amazing how most muslim families always have that one Biryani recipe that passes on from one generation to the next and Biryani from each of these homes are always distinct in flavors and delicious in their own way. Its beautiful when some people are ready to share their recipe so more people can enjoy the dish. After all, food flavors are worth sharing.
By the way, talking about distinct flavors, I hope you do know that adding spices at different times also changes the flavor of the biryani. A lot of people disagree with my point but actually that’s a fact. When you follow my biryani recipes, Please do make sure that you pay attention to what’s added when, because if you happen to switch ingredients entering a dish, it does change the taste which is a noticeable change. Please do share recipes with your friends and family when you like something you tried. Its food, it always tastes better when you share 😉 .
Coorg is a beautiful hill station in Karnataka. We visited Coorg in 2015 and the place just doesn’t have amazing scenic views, it also has one of the most beautiful Monastery that we have ever visited.
Coorg serves wonderful coffee as well. Coorg has many coffee plantations and it offers coffee powder that is spiced up with cinnamon powder and cloves powder.
During our visit, we tried Biryani at our resort and it was delicious and different. Though the resort chef did not share the recipe of his delicious Biryani, but with little research about the history of Coorg, I was able to discover the secret to their wonderful Biryani.
The chapters of history of Coorg took me to the wonerful era of The Great “Tipu Sultan”. The history shows that he was a big fan of delicious food and loved variety of different cuisines. While visiting his summer palace and museums and seeking details of his lifestyle, one discovers that he was a super wonderful host too, who loved to serve his guests, not just variety of food, but also food in beautiful China and silverware. I believe this explains Mr. Parveez’s love and interest in The Great Tipu Sultan. My hubby is a big fan of Mughal King Akbar and Tipu Sultan and the only common thing between them and him, besides having wonderful wives, is their love for great food.
Keeping that flavor alive from the era of Great Tipu Sultan, I tried making this Biryani as close to how the original recipe must have been. I found a few wonderful stories of the spices and cooking methods that King Tipu Sultan used. This recipe is following the same methods.
You are always welcome to make changes and to contact me if you’d like to have substitutes for the ingredients.
Different Biryanis and different flavors, so much to try and everything so deliciously fantastic that picking one to be my absolute favorite is impossible.
While growing up, I had a distant family and once a year, every Eid to be precise, they would have a gathering at their place. The lady was from Delhi and a fantastic cook. The best thing was that she always made a dish, that was uncommon in our families. It was always some new variety that belonged to Delhi and other states. For many of you, who aren’t aware, the non vegetarian dishes cooked in one state of India differ completely from the ones cooked in another state, even if we are neighboring state. So, I was 12 and that was the first time I tried Achaari chicken curry.
Now, I am a big fan of Achaar/ pickle. When we got married, I would drive Mr. Parveez crazy with the amount of pickle I consumed. So, to a person like me, eating chicken in Achaar flavor was indeed food from heaven. I really laugh at myself when I remember how I got after my mother to find the recipe and make the dish, which she did and it was always one of favorites. But, the story doesn’t end here.
Now when I am all set to try out new recipes, one fine day I decided to make Biryani out of this masala. As much as the idea sounds absurd and crazy, the Biryani came out delicious. The yakhni has strong flavor of fennel seeds and fenugreek. Its isn’t sour as what usually pickles are, so don’t fear trying out this recipe imagining the taste of boiled rice and pickle, coz it isn’t the same taste. The spice level is medium and i have had loads of people who pick this one to be one of the first dishes they learnt how to cook from me.
Its one of my best food experiments ever. Please feel free to ask if you’d like to make it with mutton/fish.
Dawoodi Bohras are a Shia Muslim community. Most people from this community are settled India and Pakistan. As much as the people are loving, they are very generous hosts and love serving their guests to the best of their ability. We happen to have few friends from the community and we love their food.
My Mom had a best friend who passed away a few years ago and also happened to be a Bohri Muslim. She was a super fabulous cook and made amazing food and some of her recipes were just hard to make since, it missed out the flavors of her hand. I still remember tasting my first home baked bread at her house and the way she smothered the butter on the bread slice and I loved each bite of that slice. May her soul rest in peace.
So, with all the fabulous people around me, surprisingly no one cooked Biryani. Now, as a Biryani lover I had so much about how their families cooked Biryani in those Big “deg” [a big vessel made of copper or iron] but, they just couldn’t get down to following the hard recipe to make the same Biryani.
I have never met another crazy woman like me, who goes around collecting recipes from different places and communities. I bet sometimes people find that super annoying and honestly, after so much research I have lost the count to how many trials of different Biryanis I have done. Some got wasted since they weren’t so good. But, the collection I offer are from the best ones I made and they came out to be super delicious and fabulous.
Coming back to the Bohri Biryani. After a lot of research from different people, I made this Biryani which is as good as it can be from a Bohri family. Bohri Biryani uses Nutmeg and Mace. So, if its your preference to not use it, then its your personal choice but otherwise Bohri Muslims are allowed to consume both the spices. Do try it and if you miss out on anything or find anything confusing, feel free to ask.
