Authentic Lamb Biryani Recipe: Aromatic and Flavourful Pakistani Rice Dish

Introduction

Lamb biryani is truly a dish fit for royalty. This authentic lamb biryani recipe involves crunchy onions and crispy potatoes against a rich lamb masala made with whole spices layered between softly fragranced rice.

Usually when I think about any lamb dish, I think 1 hour of cooking at a minimum to soften the lamb. However with the aid of a pressure cooker, the lamb is tender in a mere 10 minutes. So this Pakistani lamb biryani no longer becomes hours of hard work in the kitchen, and I can assure you the flavour is not at all compromised and the nutritional value of the lamb is retained.

Types of Lamb Biryani

There are many types of biryani, the main ones I would say are Hyderbadi biryani (slightly tangy), Kolkata biryani (slightly sweet) and Sindhi biryani (heavily spiced and vibrant). My recipes leans more into the Sindhi biryani style, which means the biryani is cooked with tomatoes, potatoes (which I deep fry for extra crunch) and a tangy yoghurt-based masala.

As with most lamb biryani’s there is a layering of the lamb masala between layers of rice. Crispy onions are always a must. You will see this is also in my chicken biryani recipe. However unlike the chicken biryani recipe, I have added in this Sindhi lamb biryani recipe, a specific step of shallow frying whole spices which we later add to the lamb just to amplify the flavours against the lamb. I’ve called this the tarka step.

For me an aromatic lamb biryani needs to be packed with spices and flavour, I do also prefer a hot and spicy biryani to a milder one, adjust the green chilli content to your preference.

Shortcuts to making the Lamb Biryani

This is definitely one of the longer Pakistani dishes to make, however it is well worth it. Do not be put off by the cooking time. I’ve broken down everything into easy steps to follow, and once you have made the recipe once, the second time will be much easier.

As mentioned earlier, using a pressure cooker to cook the lamb reduces an hour of cooking on the stove to 10 minutes in the pressure cooker.

You could also if cooking lamb biryani for a dinner party, quite easily prepare the lamb, spice tarka and masala and combine them all, then keep in the fridge for 1-2 days before you actually want to cook the biryani.

You could also deep fry the onions and potatoes and also keep them in an air tight container, you can keep this on the kitchen work top, no need to refrigerate. If you want a healthier edge, you can air fry the potatoes and onions. This definitely saves on time too, as when things are simmering on the hob, you can have the air fryer working away in the background.

If you wanted an even quicker short cut, you could buy pre-fried onions from the supermarket and use these in the biryani. However as with most things, freshly fried onions at home always taste better than shop bought.

The rice I would always cook fresh on the day, but with the above prepped in advance, the actual serving day becomes a breeze with only rice to cook and the biryani to “dham”/ steaming of the rice.

How to serve Lamb Biryani

As the aromatic lamb biryani has a rice flavoursome masala, I never cook a curry with biryani as I feel the biryani has all the curry you could possibly need. I do always serve my Pakistani lamb biryani with a yoghurt condiment, my preference is always boondi raita. I love the soft texture of boondi against the biryani rice, it really is cool and refreshing against the spicy heat of a biryani. You could even serve the biryani with a mint chutney.

See my video on Youtube, Instagram or TikTok to see how to make this dish.

INGREDIENTS

15 minutes preparation

Cooking via pressure cooker: 1 hour 45 minutes

Cooking via sauce pan: 2 hours

45 minutes steaming of rice/ dham

Ingredients for rice

• 3 mugs or 800 grams of basmati rice
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1.5- 2 tsp salt (to taste)
• Yellow food dye

Ingredients for Lamb Biryani Masala

• 3 tablespoons ghee or vegetable oil
• 4 onions, finely chopped
• 1 whole tin of chopped tomatoes
• 4 green chillies, finely chopped ( I add the tinned tomatoes, puree and green chillies in food processor to blend)
• 2 tsp of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tsp of ginger, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 black cardamom
• 1 cinnamon bark (1 inch long)
• 2 teaspoons of coriander seeds
• 6 cloves
• 7 cardamom pods
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon chilli powder (to taste)

Ingredients for deep frying ( or cooking in air fryer)

• 2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters or small bitesize chunks
• 1.5 onions, finely sliced
• 1 litre of oil for frying

Ingredients for Lamb

STEP 1

• 1kg lamb, boneless
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• 1 black cardamom
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ginger, finely chopped
• 1 litre of water

STEP 2

• 1/2 mug or 230 grams of natural yoghurt
• 1tsp ginger, finely chopped
• 2 green chillies, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (juice of half a lemon)
• 2 tbsp tomato puree

STEP 3- Spice Tarka

• 2 tbsp of ghee (or oil)
• 1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 black cardamom
• 1 cinnamon bark (1 inch long)
• 2 teaspoons of coriander seeds
• 6 cloves
• 7 cardamom pods

METHOD

• Wash the rice thoroughly and leave to soak.

