Mutton Dum Biryani

Kolkata style Mutton Dum Biryani is a rich, aromatic one-pot meal where mutton and rice cooked in layers by following the Dum method. I’m sharing the best version here how to cook it at home.

Ingredients

Ingredients for cooking Mutton

700g with bone- Mutton (curry cut)

3- Medium sized onions (thinly sliced)

4-5- Green chilies (halved)

Meetha Attar

¼ cup- Mustard oil

1/3 tsp- Garam masala powder

For marination

150g- Raw papaya (grated)

1/3 cup- Birista/Crisp fried onions

1 tsp- Kashmiri mirch powder

1 tbsp- Cumin powder

1 tbsp- Coriander powder

½ tsp- Turmeric powder

200g- Yogurt

2 tbsp- Ginger-garlic paste

A few drops- Rose water

A few drops- Keora water

For tempering

2- Dry red chilies (halved)

3- Green cardamom (roughly crushed)

8-9- Whole black peppercorns (roughly crushed)

4-5- Cinnamon stick 1" pieces

2-3- Cloves

2- Bay leaf / Tej pata

Ingredients for rice

500g- Basmati rice (wash well and keep aside)

3- Green cardamom (roughly crushed)

2- Bay leaf / Tej pata

1- Star anise

Salt to taste

For layering and sealing

½- Mace/Javitri powder (grounded to a fine powder)

1/3 tsp- Nutmeg /Jaiphal powder

½ tsp- Garam masala powder

½ cup- Ghee/Clarified butter

1 fat pinch - Saffron

Rose water

Keora water

Meetha Attar

For sprinkling on top- Birista/Crisp fried onions

3- Medium sized potatoes (boiled)

3- Boiled eggs (cut into halves lengthwise or use whole boiled eggs, choice is yours)

3-4- Slit green chilies (optional)

Aluminium foil

½ cup- Milk

Instructions

Preparing the Mutton

Marinate the freshly washed mutton pieces with all the ingredients mentioned for marination. Keep aside for 4 hours, overnight marination is even better. 

Heat oil in a kadai/deep frying pan, temper with all the ingredients mentioned for tempering. 

Add sliced onions, fry over medium heat until light brown in color. 

Now add the marinated mutton with salt and green chilies. Mix well, cover and cook over low heat. The mutton gets cooked without water. If you see that the mutton is drying up too much during the cooking, add some hot water to adjust the gravy.

Stir in between and cook until the mutton pieces are cooked through. It takes around 1 hour to cook the mutton.

Add a few drops of meetha attar and garam masala powder at the end. Mix and remove from the heat.

Preparing the Rice

Boil enough water in a deep bottom pan. Add the washed rice along with star anise, bay leaves, green cardamoms and salt. After the rice gets cooked, drain, and keep aside uncovered. Care needs to be taken so the rice doesn’t get overcooked.

Assembling the Biryani layers & Dum

Soak saffron in warm milk, and keep aside.

Peel the boiled potatoes and cut into halves horizontally. Heat oil in a kadai/deep frying pan, fry the potatoes with turmeric powder and salt over medium heat until they turn golden. Remove them from the kadai, and keep aside.

You can fry the boiled eggs with a little salt and turmeric powder before cutting into halves, this step is optional.

Grease a deep bottomed pan with ghee. Add rice in the first layer. Now add a layer of mutton pieces along with the gravy. Add gravy carefully, in small quantity at a time. Otherwise, the biryani will look like ‘Mutton and rice curry’.  (read notes)

Place potato pieces in between. Sprinkle some ghee, along with a few drops of rose water, keora water, mace and nutmeg powder, 1-2 green chilies, and saffron milk. Repeat this process of layering rice and mutton one more time. 

Finish the layering with a final layer of rice. Place the boiled eggs on top, yolk side down, push them gently in the bed of rice a little bit. Sprinkle a generous amount of ghee on top. Garnish with birista, a few drops of meetha attar, and garam masala powder.

Seal the top of the pan with aluminium foil and close with a tight fitting. Turn on the heat, now put the biryani vessel on top of a tawa. Keep the heat low. Put on dum for 25 minutes (read note).

Remove from the heat. Your delicious Kolkata style Mutton Dum Biryani is done. Uncover the Biryani pot, serve hot with raita and other accompaniments. Enjoy!