This Biryani is from Bihar. I got the recipe while I was reading a book on Bihari cuisine by a famous chef who hails from the state. Its a shame, but Bihar isn’t very popular for its non vegetarian cuisine. Like, most of us, when we talk about Bihar’s cuisine, we do not go beyond Litti chokha. The fact is that Bihar offers some of the best recipes for kebabs and Biryani.
The flavors are pretty spicy, like the Bihari movies and for sure would make any Biryani lover super happy. Its one of best Biryani recipes and pretty easy for beginners too. You could always make a little change to the spice level to suit your taste buds. You could always ask for changes you’d like to make, if you aren’t too sure. After all, Biryani is a way big of a dish for anyone to mess up. You have to be very careful before you start.
This Biryani is a signature dish from Belgaum, cooked with baby potatoes and flavored with saffron and cream. Belgaum is a place in Karnataka and I have a sister in law who belongs to that region, but this isn’t a recipe from her though. In fact, in my family no one makes chicken Biryani combined with any vegetables.. Yupp!!! you got that correct, They are hardcore non vegetarians specially when it comes to Biryanis. Bengaluru does have the tradition of cooking meat or chicken Biryanis with carrots and peas but it still isn’t something that is seen very often or is enjoyed much either.
Coming back to Belgaum Biryani, its great for people who prefer their Biryani a little creamier with the spice and also if you like the flavors by Coriander leaves, mint leaves and green chilies but don’t like the texture between your bites. Blending them adds the flavor without you having to be cautious between your bites to not bite on that chili… The potatoes add their own crisp flavor and its beautiful in its own way.
I can give out more options to cook this Biryani completely vegetarian or with meat or fish. Contact for more details.
The Non vegetarian recipes of Awadh are influenced from the Nawabs of Awadh, who were rulers of the Persian origin and settled in India. The dishes were always rich in nuts, saffron, spices and ghee. With time, the Persian rulers, just like the Mughals developed liking for chilies and a few other spices in India and developed new flavors and dishes. In modern times, the famous Awadhi Murgh Musallam, kebabs and Biryani are a gift from those ancient times.
Awadhi recipes are not only different from Hyderabadi cuisine but also different from the Lucknowi cuisine. Very few people understand that Awadh and Lucknow could be names of the same region, even then the recipes are very different. Awadhi recipes are more ancient and depict the flavors from Persia more than the Lucknowi cuisine.
One thing that holds a very distinct flavor, is the idea of using whole spices, as opposed to the use of a ready made masala. The masala used in Awadh Biryani has to be grounded just before you start cooking, to keep the flavor and fragrance intact. The original Lucknow Biryani does not require you to grind the spices, they keep it whole.
The Awadh Biryani can also be made in Vegetarian style and hopefully, I will try it soon and post it as well.
Mr. Parveez’s is from a family of Pathans and the family is believed to be the descendant of the Mughals. As much as the relationship is defined by few asharfis and some ancient utensils that are still owned by the family, and endless tales through “Baats” [people who keep records of families and generations in India]. The Indian version of ancestry. Mr. Parveez is very proud of the fact that he has Mughal blood line, and some how is connected to the fierce Mongolians.
I have lived in Jordan for around two years and I loved the delicious Jordanian food. During those days, I tried a dish called Maqluba, which is made with Rice, chicken, Potatoes, cauliflower and a few other vegetables. The spice level was low and decorated with nuts and raisins. Though I still don’t have the authentic recipe till date for Maqluba, and I do wish to make it some day. But till then, I thought of trying something close.
So, I got down to trying the Biryani that’s more connected to Mr. Parveez’s roots and that when I came up with the recipe of this Biryani. The inspiration came from different dishes cooked with Rice and Chicken in the middle east, specially Morocco and flavors used in early Mughal era. Hope you enjoy te recipe as much as I did.
I learnt this Biryani from my Mother-In-Law. And I love the way she makes it, just perfect mix of the spices and delicious . My Mother in law hasn’t been cooking regularly for quiet some time. She enjoys her retirement since she has daughter in laws to take care of everything needed to run the house. My husband moved to USA at the age of 23 and none of his brothers were married then, so he would always miss the flavors of food cooked by his mom. The hardest part was that he missed the transition of his mother giving away the cooking turns to his sister laws and whenever he visited India, his taste buds would miss his mother’s food and that could not be replaced by the food cooked by his amazing sisters and sister in laws.
By the way, my sister in laws are amazing cooks and some of their dishes are just hard to try out. They have their own charisma which makes their dishes very flavorful. So, one fine day, while enjoying our vacation, I made it a point to jot down how my mother in law made her one in a million Biryani and she was kind enough to share everything she did, with me. As soon as we returned, I made this Biryani and since then, this is my husband’s most favorite. My kids love it too. Something about the spices is such that this Biryani tastes better with goat/ lamb than with chicken, but then again, chicken is also delicious, if that’s your preference.
