Mushroom Biryani Recipe
By Swasthi on August 31, 2022, Comments, Jump to Recipe
Mushroom biryani recipe – learn how to make mushroom biryani with step by step photos. Recipe includes instructions for regular pot, traditional cooker & instant pot. Mushroom biryani is a delicious one pot dish made with rice, mushrooms, masala powder & herbs. Traditionally a biryani is made with meat, marinated in yogurt and then layered with parboiled basmati rice & herbs. It is then dum cooked to trap the steam.

Since this is a vegetarian biryani it can be made following this simple one pot method. Mushrooms are called as putta godugulu in telugu, kalaan or kalan in tamil and khumb in hindi. It is not a common veggie in the Indian cuisine.
Mushrooms are a powerhouse of nutrition, have high anti oxidants, many other nutrients and are said to increase immunity. They can be added to everyday vegetables to prepare curry, stir fry, fried rice, pulao and even in a flavorful biryani.
Though we don’t like mushrooms much, I prepare them sometimes at least to get the health benefits they provide.
This simple mushroom biryani recipe is made with white button mushrooms & fresh ground biryani masala powder.
I have also mentioned how to make instant biryani masala powder that you can prepare in just 2 minutes. If you do not have the whole spices then you can even use a ready made garam masala powder.
I have 2 videos on this recipe. Here is the one for Mushroom biryani in pot.

How to Make Mushroom Biryani (Stepwise photos)
Spice powder
1. Soak 2 cups basmati rice in a large bowl for 30 mins. After 30 mins drain the water from the rice. I prefer to make and use fresh spice powder. If you have ready made garam masala or biryani masala you can also use that. But this mushroom biryani gets it real taste and aroma from the masala powder that is used. So make sure you use a good one. These are the spices I have used. Be careful not to use more as it can make your biryani bitter.
- 4 green cardamoms
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 6 cloves
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 small strand mace (javitri) (don’t use more, optional)
- 1 pinch nutmeg (jaiphal) (don’t use more, optional)
- ½ tsp stone flower (dagad phool / kalpasi) (optional)

2. Make a fine powder of the above ingredients. I also sieve the powder. Coarse spices can be added to your tea.

Make Biryani
3. Heat a pot or cooker with 2 tablespoons oil or ghee. When it turns hot, add the following whole spices the whole spices. If you do not have some of them just skip.
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 star anise (biryani flower)
- ½ tsp shahi jeera or (jeera – cumin)
- 2 green cardamoms
- 1 cinnamon – 2 inch piece
- 4 cloves or laung

4. Add 1 medium sliced onion (half cup) and 1 to 2 chopped green chilies.

5. Spread the onions and saute until they turn golden. Then add 1 to 1½ tablespoon ginger garlic paste.

6. Next saute the ginger garlic for 1 to 2 mins until it turns aromatic. Then add ½ cup chopped tomatoes, ½ teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon turmeric. Saute everything until tomatoes breakdown and become soft. While the tomatoes cook, rinse and slice the mushrooms.

7. Then add
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder
- 3 tablespoons chopped mint (pudina)
- Biryani masala from step 1 (or 1½ teaspoon garam masala)

8. Saute for 2 mins. Turn down the flame to very low flame and add 6 tablespoons yogurt (½ cup + 2 tablespoons curd) or coconut milk.

9. Mix everything well.

Fry mushrooms for biryani
10. Add about 2 to 2½ cups sliced mushrooms.

11. Saute the mushrooms in the masala for 2 to 3 mins.

12. Add the drained rice and pour water.

13. Mix well and check salt by tasting the water. If needed add more. I forgot to add mint in the earlier step so I added here.

14. Cover and cook on a medium low flame until the rice if fully done.

15. When the rice is completely done, add some chopped coriander leaves.
Troubleshooting tip: Once the water is all absorbed, you can check if the rice is done correctly. If not then pour little hot boiling water & give a stir. Cook covered.

16. Mushroom biryani turns fluffy, grainy and fully cooked.

Serve mushroom biryani with raita.