Method for deep frying

• Heat the oil in a wok, then add the onions and fry until golden brown.
  • Alternatively, for a healthier touch you can air fry the onions. Spray/brush with oil and put 2 tablespoons of oil in the air fryer tray. In my air fryer the onions took 13 minutes to cook on 180C.
• Leave the onions to drain off on a plate covered with kitchen roll sheets.
• Parboil the potatoes, then also deep fry them until golden brown. Also leave to drain off on a plate with kitchen roll sheets.
  • Alternatively, for a healthier touch you can air fry the potatoes too. Spray/brush with oil and put 1 tablespoons of oil in the air fryer tray. In my air fryer the potatoes took 15 minutes to cook on 200C.

Method for the Lamb Biryani Masala

• Heat the oil and then brown the onions. If the onions start to catch on the pan, add small splashes of water. Due to the amount of onions, this should take around 15 minutes.
• Then add the garlic and ginger and masala spices, stir through. Then proceed to add the remaining masala ingredients.
• Cover with the pan lid and let the mixture simmer on a low heat for 10-15 minutes. Keep stirring at regular intervals to check the masala is not catching on the pan, if it is, add small splashes of water. After the 15 minutes, you should see the oil separate to the top of the masala.

Method for cooking the lamb

• In a pressure cooker, add all the step 1 ingredients. Cover with the lid and bring to the boil (this could take up to 10 minutes due to the amount of water in the pressure cooker).

• Once you hear the pressure cooker hissing, cook for 12 minutes.
• Be careful when releasing the steam, you may want to let the pressure cooker sit for 2-3 minutes to cool down slightly before then releasing the steam.
• There should be some liquid still left in the pressure cooker, you can keep this to add into the masala pan later. However, if there is a lot of extra liquid left in the pressure cooker, you can drain this off and keep this separately as a broth. You only want to add 150-300 ml of the liquid.
  • If you do not have a sauce pan and are cooking by saucepan, add extra water, 1 litre and cook on low heat for an hour, until the lamb is soft.

• In a bowl, add the step two ingredients and mix through thoroughly.

• In a small frying pan, heat the ghee, then add the remaining step three ingredients. Lightly fry for 2-3 minutes on medium heat.

Method for cooking rice

• Boil water in a large saucepan and add the rice ingredients except the food dye, cook until the rice is soft and then drain off the remaining water.

Bringing together the Lamb, Masala and Yoghurt mixture

• Add the masala to the lamb mixture from the pressure cooker and let it simmer together on low heat for 10 minutes.

• Turn the heat off and then add in the yoghurt mixture and the spice tarka. Mix everything together thoroughly.

• Then add in the deep fried potatoes, again mix through gently.

Method for Layering the Lamb and Rice

• In a large saucepan, add a tablespoon of oil and 2 tablespoons of water and spread it across the bottom of the pan.
• Then add in half of the lamb masala mixture, sprinkle over generously half of the deep fried onions.

• Next add half of the rice over the lamb, and sprinkle the yellow food dye on the rice. Give it a gentle mix so the yellow colour spreads over some of the rice, but not all of it. You do still want to see some white rice.

• Repeating the layering process of lamb masala, deep fried onions and rice and yellow food dye.
• When this has been completed, add a tablespoon of ghee over the top of the rice.
• The final step is to cover the saucepan with the lid and put in oven for steaming “dum” for 45 minutes on a low heat, around 140C (minimum 30 minutes), this really lets everything meld together and enhances the flavours.
• NB: If you do not have an oven, you can leave it on the hob on the lowest heat possible. I sometimes put my tava (chapati pan) on the hob, then put the rice pan on top of the tava and then the rice steam this way. This helps to minimise the chance of the rice in the bottom of the pan burning.