Mutton Dum Biryani / Lamb Dum Biryani

My husband is a great fan of Mutton Biryani / Lamb Biryani. Whenever we go to an Indian restaurant, the first thing he orders is Muton Biryani. As it’s my husband's favorite dish, I started making Mutton biryani occasionally at home, which was a lengthy process to make in authentic way. With my busy work schedule it is almost impossible to spend much time on cooking, so I did some research and tried in different ways to simplify the recipe without compromising the taste and finally achieved it.
Now I'm frequently making MuttonBiryani and this dish is a super hit at our home. This recipe is an easy and simplified version to make mutton biryani finger licking yummy.

Ingredients:


For Mutton Marinade

• Mutton (Lamb) - 1 kg
• Salt - 2 tsp
• Chili Powder - 2 tsp
• Turmeric Powder – 1tsp
• Ginger Garlic Paste – 2 tsp
• Lemon juice - 3 tsp

For mutton Curry:

• GingerGarlic Paste – 4 tsp
• Oil – 4 tbsp
• Cloves -2
• Cinnamon roll -1
• Bay Leave -1
• Green Chillies - 3
• Onions (Medium size, chopped length wise) - 3
• Tomoto (Medium size, chopped) -2
• Coriander Leaves - 1 bunch (chopped)
• Pudina leaves - 1 bunch (chopped)
• Salt - 2tsp
• Garam masala – 2tsp
• Biriyani Masala Powder 45gms packet - 1

Spices for boiling rice:

• Rice - 5 cups (rice cooker measuring cup)
• Cardamoms -4
• Cloves - 3
• Cinnamon rolls - 1
• Bay Leaves - 4
• Oil -1 tbsp
• Salt – 1 tbsp

Preparation:

In this method the pre-cooked  meat gravy and rice are cooked together in layers in oven.


Preparation of Mutton thick gravy:
• Marinade the mutton for 30 minutes with lemon juice, salt, red chili powder, turmeric, ginger garlic paste.
• Pressure cook the marinated mutton by adding sufficient water. After the mutton is boiled, drain the water and keep the mutton cubes aside.
• In a pan heat 4 tbsp of oil, once the oil is hot add cinnamon rolls, cloves, Bay leave sauté for 1 minute. Add onions, green chili and fry onions until golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste stir for 3 minutes. Add mint leaves and coriander leaves and sauté for 2 minutes. Add tomato cubes and thick yogurt. Cover it and cook for 5 min. Now add boiled meat, salt, chili powder, biryani masala and garam masala. Cook for 15 minutes. (Don’t add any water, the water content in tomato and yogurt is enough)


Preparation of  cooked rice:


• Take a vessel for cooking rice (don’t pressure cook the rice, you can use rice cooker). Put 3 tbsp of oil and 1 tbsp of Ghee. When the oil is medium heated, put cloves, cardamom, Cinnamon sticks and bay leaves. Stir for 2mins and add soaked rice to it. Stir for another 2-3 min and add water (add 1.5 cup of water for every 1 cup of basmati rice). Add some lime juice and 1 tbsp of salt to it and cover the rice with lid.
• Turn off the heat when rice is 3/4th cooked (almost done) and drain any excess of water in it. Immediately start dum proces (steam process in oven).


Dum(Steam) process in oven:
• Pre heat the oven to 375 F
• Take an aluminum tray put one layer of mutton curry and one layer of rice. Again repeat one layer of mutton curry and rice as shown in the below pictures.

• Mix food color in milk. Pour it in lines across the mutton and rice layers as shown in the below picture.

• Cover it with aluminum foil, make sure it is totally covered well so that the steam does not escape.
 
• Put the covered tray in oven and cook at 375F for 45 -50 minutes.
• After 50 minutes, take it out from oven and rest it for 10 more minutes.
• Now remove the cover and mix well and serve with raita(yogurt sauce).