Craveworthy EASY Beef Biryani
A homestyle Pakistani Beef Biryani recipe that will have your family reaching for seconds and thirds! Easy recipe, no boxed mix needed! Instant Pot & Stove top instructions in post. I have big feelings about Biryani. I’ve discussed many of them at length here, but in a nutshell I do not get the fascination with Biryanis that are great for 5 bites and heartburn.
A Biryani should be so good, so balanced, that you can eat a plate and then another without feeling ill. Achieving that is remarkably easy.
Ingredients in Beef Biryani: The “Korma” or Masala
These are all the ingredients used in this Biryani masala. Highlighting some of the key ones below!
Beef Biryani Ingredient Tips
- The Meat. The choice between muton or lamb meat is completely valid in your recipe yet the essential requirement remains that your selection needs fat. The inner fat of the meat maintains moisture in your dish by preventing drying yet it enhances the taste of the masala. A piece of chuck roast with stewing cubes provides pleasant meat marbling that produces the desired effect.
- Ginger and Garlic: The simplicity of making this biryani depends on your chosen ingredients because they lack overpowering spice flavors. Homemade ginger and garlic paste are best. Biryani lovers should avoid purchasing the jarred version with vinegar because it contains vinegar but frozen biryani provides a better alternative.
Dahi in Dum: The yoghurt in the “dum” is an unusual move, but it adds both moisture and flavour so please don’t skip it!
Making Biryani Faster: Timesaving Tips
Biryani takes forever because our processes take forever. I used to make the masala first and then the rice and about two hours later my biryani would be ready. Here are my tips for making it faster and easier!
1.) Take your meat out of the fridge. Cold meat cooks slowly and unevenly.
2.) Wash and Soak your rice first: rinse your rice in water a few times until the run off looks clearer and soak in a bowl of water. Both steps are key for perfect fluffy rice.
3.) Chop your onions and tomatoes and then start on your meat masala.
4.) Use your hands off time: Whether you are cooking it stovetop or in the instant pot this is a fairly long chunk of hands off cooking and you can use this time to prep everything else from the potatoes, cilantro, mint, chilies etc. This is also when I make a raita!
5.) Once that is done you can boil your water for the rice, but only put the rice into cook after your potatoes are cooked through.
6.) Now to each their own, but I typically clean up when my biryani is sitting on low gentle flavor infusing heat i.e. during the “dum” so that by the time I sit down to eat it’s taken care of and I can dig in!
How much should I cook the rice? Anyone who knows me will ask me this question frequently. From here you will notice that I follow an unexpected approach. The usual plan for cooking rice asks for when the grains remain slightly firm but not fully tender while the interior maintains a white dot. The preparation of my biryani requires no need for excess cooking times. I keep cooking the rice until its bottom layer becomes ready but the remaining part remains slightly resistant to touch. The extended cooking time reduces the dum time amount to 20 minutes.
How do I give Biryani ‘dum’ in the oven?
To bake Beeft Biryani put it into an oven-safe dish followed by taping the foil securely then cook at 300F heat for 25-30 minutes. The cooking duration needs extension to 10 minutes if you previously prepared and stored your dish in the refrigerator. This dish allows direct serving from the cooking container as an extra convenience.
Craveworthy EASY Beef Biryani
Ingredients
For the Meat Masala:-
- 1 pound stewing beef cubed
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
- 6-8 whole black peppers
- 3-4 laung (cloves)
- 1 black cardamom (optional)
- 1-1.5 inch piece cinnamon stick
- 2 medium sized onions (for 1 cup sliced)
- 2 thinly sliced green chillies
- 1 ½ tbsp ginger paste (measuring spoons)
- 2 tbsp garlic paste (measuring spoons)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp red chilli powder
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- ½-1 tsp red chilli flakes
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1-2 medium tomatoes diced see notes
- 4-6 dried plums or aloo bukharay. can omit and sub with lemon juice (see notes)
- 2 medium potatoes cut into 1.5 inch pieces
- 1 tsp garam masala
For the Rice: ( chawal)
- 2.5-3 cups rice
- 2.5-3 tablespoons salt (see notes)
For the finishing touches:
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- ⅓ cup chopped mint (optional)
- Juice of a lemon or lemon slices
- 1 tsp of yogurt mixed with 2 tbsp water
- Rang/Yellow coloring
- 4-6 green chilies
- handful of prefried onions (optional)
METHOD
Rice
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Wash rice to drain away excess starch and then soak and set aside
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Boil the rice in salted water when your potatoes are just done so that the rice is still warm when you layer it.
Meat Masala – Instant Pot
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Heat ½ cup oil in saute mode instant pot and add your whole spices
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When they sputter and smell toasty add your onion and green chilies and cook till the edges of the onion are golden
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Now add your ginger and garlic paste, saute for a minute
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Add the spices, give it a quick mix
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Stir in the beef, sauteeing until the beef cubes are evenly browned.
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Stir in your tomatoes, dried plums (if using), and 1.5 cup of hot water.
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Pressure cook (manual) for 15 minutes, the meat should be cooked through, but not tender.
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Quick release then add the potatoes and put it back to pressure for 4 minutes.
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Quick release and then saute to dry up the excess liquid – I like to remove my potatoes here and add them back in later to avoid breaking them. The masala should be so dry that it starts to stick to the bottom and the oil rises to the top.
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Taste and adjust seasoning – you want a little salty and a little spicy – if you have not used dried plums add lemon juice at this point along with your garam masala, half your mint, cilantro, chilies.
Meat Masala – Stovetop
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Heat ½ cup oil in a large pot on medium high heat and add your whole spices
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When they sputter and smell toasty add your onion and green chilies and cook till the edges of the onion are golden
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Now add your ginger and garlic paste, sauté for a minute
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Stir in your spices and cook for another minute.
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Now add in your meat cubes, sautéing until the beef cubes are evenly browned.
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Stir in your tomatoes, dried plums (if using), and 2 cup of hot water and let the mix simmer on low until the meat is cooked through but not tender, typically 45-50 minutes.
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Now add in your potatoes and simmer till they’re cooked through.
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Crank up the heat and dry out the masala, I like to take out the potatoes to avoid a potato mash scene. Cook until the excess water dries out and the masala starts sticking to the bottom.
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Add half your mint, half your cilantro, half your chilies, your garam masala and lemon (if using). Taste and adjust seasoning – you are going for bold here!
Layering
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Layer half the rice in the pot you used to cook it, then the meat masala, then scatter remaining cilantro, mint and chilies over top and follow it by the remaining half of the rice.
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Mix a little food color with yogurt and drizzle over top.
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Cover the pot and cook on the lowest heat for 25 minutes.
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Use a flat spoon or a small plate and gently mix it to avoid breaking the rice and serve with raita and kachumbar.
Notes
Rice: I cook and drain which is why I use so much salt, if you are cooking with the exact right amount of water then use a tsp per cup. Also 2.5 cups is perfect for a more masala biryani, 3 cups for a lighter (but still yummy) one.
Using a boxed mix: omit all the spices (whole and dried) and sub with ½-1 of your favorite masala packet
Aloo Bukharay vs Lemons: IMHO this Beef Biryani tastes best when you adjust the masala by adding lemon juice when it is cooked. I usually put 2-3 tbsp.
Tips for faster cooking processes in the blog post.