Paneer biryani is an Indian dish made with paneer, basmati rice, spices & herbs. This paneer biryani is unique, flavorful & amazingly delicious. Biryani is most commonly made with meat but this recipe uses paneer aka Indian cottage cheese. If you are a vegetarian and love the flavors of authentic biryani then this paneer biryani is a must try.
There are many kinds of vegetarian biryani made. Most of them use vegetables & are one pot dishes. Since this paneer biryani is dum cooked, it turns out to be extremely flavorful & delicious.
Paneer turns out super flavorful and remains soft as it is dum cooked.
Vegetable biryani is one of the most made in my home as it is super quick to make. Sometimes I also add some paneer to the veggie biryani. But the dum paneer biryani shared here is exotic and is great to make for celebrations or on weekends.
I make this paneer biryani on occasions when I plan for a special meal. It goes very well with a raita and shorba.
Step-by-step photos
Preparation
1. Wash rice and soak it for 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Add oil to a pan and fry onions evenly stirring often.
3. When they turn brown, set these aside.
4. This step is optional. If using capsicum or cashews, add them to the same pan and fry just for two to 3 minutes. If using
5. If using cashews fry to golden. You can fry few paneer chunks till golden if you want to garnish with them like i did.
6. Soak saffron in little milk. set aside.
7. Marinate paneer with all the marination ingredients and set aside till the rice cooks.
8. Add 1 tsp oil & ½ to ¾ tsp salt to 6 cups of water. Bring it to a rolling boil. Add the drained rice and cook till al dente. Meaning the rice grains have to be firm and not mushy but almost cooked.
9. Drain it off to a colander.
How to make paneer biryani
10. To a pan add ghee or oil, transfer the paneer marinade to the pan.
11. Layer the rice and sprinkle fried onions, mint, coriander leaves, kewra or rose water and then saffron milk.
12. Add the capsicums or cashews. Cover it with a moist cloth or aluminum foil. Cover it with a lid.
Place it on a hot tawa and cook for 5 minutes on a high flame and then for 10 minutes on a medium flame. Switch off the flame. Do not open the lid for another 15 minutes.
Garnish with fried onions, chunks of fried paneer or cashew nuts & mint. Serve paneer biryani with onion raita or cuumber raita
Tips
Fried onions or brown onions are the key to any dum cooked biryani. For authentic flavor deep fry the onions until crisp. I have just pan fried them with very little oil.
Use premium quality aged basmati rice as it has a good aroma. The rice grains will be non-sticky & will not turn mushy.
Please use good quality paneer that has no corn starch in it. Paneer with additives like corn starch will likely turn hard after cooking. To make your own you can check this link on homemade paneer.
Using ghee will make your paneer biryani aromatic and delicious. However you can replace it with oil.
You can also use some nuts and raisins for garnishing. I went ahead using some red and green bell peppers as I do not prefer to miss the veggies in our meal.
Recipe
Hyderabadi paneer biryani
Paneer biryani
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
- 1 ½ cups basmati rice aged
- 1 tsp oil for cooking rice
- ½ to ¾ tsp Salt to cook rice
- 2 onions sliced thinly or 4 tbsp fried onions
- 2 tbsp ghee or oil for frying onions
- 2 tbsp Mint leaves or pudina chopped
- 2 tbsp coriander leaves chopped
Marination for paneer biryani
- 2 tbsp ghee or oil
- 1 ¼ cup paneer cubes
- ½ cup curd or dahi or yogurt
- 1 tsp garam masala or biryani masala
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- ½ to ¾ tsp red chili powder
- ¼ to ⅓ tsp Salt to taste
- 2 tbsp mint leaves finely chopped
- 2 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped
- 1 green chili
- 1 bay leaf or tej patta
- 4 green cardamoms or elaichi
- 1 black cardamom or badi elaichi (optional)
- 6 cloves or laung
- 3 inch cinnamon piece or dalchini
- 1 strand mace or javitri (optional)
- 1 star anise or biryani flower
- ½ tsp shahi jeera or cumin or jeera
- 1 tsp kewra water or rose water (optional)
Garnishing
- 6 cubes paneer
- 8 cubes Capsicum or few cashew nuts
How to make the recipe
Prepration for paneer biryani
- Soak rice for at least 30 to 40 mins. Later drain to a colander.