This biryani can be served with Raita and some papads on the side. You can also pack this in the office or school lunch box.
Pro tips
- Rice: I have used basmati rice to make the mushroom biryani. However you can also use any non-sticky short grain rice like seeraga samba rice or keema rice or sona masuri.
- Water: I have used 1¾ cups water for every cup of basmati rice as there is yogurt too in the recipe. If using any other rice, then adjust the amount of water depending on the rice. For other kinds of rice just use the same amount of water as you would use to make your regular rice.
- Mushrooms: I have used button mushrooms. You can experiment with any other mushrooms of your choice.
- Spices: Feel free to alter the tempering spices and use what ever you have in hand.
- Vegan: To make the recipe vegan just skip curd or yogurt and use coconut milk. You can also substitute water in the recipe with coconut milk and cook the mushroom biryani with coconut milk alone.
- Biryani masala : The key to this flavorful biryani is the biryani masala powder that I shared in this recipe. It elevates the flavors completely. If you do not have the whole spices needed to make the mushroom biryani then just use garam masala.
You can follow this mushroom biryani recipe and make it in a pot, traditional cooker or even in instant pot. I have included the instructions for all.
More Mushroom recipes
Kadai mushroom
Mushroom masala
Matar mushroom
Mushroom manchurian
Chilli mushroom
Biryani is one of our favorite foods at home, so I make it often. You may also like to check these biryani recipes.
Instant Pot Mushroom Biryani
Here I halved the recipe so the ingredients will look lesser.
1. Press saute button on the IP and pour oil to the steel insert. Add 1 bay leaf, 1 star anise, half teaspoon shahi jeera, 2 green cardamoms, one 2 inch cinnamon piece and 4 cloves.

2. When the spices sizzle, add half cup sliced onions and 1 slit green chili. Saute onions until light golden. Then add 1 to 1½ tablespoon ginger garlic and saute quickly.

3. Then add half cup chopped tomatoes and sprinkle half teaspoon salt. Saute until the tomatoes turn soft, for about 1 to 2 mins.

4. Add ½ teaspoon red chilli powder and the biryani masala powder we made. If you are using garam masala use 1½ teaspoon.

5. Quickly mix it and add 6 tablespoons yogurt.

6. Mix everything well and deglaze to remove bits of food stuck at the bottom.

7. Then add 2 to 2½ cups sliced mushrooms (220 to 250 grams), 3 tablespoons mint and 3 tablespoons of coriander leaves. Saute for 2 mins and press cancel.

8. Add drained rice and pour 2½ cups water.

9. Mix everything well and taste test. Water has to be slightly salty. If need add more salt.

10. Secure the instant pot with the lid and position the steam release valve to sealing. Press pressure cook button and set the timer to 5 minutes. Let the pressure release manually for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, fluff up the rice and cover back. This helps the rice on the top layer to soften and cook evenly. Serve mushroom biryani with raita.


Related Recipes
Recipe Card

Mushroom Biryani Recipe
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
- 2 cups basmati rice (aged rice)
- 2½ cups mushrooms sliced (220 to 250 grams)
- ½ cup onion (sliced thinly, 1 medium)
- ½ cup tomatoes (2 small or 1 large tomatoes) (optional)
- 3 tablespoon mint leaves (pudina) fine chopped
- 3 tablespoon coriander leaves (cilantro) fine chopped (optional)
- 2 green chilies slit
- 1 to 1½ tablespoon ginger garlic paste or crushed
- 2 tablespoon Oil or ghee
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder
- 6 tablespoons curd (plain yogurt or coconut milk)
- 3½ cups water or coconut milk for pot (3¼ cups for cooker, 2½ cups for Instant pot )
Whole spices to temper
- 1 bay leaf (tej patta)
- 1 star anise (biryani flower)
- ½ teaspoon shahi jeera (or jeera or cumin seeds)
- 2 green cardamoms (elaichi)
- 1 cinnamon – 2 inch piece (dalchini)
- 4 cloves (laung)
To powder (or 1½ tsp biryani masala or garam masala)
- 4 green cardamoms (elaichi)
- 1 inch cinnamon (dalchini)
- 6 cloves (laung)
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds (sombu, saunf)
- 1 small strand mace (javitri) (optional, don't use more)
- 1 pinch nutmeg (jaiphal) (optional, don't use more)
- ½ teaspoon stone flower (dagad phool / kalpasi) (optional)
Instructions
Preparation
- Rinse and soak rice until you prepare the vegetables.
- Skip this step if you have the masala powder. Powder mace, cardamoms, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, stone flower and saunf in a small grinder. Set aside.
How to Make Mushroom Biryani
- Heat a pan or pressure cooker with oil.
- Add the whole spices – bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, star anise and shahi jeera.
- When they begin to sizzle, add onions and chilies and fry till golden.
- While the onions fry rinse and slice the mushrooms.
- Add ginger garlic paste to the onions and fry till the raw smell disappears.
- Next add chopped tomatoes, turmeric and salt. Saute until they turn soft.
- Add red chili powder, powdered masala, mint and coriander leaves and fry for about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Pour yogurt or coconut milk and mix well.
- Transfer mushrooms, fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the water from the rice completely and add the rice here. Add salt.
- Pour 3½ cups water if making in pot. If making in a pressure cooker use only 3¼ cups water or coconut milk.
- Mix well and taste the water. Add more salt if needed.
- Cook covered on a medium heat till the rice is fully done. If making in pressure cooker, cook for 1 whistle on a medium flame.
- Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve mushroom biryani with a raita.
Mushroom biryani in Instant pot
- Press the saute button on the IP and pour ghee or oil.
- When it displays hot add all the whole spices – bay leaf, cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon & shahi jeera.
- When they begin to sizzle, add the onions & green chilies. Fry until the raw smell disappears for 2 to 3 mins.
- Then add the ginger garlic and fry for 30 seconds.
- Add the tomatoes and salt. Saute until the tomatoes break down & turn mushy.
- Next add the chilli powder, turmeric and masala powder. Saute just for 30 seconds.
- Then pour the yogurt or coconut milk and mix well scraping any ingredients stuck at the bottom.
- Add the sliced mushrooms, mint and coriander leaves. Fry for just 2 mins. Press CANCEL button.
- Then add the drained rice and pour water.
- Mix well and check the salt. If needed add more.
- Secure the Instant pot with the lid and set the steam release handle to sealing.
- Press the PRESSURE COOK button (high pressure) and set the timer to 5 minutes.
- When it is done, IP will beep. Wait for 5 mins and release the pressure manually by moving the steam valve from sealing to venting. For softer rice you can wait upto 8 mins.
- Remove the Inner pot of the IP and fluff up with a fork gently.
- Serve mushroom biryani with raita or plain yogurt.
Notes
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
Video
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes

