Dhakai Kachhi Biriyani

What does kachhi biriyani mean? “Kachhi” means uncooked or raw. What is raw in this biriyani and how is it different from other biriyanis? In Kachhi Biriyani uncooked meat and semi-cooked rice is assembled together in a pot and cooked on dum together. Hence, the name “kachhi biriyani”. No, do not worry. the meat is completely cooked at the end of the process.

How did Biriyani reach Dhaka?

In 1610, after Dhaka was announced as the provincial capital by the Mughals, the subedars arrived in Dhaka to manage the administration. Most subedars coming from Lucknow were accompanied by personal cooks. Eventually, While many subedars subsequently moved from Dhaka, some of the cooks remained to keep the Biriyani culture alive in Dhaka. They later began many food joints in Dhaka letting the Mughal diet flourish. These Mughlai dishes later became the heritage of Dhaka. There are many variations of this kachhi biriyani. Each food joint in Dhaka namely Haji, Fakhruddin, and many more have their own signatures in this Kachhi Biriyani.

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Dhakai Kachhi Biriyani

A signature preparation of Dhaka, this biriyani is a blast of flavors on the palate.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Bangladeshi, Bengali

Keyword Biriyani, kachhibiriyani, muttonbiriyani

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Resting Time 6 hours hours

Total Time 8 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

For the rice

• 500 g of Basmati rice
• 1 " of cinnamon stick
• 1 star anise
• 3-4 cardamom pods
• 6-7 cloves
• 8-10 black pepper
• 1 small mace
• ½ teaspoon shahi jeera
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 2 tablespoon of salt or as necessary
• 3 tablespoons of ghee
• ½ cup of milk

For the meat

• 1 Kg of mutton/beef
• 4-5 baby potatoes
• ½ teaspoon of trmeric powder
• 1½ tablespoon of ginger paste
• 1½ tablespoon of garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon of ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
• ½ teaspoon of mace/jayatri powder
• ½ teaspoon of nutmeg/jaiphal powder
• 1 tablespoon of red chili powder
• 4 tablespoons of ghee/oil
• ½ cup of milk
• 1 pinch of saffron
• 1 cup of curd/yogurt
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons of almond powder
• 1 cup fried onion slices/beresta
• 1 " of cinnamon stick broken into pieces
• 2 bay leaves
• 4-5 cardamom pods
• 6-8 cloves
• 6-8 black pepper

Assembling the Biriyani

• 1 tablespoon of kewra water
• ½ cup of wheat flour/any kind of flour
• ½ cup of milk
• 3 tablespoons of ghee
• 2-3 green chilies
• Few strands of saffron

Instructions

Marinating the meat

• To make this biryani recipe, first clean and wash the meat under running water. Pat dry with a kitchen towel and keep aside.
• To the mutton/beef add salt, ginger paste, garlic paste, white pepper powder, cardamom and cinnamon powder,mace powder, nutmeg powder, red chili powder, curd, milk and saffron strands.
• Mix all the ingredients with the meat and keep it aside.
• Marinate the meat for 6 hours to overnight.
• After the marination is done, transfer the meat in a thick deep-bottomed pot in the pot in which you plan to make the biriyani.
• Add 4 tablespoons of ghee, almond powder, fried onion slices, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cloves, whole black pepper to the meat. (Leave aside few stands of fried onion slices for later use)
• Peel the baby potatoes and sprinkle the turmeric powder on the baby potatoes. Fry them till they develop a golden skin on their surface.
• Add the fried baby potatoes to the marinated meat in the pot along with green chilies.
  

Preparing the rice

• Wash the rice properly. Drain all water from the rice and keep it aside.
• In a pot, add enough water and heat it.
• To this water, add 2 tablespoons of salt. You can add more or less as necessary. When you taste the water, it should taste salty. The amount of salt will depend on the amount of water you have taken. Bring this water to boil.
• Add one tablespoon of oil and shahi jeera to this water.
• In a clean white cloth, take the cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper,mace, cloves, star anise and bay leaves. Tie these spices in this white cloth and throw this potli in the boiling water. (See Notes)
• Once the water is boiling and the spices have released their aroma in the water, add the rice to this water.
• Let the rice cook for 7-8 minutes or till the rice is 50% done.
  

Assembling the Biriyani

• Immediately strain out the rice from the water and make a layer on the meat that you had earlier prepared.
• Above the rice layer, sprinkle the remaining onion slices, ghee, saffron strands and the milk
• Take the flour. To this add water and prepare a dough. Seal the edges of the pot with this dough.
• Put the assembled pot of biriyani on medium-high flame for 15 minutes. If you are not using a thick bottomed pot, place the biriyani pot on a tawa and then heat it.
• Now, on low flame, keeping the pot on the tawa and leave the biriyani on dum for about an hour.
• Turn off the flame and keep the biriyani sealed till you are ready to serve.
• When ready to serve, break the seal of the pot and voila, you are ready to serve.
• Serve the biriyani with raita of your choice.
  

Notes

1. You can directly add the spices to the water instead of making potli. But I prefer making a potli as this prevents too many whole spices in the biriyani. while eating the biriyani I tend to bite them all the time which I do not like.