Hyderabadi biryani recipe – Making a good hyderabadi biryani is very simple and this recipe is perfect for a home preparation. This is the easiest biryani since it needs no sauteing of spices or meat. Just marinate the meat with the spices & other ingredients. Layer partially cooked basmati rice over it. Cook on a slow dum process, trapping the steam to retain the aroma.
To get an authentic flavor and taste of Biryani, do use all the mentioned ingredients and if desired you can substitute ghee for oil.
This is one of the best hyderabadi biryani recipe I have made for years and has been a favorite among the readers of this blog. It is very easy and even a beginner can try without any troubles.
This is a kacchi hyderabadi biryani, meaning partially cooked rice is layered over the marinated raw meat.
To make the best out of this recipe, chicken needs a proper marination which mainly helps to tenderize it, resulting in juicy, flavorful, soft and tender chicken.
It can be marinated the previous night and refrigerated to make the best flavorful biryani.
You can serve hyderabadi biryani with any of these raitas I have shared earlier. Even lassi goes well in the meal.
You can also check
Chicken biryani in cooker
Chicken dum biryani
Lamb biryani
Vegetable biryani
Hyderabadi biryani recipe
Hyderabadi biryani | How to make hyderabadi biryani
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
Ingredients for hyderabadi biryani
- 1 ½ cups basmati rice (aged )
- ½ kg chicken (preferably thighs & drumsticks)
- ¼ to ½ tsp biryani masala or garam masala for sprinkling
- 1 large onions or 1/3 cup fried onions store bought
- 4 tbsps coriander leaves (or cilantro ,finely chopped, 2 tbsps + 2 tbsps divided)
- 4 tbsps mint leaves (or pudina, finely chopped, 2 tbsps + 2 tbsps divided)
- 4 tbsp Oil (or ghee)
- 2 tbsps ghee (or clarified butter)
- ¼ tsp saffron strands (or kesar, soaked in 3 tbsps. hot milk)
Marination for hyderabadi biryani recipe
- 1¼ tbsp ginger garlic paste
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- 1 to 2 green chilies slit
- 2/3 cup yogurt or fresh curd (or 165 ml or ½ cup + 3 tbsp)
- 1 tbsps Lemon juice
- 1 to 1 ½ tsp red chili powder or paprika
- 1 to 1 ½ tsp biryani masala powder or garam masala
- ¼ to ½ tsp green cardamom powder (or elaichi powder)
- ¾ tsp Salt (I used 1 ¼ tsp pink salt)
Whole spices for rice
- 7 cups water
- 1 to 1 ¼ tsp salt (I used 1 ½ tsp pink salt)
- 1 tsp oil
- 3 inch cinnamon piece (or dalchini)
- 6 cloves (or laung)
- 4 green cardamom (elaichi)
- 1 bay leaf (or tej patta)
- 1 star anise ( biryani flower)
- 2 strands mace (or javitri) (optional)
- 1 black cardamom (optional)
- ½ tsp caraway seeds (or shahi jeera) (optional)
How to make the recipe
fried onions for hyderabadi biryani
- Slice onion thinly, separate the layers and set aside.
- Heat 4 tbsps oil in a deep pan.
- Fry the onions stirring often until deep golden to brown.
- Do not burn else they turn bitter. Remove them from oil & set aside.
- Cool & pour this oil to the marinade later.
Marination for hyderabadi biryani recipe
- Add yogurt, salt, turmeric, chili powder, biryani or garam masala powder, cardamom powder, green chilli, ginger garlic paste & lemon juice to a mixing bowl.
- Mix well & taste this. If needed add more salt or spice.
- Next add in chicken & marinate for 2 hours to overnight for best results.
- Overnight marination in fridge yields best soft succulent chicken.
Cooking rice for hyderabadi biryani
- Wash rice till the water runs clear. Soak for 30 minutes. Drain & set aside.
- Heat 6 to 7 cups water in a pot. Add 1 tsp oil, whole spices & salt.
- Taste this. The water has to be slightly salty.
- Boil water rapidly for 5 mins to release the aroma of spices.
- Add rice & cook till it is ¾ or 75% done.
- The center of the rice must be still slightly uncooked.
- Do not make the rice mushy. Drain off to a colander.
Preparation for hyderabadi biryani
- While the rice cooks, transfer marinated chicken to a heavy bottom casserole or non-stick pan.
- Add oil, ½ of the fried onions, mint & coriander leaves. Mix & spread chicken in a single even layer.
- Layer the cooked rice evenly, sprinkle fried onions, mint & coriander leaves over the chicken.
- Sprinkle ¼ tsp masala powder. Pour the saffron milk all over & then ghee.
How to make hyderabadi biryani
- Cover the pot with a foil to trap the steam or dum. Then cover with a tight & heavy lid.
