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Hyderabadi Biryani

Real dum biryani is a sealed pot and an afternoon of your life. This is the shameless weeknight tribute: same saffron, same spice, cooked in one pan while you stand there.

Total time
19 min
Serves
2
Effort
Medium

What you need

Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.

Cooking for
2 people

0 of 10 in the basket.

How you make it

  1. Heat the ghee in a wide lidded pan over medium-high and fry the onion for 5 minutes until deep golden, then lift half of it out for the top.

  2. Add the chicken, ginger-garlic paste, biryani masala, chilli powder and 1 tsp salt and stir-fry 4 minutes until coloured all over.

  3. Take the pan off the heat for a moment, stir in the yoghurt, then return to a medium simmer for 5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through to 75C/165F with clear juices.

  4. Scatter the herbs over the chicken, spoon the rice on top in an even layer without stirring, and drizzle over the saffron milk.

  5. Cover tightly, drop the heat to low and steam 4 minutes so the rice takes on the aroma from below.

  6. Lift the lid, top with the reserved fried onion and fold through gently once, keeping the grains whole.

Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?

Completely fair. Hyderabadi Biryani is sitting in the Indian kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.

Order it instead

Spice layered on spice until the room smells incredible.