- Submitted by Dahlia
(Ande Ki Biryani, Mutta Biryani, Egg Dum Biryani, Egg Biriyani)
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Egg Biryani is the simplest of biryani varieties that you can make with just a few ingredients. My whole family loves eggs and I often love to make egg pulav, egg dosai, egg fried rice or other egg dishes.
Though many people make egg biryani in their own style, this is my favorite way of making. I add fried hard boiled eggs as well as scrambles eggs so that every bite of biryani has the egg flavor. You can make it using the one pot method in a pressure cooker or follow the traditional dum process to make it. I have shared both methods below.
The picture above is the egg biryani that I had made when I had some guests at home. I baked it in the oven using an aluminium use-and-throw tray which is a very convenient way for making biryani for parties. It is also easy cleanup because you can just discard the tray after the party. You can scale down and make half the quantity if you are just making for a single family.
Recipe For Egg Biryani
Preparation time : 15 minutes
Cooking time : 45 minutes - 1 hour
Serves : 5-6
Ingredients
For Rice
- Basmati Rice - 3 cups (1 cup = 235 ml) (little more than half a kg of rice)
- Saffron - a pinch (soaked in 2 tbsp of milk)
- Whole Garam Masala - (2" cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, 3 cardamom, 1 Bay Leaf, 1 star anise, 1 bay leaf)
- Shahi Jeera - 1 tsp (or use Fennel seeds)
- Oil - 1 tbsp
- Salt - as needed
- Water - about 12 cups (1 cup = 235 ml)
- Mint Leaves - handful
- Ghee - 1 tbsp
- Fried Onion (Birista) - 1/4 cup
For Cooking Eggs
- Eggs - 4 (for making Hard Boiled eggs)
- Eggs - 5 (for making scrambled eggs)
- Oil - 2 tbsp
- Salt - as needed
- Pepper powder - as needed
- Corn flour - 1 tbsp
- Garam Masala / Biryani Masala - 1 tsp
For Masala
- Onion - 2 medium (chopped)
- Tomatoes - 2 (chopped)
- Ginger garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
- Cilantro (Coriander Leaves) - handful (finely chopped)
- Mint Leaves - handful (chopped)
- Green Chilies - 5 (chopped/slit)
- Yogurt (curd) - 4-5 tbsp
- Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp
- Ghee - 2 tbsp
- Oil - 2 tbsp
- Biryani Masala - 1.5 tbsp (You can also substitute with 1 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp garam masala and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder)
- Salt - as needed
Preparation Steps
For Preparing Eggs
- Hard boil 4 eggs, peel it and cut it into half lengthwise.
- Sprinkle a pinch of biryani masala, little salt and little corn flour (or rice flour) on the eggs and rub to coat it. Shallow fry it in a pan and keep it aside.
- In the same pan, scramble the remaining 5 eggs with little salt and black pepper powder and keep aside.
For Cooking Rice
- Wash and soak the rice for about half an hour while you prepare the eggs.
- Take a large pot filled with plenty of water (about 12 cups) and keep it on medium heat. Once it boils, add 1 tbsp oil, shahi jeera, whole garam masala and required salt.
- Drain the soaked rice and add it to the boiling water. You can add a pinch of turmeric powder too if you want a bright yellow color. Cook for 5 minutes till the rice is partially cooked.
- When the rice is 3/4 th cooked (i.e. it has a bite to it) , drain the water and spread it on a tray to cool.
For Making Masala (Spicy Gravy)
- Heat ghee and oil in a pan and add the onions and green chilies. Sauté till the onions turns brown.
- Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Add the chopped mint leaves and cilantro (coriander leaves).
- Add the tomatoes and cook till it gets mashed up.
- Add the yogurt (curd), biryani masala and salt. Cook this till you get a nice masala and the oil separates from the masala.
- Add lemon juice to the masala just before switching off.
Method
Dum Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 degree C (180 degree F) if you plan to make dum in the oven (baking method).
- The dum process can be done in a conventional oven or stove top. Take an aluminium tray which you can discard after one use or a roasting pan if you want to bake in the oven. If you want to do the layering in stove top, take a heavy bottomed vessel.
- Grease the bottom of the vessel/tray with some ghee or oil.
- Spread half of the cooked rice at the bottom. This will be the first layer.
- Pour the egg masala over the rice as the 2nd layer.
- Spread the scrambled eggs as the third layer over the masala.
- Next layer the remaining rice. Since I did not have a big pot, I had to cook the rice in 2 batches. I added turmeric powder when cooking one batch of rice and the other one I cooked plain. That's the reason the first layer has white rice and this layer has yellow rice. The final biryani will be very colorful and attractive.
- Drizzle the saffron flavored milk and 1 tbsp ghee over this. Sprinkle some fried onions, finely chopped cilantro, 1 tsp of garam masala and mint leaves on top.
- Arrange the hard boiled eggs on the top.
- Cover with an aluminium foil and seal all sides so that the steam wont be able to escape.
- Leave it in a 350 degree oven for half an hour. By this time the aroma of the biryani will fill the house. (If you are doing the dum on stove top, reduce the flame to the lowest setting and cook for about 20 minutes.)
- Gently fluff up and mix the rice before serving. This way the masala and scrambled egg will be evenly distributed in the rice.
Pressure cooker (One Pot) Method
If you plan to make the biryani without the dum process, you can do it in a heavy bottomed pan or in a pressure cooker. In this case, make the hard boiled eggs and scrambled eggs as above. Heat oil in the pressure cooker and make the masala as described above. Now add the exact measure of water (4.5 cups) for 3 cups of basmati rice (1:1.5 ratio) and bring to a boil. Add the soaked and drained rice to this and cook for 15 minutes on low flame. Switch off and let the pressure go down. Fluff up the rice and gently mix in the scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, fried onions and some more fresh mint leaves. Keep it covered for another 10 minutes for the flavors to mix in before serving.
Serving suggestion
- Serve this egg biryani with some simple raita or any non-veg side-dish. It also goes well with the traditional ennai kathrikai served with biryanis.
- This tastes delicious with some pickle and potato chips too.
Tips
More Biryani Recipes