To bake hyderabadi biryani in Oven
- Bake for 30 to 40 mins at 200 C in a preheated oven. The timings will slightly vary depending on the depth of the casserole/pot used. Once done, if the chicken is too moist then bake for another 10 mins.
To make on stove
- Place this over a thick hot griddle or tawa. Set the flame to medium high such that the flame reaches all over the diameter of the casserole. Cook this way for exactly 20 mins.
- Reduce the flame to lowest. Cook for exactly 15 mins. Off the flame. Rest for 20 to 30 mins.
- Garnish hyderabadi biryani with fresh chopped coriander leaves & serve with raita.
Video
Video of hyderabadi biryani recipe
NUTRITION (estimation only)
Notes
Do not use sour curd or flavored yogurt.
To Brown the chicken – The last 5 mins cook the biryani on a medium high flame. This gives browned chicken. To prevent charring you can check the chicken at the bottom before you do this.
If you do not like to use a cloth for trapping the steam or dum, you can use dough to seal the lid of the utensil. But cleaning up the mess is difficult. An aluminium foil too works.
If you are a beginner or new to Indian cooking, I highly suggest you to check the supporting step by step photos for best results. Step by step photos with description available below after the recipe card.
Preparation for hyderabadi biryani recipe
1. To a mixing bowl, add yogurt, salt, red chili powder, biryani masala, turmeric, green chili, ginger garlic paste and cardamom powder. Do not use sour curd.
2. Add lemon juice. If your curd is even slightly sour, them just skip lemon juice.
3. Taste the marinade. Add more salt if needed.
4. Marinate the chicken.
5. Allow it to sit for overnight in the fridge or for at least 2 hours.
6. Keeping overnight makes the chicken very soft once the biriyani is cooked. If you are marinating it just for 2 hours, I suggest keeping the pieces to small to medium and not very large.
7. Soak saffron in 3 tbsps hot milk. Do this just before you soak the rice.
8. Wash rice at least thrice. Do note that biryani turns out good only with aged premium quality basmati rice.
Cookng rice for hyderabadi biryani
9. Soak for 30 to 40 mins. Refer to the rice pack for soaking time.
10. Drain after 30 to 40 mins. Set this aside.
11. Add whole spices to a pot of boiling water along with 1 tsp oil. You can add the whole spices to a muslin cloth and make a knot if you don’t like to get a bite of the spices. Allow the water to simmer for 5 mins. Then bring it to a rapid boil.
12. Add soaked rice.
13. Cook on a medium high till rice is ¾ th cooked.
14. The rice must be grainy and you must get a bite into it meaning it has to be slightly under cooked. If you are a beginner, please take a look at this detailed post on how to cook basmati rice for biryani.
15. Drain the rice to a colander.
16. While the water for rice boils, add the chicken marinade to a heavy bottom pot. I used my 6½ ltrs heavy bottom pressure cooker pan. Sprinkle fried onions, coriander and mint leaves. Add oil and mix it.
17. Level the chicken to spread it in a single uniform layer.
18. Layer the rice over the chicken. The rice must be moist and not with dripping water. It should not be dry either. Add fried onions, mint and coriander leaves. Sprinkle biryani masala.
19. Layer the rice again.
20. Sprinkle fried onions, mint and coriander leaves and biryani masala. Pour the saffron milk.
21. Add ghee.
Dum Cooking hyderabadi biryani
22. Method 1 – You can use either moist cloth or foil to seal the rim of the biryani pot. The cloth has to be thick and moist. Spread it over the rim. Place a heavy lid and bring the edges of the cloth to the center. (refer video for details)
23. Method 2 – Use a foil to seal the rim completely. Or make dough and stick to the rim of the pot. Place a heavy lid.
24. Place a old tawa or griddle on the stove. The flame has to be medium high. Do not use a non stick pan or a dosa tawa. I used my lodge cast iron pan which doesn’t work for making dosa. The flame has to reach across the diameter of the pan.
25. Place the biryani pot on the tawa. Cook on a medium high flame for 15 to 20 mins. Then Lower the flame to very low and cook for another 15 minutes. Switch off the stove and let it rest for sometime.
26. Fluff up the rice gently.
Serve hyderabadi biryani in layers with shorba or raita.
you can find raita recipes here
you can also find easy biryani gravy recipes.
Hope you will like this hyderabadi biryani as much as we do.
prachi kala says
Hi
this is an excellent recipe !!. my family loved the biryani.
however would request Swasthi to provide the link to biryani masala once again. it is no loner available here.
prachi
swasthi says
Hi Prachi,
Glad to know! Thanks for the mention. I have updated the link.