About Swasthi
I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills.
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Hi Mrs. Swasthi. I tried ur recipe and the results are beyond amazing… I made a vegan version of the mushroom briyani by swapping one to two items but the result was nice. My mom did enjoyed it too… Thanks for sharing the recipe😊
Hi Anjali
Glad you all liked it. Thank you so much
Yes worked out well for me I was too lazy to go to get biryani powder so I just used garam masala it was just as tasty. Lots of flavour. I missed the turmeric and the yogurt. Pressure cooker 5 mins natural pressure release 8-10. I think turmeric is missed in the list.
Hi Jenny
So glad to know you liked it. I will include turmeric in the list. Thank you
Amazing receipe easy to prepare
Thank you
Hi Swasthi,
U are amazing. I really feel guilty of not being written any comments so far. Yours is always my go to blog. Last week I had to cook mushroom biryani for 15ppl. Initially I was bit afraid that how am I going to manage as it was the first time cooking for such a large crowd. But u are always a life saver. Just saw ur recipe, scaled up the ingredients, done! Got excellent feedback. All credits and Hugs to u!! Stay blessed.
Hi Sathya
Thank you so much! So glad to know the recipe helped. Making it for 15 people is really great! Thanks again
🙂
Mushroom biryani recipe was really very nice ,awesome
Glad to know Jayanthi
Thank you for the wonderful recipe. I tried the instant pot version with some added vegetables like carrots, bell peppers and potatoes along with mushrooms and it came out really tasty!
Welcome Sangeetha
Glad to know!
Hi Swasthi,
The receipe turned out delicious. But the rice became clumpy after a while. I added 3.5 glasses of water like u mentioned since I made it in a pot. How to rectify this?
Hi Krishnaja,
Yes I use 3.5 cups water. It depends on the kind of basmati rice and soaking time. Hope you used aged basmati. If the rice is oversoaked it can turn clumpy.
Next time you may try reducing water or cut down the soaking time. If you oversoak the rice by mistake, then use boiling hot water instead of cold water or cut down the water by 1/4 cup. If the rice is undercooked, then add more boiling hot water at the last step. Hope this helps. Thanks for rating the recipe.
thanks for the response.:)
Very nice. Doable..
Thank you!
I tried this Mushroom briyani and it came out really really well…Thank u for the receipe.
Welcome Meenakshi
Glad to know!
Thank you
This recipe is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing! I make a similar recipe using garam masala, but the biryani masala made a huge difference. This is going to be added to my list of go to pulav/biryani recipes! One thing I did slightly different is added mushroom and tomatoes right after the ginger garlic paste to let it fry a bit, and then added the mint and yogurt.
Hello Aparna
You are welcome! Glad to know you liked it. Thanks for leaving a comment.
🙂
Hello Ma’am,
I have been using your recipes for quite a while after I got married, but have never written a comment, thinking will it really be acknowledged. But today I wanted to say my thanks to you, hoping you might read it sometime or the other.
I always search for any dish, adding the tag swasthi, by chance if I don’t get my wanted recipe in your blog. I start thinking what should I do now?.
I am on maternity leave and due to this pandemic, I have been trying many such dishes from your blog at home.
A Very big thanks to you as I have started getting good appreciation for my cooking now, it’s really a good progress for a person who has started from zero..
Thank you?
My best regards
Chaitanya Bhavani
Hello Chaitanya
You are most welcome! So happy to hear that!
I read all of the comments on this blog, myself. I also try to reply most of them unless I forget while I am busy with the kids. But I try my best to reply everyone.
Thank you so much for leaving your comment!
Congratulations on your new bundle of joy! My best wishes to you all! Stay safe & God bless!
🙂
