Easy One-Pot Mutton Rice Recipe

Mutton Biriyani || Mutton Pulao || Easy Mutton Biryani recipe

I do eat chicken but it’s nowhere my favourite, given a choice I will anytime pick Mutton.. agreed, agreed.. it’s nowhere in the healthy list of meals.. Then.. Did I say I eat it at a regular interval.. I hardly touch mutton, but given a ‘choice’, I love mutton more than anything.. That’s my valid point here.. stop judging now.. I still am on the side of eating- being- living ‘HEALTHY’.. always..

Now that winter is gone, I have started my daily walks, and if all goes well, this summer season I will start my swimming classes again after two whole years.. Why am I telling you all these? Because life is coming back to normal once again.. well almost!

After sharing some health tips.. I plunged to some slightly elaborate and heavyweight recipe for today.. but as now you know how to handle your digestive system.. (you do right??), once in a while little cheat meal makes a lot of sense and your tongue to tummy does cry for some rule-breaking at times!! Accept it..

With my previous One Pot recipes (I hope you know about my fetish for One-pot rice recipes?), I took the risk of doing this particular one by myself without peeking for any inspiration (mutton, i.e. goat meat itself is all my inspiration), and of course, Lady of the House shared her expertise. This is more of a special occasion meal using less oil and spices, making it tasty but in a lighter way.. Is that okay now?

This will take little time but it’s all worthy.. Few preparations first:

1. Soak the rice in water after washing the grains nicely. Keep it like this for about 30 minutes or more. I took about 500 gm normal long grin rice. (you may use Basmati instead)
2. I took small chunks of Mutton pieces, with some mutton fat (not a lot, just a bit) and bones, put them in a pot, add some generous amount of water, say double quantity of water of the mutton’s quantity. Add 1-2 bay leaves, few slices of fresh lemon and cook the mutton for about 1-1.5 hours in low flame. (depending on the quantity, mutton takes at least 50 minutes to 1.5 hours to cook.) Make sure it’s 90% cooked before switching the heat off. I used 1 Kg of Mutton.
3. Take some small sized potatoes, or big potatoes and cut them into halves, per boil them and keep them aside.
4. You will need some whole spices like: A small pod (about 1.5″ long) of Cinnamon, Few Cardamoms ( few means 4-5 here & crack them a bit), Few cloves 4/5, 1 star anise, 1 Bay leaf, Few Black peppers.
5. For spice mix you will need: about 100 gm plain curd, curry powder ( You know about my home made curry powder right? This time I added little Nutmeg and Mace in it.. and it became my Sahi Biriyani Masala!!), Ginger garlic Paste (1 table spoon each), little coriander roots & stems pasted (this is also optional). Using turmeric is optional here, I didn’t use.
6. Apart from that you need Onions, lots of them: I took about 7 small sized onions, 4 of them were chopped and 3 of them were thinly sliced.
7. Tomatoes- 2 medium sized chopped
8. Apart from this you will also need some ghee, mustered oil, salt & Fresh coriander leaves, few fresh slit green chilies, about 5-6.

Let’s Prepare now:

• Ok Showtime!!
• Take the sliced onions and shallow fry them in mustered oil, till they turn crispy brown. Now take them off the heat and keep aside.
• In that same mustered oil, shallow fry the potatoes, it’s ok if they aren’t cooked completely, we will have time for them. SO for now fry them a bit in the oil.
• Now in that same mustered oil (in case there is no oil left in your pot, add little more mustered oil considering the amount of meat and rice. Add 1 spoon of ghee, once the ghee melts, add the whole spices (Cinnamon/ cardamom/ cloves/ bay leaves/ pepper/ star anise)
• Once the pot is aromatic and all you want is to continue smelling it, add the chopped onions. Fry them till they turn light brown, now add the chopped tomatoes. Cook on medium or low heat till the tomatoes are softened.
• Now add ginger garlic paste, curry powder (about 2- 2.5 teaspoon), curd on the onions, mix them very well.
• This will take some time to cook, so keeping the heat low, cover the pot for few seconds and then stir them well and repeat it for 2-3 times.
• Gradually the raw smell of ginger garlic will be almost gone, add the mutton pieces (only the meat pieces, keep the water/ juice aside, as we will need it in a bit), add half a portion of the fried onions, little fresh coriander leaves, and stir them very well.
• Now cover the pot for about 10 minutes and stir once/ twice in between. After 10 minutes, the raw smell of ginger-garlic will be completely gone.
• Now add the rice (drain the water before adding the rice), again mix everything and stir for about 2-3 minutes.
• After this, add that kept aside mutton juice, usually it’s no. of cups of rice + 1.5 cups of water, but in case of this dish you may need little more. But don’t add everything at once, start with no. of cups of rice + 1.5 cups water, if you need more later then add the rest. (In case you run out of the juice, add some hot water) (for basmati the water should be: no. of cups of rice + 1 cup water extra)

• Once the water comes to a boil, add salt, mix well, now keep the heat low (mostly the cooking is to be done on low heat) place the potatoes one by one, add the fresh coriander leaves, add the green chilies, the fried onions, sprinkle some curry powder on the top, and little more ghee for the flavour.
• Now cover the pot and let it cook for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, gently bring the rice upside down, check whether the potatoes are cooked or the rice is cooked, if not then add little more water and let it cook for another 10 minutes in low heat keeping the pot covered & once cooked, keep it covered for 10 minutes putting the heat off. If cooked in 20 minutes, then switch the heat off and cover the pot for another 10 minutes for resting time.

It was salivating, it was moist yet soft and fuzzy and the entire family ended up having double the portion than usual!! Think about it!! OO don’t forget to serve some salad with it.. you don’t need anything else and gorge onnnnnn…. You don’t need any inspiration from me if you are a crazy biryani fan.. especially a crazy Mutton Biryani Fan.. there’s some ‘thing’ about mutton biryani.. It is heaven.. walking on the cottony clouds with all the ease of the world.. You get that right? Now run to the kitchen!!