Reny says
Thanks Swathi for the perfect biryani recipe. I normally cook the chicken separately and then mix with the rice. Since you have used raw chicken will it cook well.
swasthi says
Yes chicken gets cooked well. You can read the comments of other readers.
Jihad Bilal says
Dear Swasthi,
I have been making this chicken biryani once every other week with great success. Here is what I have settled on. I use a 30 cm glazed earthen pot. I bought this pot from a Chinese market. I use 6 chicken legs and 6 chicken thighs, each piece cut into two parts. I also purchased a flat piece of steel plate that I use as a griddle (it acts as an Indian tawa). This piece is 40 cm x 40 cm and 1/2 cm thick. On the stove, I place the griddle and the pot in the center of the griddle. NOTHING is burned and the chicken is soft, tender, and juicy. I wish I could send you a photo show you my cooking.
I also make Mint Chutney to serve. An Indian shopkeeper told me to use green coloring to keep a light and bright colour.
By the way, I have used your recipe here to make my own Garam Masala. Great taste and aroma.
Thank you for all the recipes that I have used from your website.
swasthi says
Hello Sir,
You are most welcome. So glad to know you make the biryani so often. I loved your idea of using the steel plate as a griddle. Very innovative! I will be more than happy if i can see the pictures. Please email me.
Thank you so much for the comment!
Shikha says
Nice Swasthi…You explained it very well. thanx for the recipe. I am surely gone try this☺️
swasthi says
Hi Shikha,
You are welcome! Yes try it! Thank you!
🙂
Sourav says
Madam, the Lemon juice should be 2 tsp not 2 tbsp in my opinion.
swasthi says
Hi Sourav,
If the yogurt is not sour then 2 tbsps works just fine. I however I reduced it to 1 tbsp as more can be added while serving. Thank you!
Greg says
Wow this is the best biryani I’ve ever made. A lady from work brought Hyderabad biryani for us and it inspired me to find a recipe.
I ended up using 3 onions, and added both paprika and chilli powder, although I felt it was very mild, will add me ore chilli next time.
swasthi says
Hi Greg,
Thank you! Glad your biryani turned out good. Yes you can add more chilli if you like. Thanks again!
Greg says
Hi Swasthi,
I am making this Biryani for 10 people at work.
If I want to double the recipe, do I double all the spices too?
swasthi says
Hi Greg,
Yes double all the spices too.
Bibliophilic Foodie says
I’ve tried eating dum biryani before prepared by my brother(he makes pretty delicious biryani), as he is away we(me and my mom have decided to prepare this up tomorrow; i’ll update my review once we end up preparing. Thank you.
swasthi says
Hope you like it!
Ali says
Hi instead of cardamom powder in the marinade how many cardamom pods do i add? Too lazy to powder them..
swasthi says
Hi Ali,
You can simply skip them. Pods will not add much flavor here. If you still want to, then use about 4.
Jenny says
I made this, and loved it! I had never made a biryani before, so I followed your instructions almost exactly to make sure I did everything correctly. The only things I did differently had to do with the rice. I did boil the spices in water (I only used 4 cups of water instead of 7), and then transferred that water into my Instapot to cook the rice. I reduced the rice cooking time by just a couple of minutes so as not to cook them completely through.
We don’t eat much chicken, so actually used Quorn chik’n chunks in place of real chicken. They still soaked up the marinade very nicely and the result was so flavorful. I have used many of your recipes, and this is in my Top 5 favorites 🙂
Thanks again Swasthi for another amazing recipe!
swasthi says
Hi Jenny,
You are welcome. Wow! It’s so nice that you used your IP for the recipe. Thank you so much for the comment! Very glad to know this one goes to the top 5.
🙂
Jihad Bilal says
I don’t have an Indian Dum but I have a heavy La Creuset pot. I want to make this dish using my dutch over pot. Please give me guidance in preparing this biryani.
For long term, I like to buy an Indian Dum. Where can I buy on the Internet.
Many Thanks.
swasthi says
Hi Bilal,
Sorry for the delay.Yes you can use a la creuset pot but needs experimenting with the cook time as it depends on the stove you use. You don’t need any specific Indian dum utensil. Just any heavy bottom steel pot will do. You can let me know what kind of pots you already have with you, I can suggest you one of them.
Jihad Bilal says
Dear Swasthi,
Today I made this chicken Hyderabadi Biryani. I followed your guidance in making it. To me, it was not difficult at all, I started the marination last last night. I took a short cut on fried onions by buying from store and I also made two jars of ginger-garlic paste. So assembling this meal was not difficult. I also made a cucumber-yogurt sauce and mint chutney.
I had all my children with their wives and my grandchildren over for the day. Everyone enjoyed it and they had seconds and thirds. The grandchildren ate all the chicken (with rice) and leaving me with a pot of Biryani rice. I guess I have to cook something else with the rice. I don’t what yet?!?! For the future I will increase the amount of chicken.