- Add oil to a heavy bottom pan, fry onions till golden brown. Set these fried onions aside. Fry capsicums till they turn slightly soft. Fry few paneer cubes or cashew nuts as well. Set these aside.
- Marinate paneer with 2 tbsps fried onions and the marination ingredients. Set aside.
- Add 1 tsp oil & ½ to ¾ tsp salt to water. Bring it to a rolling boil.
- Add the drained rice and cook till al dente. Meaning the rice grains have to be firm and not mushy but almost cooked. Drain off the rice to colander and set aside.
making paneer biryani
- Add the paneer marinade to the same heavy bottom pan used for frying golden onions.
- Layer the cooked rice over the paneer marinade. Level the rice. Add few more fried onions and mint and coriander leaves. Then sprinkle fried onions, capsicums, kewra or rose water.
- Seal it with a foil or a moist clean kitchen cloth. Place the lid over it. Meanwhile heat a old tawa or griddle.
- When it is hot, transfer the biryani pot or pan on the hot tawa. Cook for 5 minutes on a high flame and then for 10 minutes on a medium flame.
- Switch off the stove and leave it undisturbed for at least 15 minutes.
- Garnish with fried cashews or fried paneer, mint leaves and fried onions.
- Serve paneer biryani with raita.
NUTRITION (estimation only)
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.
Hitz says
Hi Swasthi, this is one of my favorite recipies of yours and I refer it every time I make biriyani. However, in a little confused as to why did you change the original recipe that was published on May 21st ’14. In my opinion that was more detailed and authentic. It’ll be great if you could publish it back or put up a new post with the original recipe.
Thanks!
swasthi says
Hello,
Iam so sorry about this. Actually if i felt the earlier recipe was a bit elaborate and since i did not receive enough reviews from the readers, i tried it again few times and ended up with this simpler version. Thanks a tons for leaving a message her. i will update the post soon with the old recipe as well. Once again thank you so much and iam glad to read this message.
🙂
swasthi says
Hi Hitz,
I have updated the post with the old recipe as well. There are a lot of images in this post, If you have any loading issues, you can write to me i will send u the recipe to ur inbox
rchowdry says
Tasty, easy biryani
SHALINI says
SUPER GOOD LOOKING
VERY WELL EXPLAINED
COLOUR IS APPETISING……. THANK U
swasthi says
Hi shalini,
Thanks for the compliments.
🙂
Ana says
SUPER GOOD LOOKING
VERY WELL EXPLAINED
EXPECTING MORE MORE DISHES FROM U
swasthi says
Thank you
RAJENDHAR DASARI says
VERY DELICIOUSLY LOOKING. GOOD EX PLANED.
swasthi says
Hi Rajendhar,
Thanks
Ana says
VERY DELICIOUSLY LOOKING. GOOD EX PLANED.
Sruthi Eamdiwar says
Will use your recipe for my office pot lunch party ………………. thank you :)<br />
Nandita Pai Shirali says
Oh myyyyyy…soooo delightfully tempting! I would love to have a serving right now! Lovely step wise post, I am book marking this and am sure to try this out soon 🙂 just bumped into ur page… and am glad I did.
Vimitha Anand says
Delicious and yummy biryani… Would love to grab a plate…
Amina Khaleel says
wow… paneer biryani looks delicious… yummy..
Kavitha says
delicious briyani….will try this….
Az says
Looks delicious…
kitchen queen says
delicious and yummy biryani with a wonderful presentation.
Mélange says
It's perfect Swasthi..Worth an effort..And the aroma reached here.
kate says
Mmmmmmmm birryani looks super tasty. Can't wait to try this.
Poorni says
nice explanation.. eye catching biriyani..
Sanoli Ghosh says
Lipsmacking paneer biryani dear. Thanks a lot for sharing it. Bookmarked.
PrathibhaSreejith says
looks utterly delicious, well explained 🙂
PT says
tempting biriyani.. perfectly done swasthi..
Asmath Nawaz says
Well explained with step by step pics…..delicious biriyani….
♥ Priya Ranjit ♥ says
your tips and explanation are really useful… love the hues of color in the briyani.. i am sure this is a keeper
saran says
a good one……….. really very yummy and delicious dish…… with many explanations and photos… great work…. post many recipies…. thnk u
swasthi says
welcome Saran,
🙂