3 Secrets to Making Spectacular Biryani

​Hello and welcome to The Dish. I'm Natasha Ho. This is your two minute tip to help you cook better food. And this week I want to talk about one of my favorite dishes. I actually got to enjoy it just last week, so I'm really excited.

I want to talk about biryani today. This is one that has come up a few times. I actually led an entire course earlier this year on making biryani from start to finish. So this is just like a super quick primer on a couple key things to keep in mind if you're going to make biryani at home and you want to get it right.

3 things to keep in mind for getting great results with your biryani

The first one is the rice. When it comes to the rice, key things to keep in mind, you want to make sure that you use the correct rice: so basmati rice. In order for it to be basmati rice, it needs to come from either India or Pakistan. Get the best quality rice that you possibly can.

And the second piece of that with the rice is don't overcook the rice. It's important that you cook the rice and the meat separately, so those are not going to be cooked together. Cook the rice about half way before it's paired with the other ingredients.

So during that first cooking, you want to make sure that you don't overcook it and then you're going to add the other ingredients and they're all going to finish cooking together. So by the end of the cooking process, your rice will be perfectly cooked when everything else is done. So that's really key. Make sure you use that basmati rice. Don't overcook it when you do the first cooking and then cook the rice and the meat ingredients separately when you start the dish.

The next key thing for making your biryani is that you want to make sure you use great spices. Spices are a key part of adding flavor to any Indian dish, but especially for your biryani. You want to keep in mind that spices are going to be what really elevate that dish. So to get the best result and the most potency from spices, you want to make sure that you use fresh spices, as fresh possible. And using whole spices is usually the best way to go, because you're going to ground those up at home and you'll make sure that you've kept all of those essential oils tucked inside of your spices right before you cook them. So all of that wonderful flavor will get directly into your food, and it won't have dissipated while it was sitting on a shelf somewhere.

So those are the first two things, and the final thing for your biryani is the fried onions. They are signature part of this dish, and they require some patience. So make sure that when you're making those fried onions that you really allow them to cook to caramelize and transform. It takes some time, but it so pays off. It's so, so delicious.

Keep an eye on those onions. I've done it many times overcook those onions. They go from being beautifully golden brown to charred and burnt in no time. If you don't keep your eye on them, so keep a watchful eye on those onions.

And that beautiful, crunchy texture and wonderful flavor will really take your biryani from okay to amazing and absolutely delicious.

So those are the three things to keep in mind when you're making biryani at home to really make sure that you come out with a masterful level dish. I'll see you guys here next time. Bye.