I used an oval 9-quart Le Creuset Dutch Oven. I also cooked on low / medium to allow the chicken to thoroughly cook. It worked out really good. The Le Creuset pot allowed the rice to stay warm for a long period.
Overall, a very great experience in preparing this Biryani dish. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
swasthi says
Hi Jihad Bilal,
You are welcome! So glad to know you all enjoyed the biryani & had a great time. Yes you can increase the chicken in the recipe. Thanks for sharing the details.
🙂
Rifa says
Hey the recipe is for 1 and 1/2 cups of rice
If i want to make for 2 and 1/2 cups rice by how much can i increase the spices and other ingredients in the recipe?
swasthi says
Hi Rifa,
Please double the recipe for best results. Use a wider utensil and keep the cook time same.
Sid says
I made the biryani today. I was apprehensive at first as this was my first attempt at biryani. But, it turned out awesome. Thanks to your recipe.
However, if I increase the recipe by 1.5 times, how much shall the cooling time be with the same cooking pot. I don’t have wider one.
swasthi says
Hi Sid,
Thank you.
Just ensure the chicken is spreaded to a single layer at the bottom and cook for the same time.
Sid says
What if I want to add boiled eggs & a few potato halves to the biryani? Can it be done?
swasthi says
Yes. Usually boiled eggs are used for garnish. I wouldn’t suggest adding it to the marinade. Most times the yogurt in marinade prevents the potatoes from cooking. You can parboil the potatoes slightly, cool and then add to the marinade.
Teak says
If I want to make this double amount to 1kg chicken…and double rice and all the ingredients
Do I have to double the cooking time?
swasthi says
Hi Teak
No keep the cook time same and use a wider utensil.
DJ says
Thank you för the recipe. My wife and daughter both loved it. It turned out just the way I imagined it!
swasthi says
Welcome DJ,
Glad your biryani turned out good. Thanks for the comment.
Aditi says
I forgot to add the salt while boiling the water and realized after layering. I however did add the salt in the chicken marinade
I then added the salt on top of the rice. Is this OK?
swasthi says
Hi Aditi,
It should be okay. Just before serving, gently mix the top rice layer so the salt gets mixed well.
Robyn Bowman says
This recipe looks great and I am going to make it. Can you tell me, is the meat on the bone, or removed? In the video it looks like it has been cut from the bone.
swasthi says
Hi Robyn,
Thank you. Yes it is meat on the bone weighing about 1.1 to 1.2 pounds. You can use either for this recipe.
R. Chris says
Today I tried this biryani recipe and it turned out very delicious. I have made it for 12 people and adjust the proportion of all ingredients of this recipe to that and it was so flavourful with mouth watering aroma. I’ve made it before but it was not as flavourful as this one. I followed all instructions and tips and it has helped me. I’m so happy. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us.
swasthi says
Hi Chris,
Awesome! You are welcome. Happy to know your biryani came out delicious. Thanks for the comment.
Dhakir says
I am a bachelor so I usually cook for my self. I generally use 1.5 Cups of rice with 350-400 gms chicken. Curd 1/2 cup, Cooking with high flame for 10-12 mins, & Cooking with low flame for 20 mins. Where do I go wrong??.
Pls enlighten!!
swasthi says
Hi Dhakir,
You didn’t mention what went wrong with your biryani. Is it burnt or chicken is under cooked? I can help if you let me know how the biryani turned out.
Sharon says
Hi Swasthi,
We loved your recipe and the biryani turned out to be amazingly flavoured but it got burnt even though we followed the instructions exactly by word. Can you please help me out?
swasthi says
Hi Sharon,
what kind of pot did you use? This recipe has not been tested for cast iron pots & dutch oven.
Puspita Sarkar. says
Very good n easiest recipe.Thanks for this beautiful recipes.
swasthi says
Welcome Puspita
N Leela Prasad says
Hi Swasthi, I have tried many biriyanis, but this recipe outshines all. The way spices get into juicy chicken in this recipe is like no other. I despise biriyanis in restaurants after making this multiple times. Thanks a lot
swasthi says
Hi Leela Prasad,
You are welcome. Thank you so much! Very happy to know you liked it. Yes you are right, this turns out really good & is a reader’s favorite on the blog since 2012. Thanks a lot for rating the recipe.
🙂
Swadhi Shree says
Awesome recipe. Yummy, delicious and very easy to make.
swasthi says
Thank you
Aditi says
Awesome..another gem from your cook book…a big hit at my place..
Keep cooking!!!
swasthi says
Hi Aditi,
Thank you so much. So happy to know your biryani turned out good.
🙂