Thank you ma’am.. for the reply and the wishes.. please take care…
I have tried your egg biriyani in IP and it came out well
Today I tried the mushroom biriyani, 2X recipe in IP and when pressure cooking, the IP displayed ‘burn’. Had to switch off after the burn display. I added extra one capsicum and 2 carrots.
As per the recipe I added 2.5 cups of water. Is it not sufficient? Biriyani came out well.
Please advice.
Lekha
Hi Lekha,
2.5 cups water is what I use. All measurements in this recipe are the same as egg biryani except for 2 tbsps yogurt (for 2x). Just wondering if that made a difference in your case.
My IP displays burn if the rice is not soaked for a minimum of 20 min. In this case it needs more water.
For most one pot dishes, adding more veggies than mentioned in the recipe especially potatoes or large pieces of carrots also give a burn notice.
Next time, try adding 2 tablespoons more yogurt. I will make this again and update.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Swasthi for the quick response . I soaked the rice and I didn’t use potatoes. I use small pieces of carrots too. Waiting for your update.
Amazing, love your blog and recipes!
Hi Swasthi,
Is it possible to make this with brown basmati? How would the timing for the IP change if we used brown basmati for this biryani?
Hi Karishma,
Brown rice needs 23 mins to cook by then the mushrooms will become mushy. I would cook the rice in the IP and then make the masala separately in a small pan. Then mix it with the cooked brown rice and rest for a while for the flavors to be absorbed. You can check this link for reference – Capsicum rice.
Thanks for the recipe, It came out very well. Had a lot of flavor
Hi Kalaivani,
You are welcome! Glad it turned out good.
Mushroom biryani was superb. I am an ardent fan of ur cooking
Thank you so much Sabitha!
Hello,
I tried making this (still cooking), however I was wondering that whenever I use curd for cooking a gravy the curd becomes grainy. Is this suppose to happen? Because your pictures look like the gravy is smooth like cream.
Hi Dushyant,
I think it is the kind of milk or curd making process that makes it grainy. If there is lot of whey in the curd, then it turns grainy as soon as it is heated. I usually simmer the milk for sometime to make homemade curd. So there is no whey at all in it & it turns thick. For gravies many people whisk some corn starch with curd to avoid this.
Hello swathi, love all your recipes. Today I tried mushroom biryani but it was little bitter in taste. I used all the ingredients which you have mentioned. What is the reason for bitterness
Hi Thanuja,
Thank you! Over frying the masala or over frying the gingergarlic can make the dish bitter. Sometimes the mushrooms also taste bitter. Not sure what would have happened. If you have used a readymade masala then you may reduce the quantity used. Some spice powders are too strong. Hope this helps to find the reason.
Hi swathi,
Wow super good recipe dear and thanks for the same. I just followed step by step instructions and it came out so well couldn’t believe the chef in me. You won’t believe I didn’t use mint leaves but still tastes yummy ? ?.. Tnx again!!!
Hi Sumitra,
You are welcome.Glad to know your mushroom biryani turned out good. Thank you so much!
🙂
Hi Swasthi, I had tried many of your recipes. My favorite dish is paneer gravy. Today I tried mushroom briyani. This also turned out to be good. But it was sticky. Any suggestions how to make it non sticky?
You’ve given me confidence to try many items that I enjoyed only in restaurants. My family loves the new dishes that I have tried. Thanks for this blog.
Hi Lakshmi
You are welcome. Thank you so much for following the blog. I guess it turned out sticky due to more water. Adjust the quantity of water to suit the kind of rice you use. Hope this helps. Thanks again
🙂
Hi Swati your blog is a go-to and all time favourite and also very dependable page for me. Thanks for being there for an amateur. Like me.
Hi Catherine
You are welcome. Thanks a lot for following the blog. So happy to know the recipes are helpful.
🙂