Nizami Legacy · Dum-Cooked Rice & Meat
Hyderabadi Biryani
Photo: Garrett Ziegler from New York, United States / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
In kacchi biryani the raw meat and part-cooked rice must finish at the same moment inside the sealed pot, with no stirring or checking, which is why cooks consider it the hardest style to get right.
Raw meat marinated in yogurt, chili, and spices is layered in a heavy pot under part-cooked basmati rice, sealed with a dough lid, and slow-cooked over low heat so the rice finishes by absorbing the meat's juices. Old City stalls and biryani houses across Hyderabad serve it with mirchi ka salan and a cooling raita.
Why it's made this way: The dish descends from Mughal court cooking refined in the Nizams' royal kitchens, and Hyderabad's raw-marinated 'kacchi' dum method — distinct from the pre-cooked biryanis found elsewhere in India — is what locals point to as the real difference.
More from India
Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo credits.