10 Biryani Cooking Tips That Will Improve the Taste of Any Biryani
Biryani is an extremely famous food in Bangladesh and around the south Asian countries including India and Pakistan. This widely popular dish comes in many different types depending on the place, cooking materials, and spices. There are some important secrets to cook biryani for absolute taste and appearance and today we are going to learn about those secrets which will significantly improve the quality of your biryani and your cooking skills. Remember that cooking perfect biryani is not easy and it requires effort and long-time practices along with some secrets which will be revealed through this blog.
With the striking varieties of Biryani, in every south Indian region has its own types inspired by different communities and local spices. But the main ingredients are the same that includes premium rice and meat. Be it mutton, beef, or chicken they are cooked with special care because of the sensitivity of the mixture of the ingredients. Some communities have also developed their own version of biryanis like fish biryani, vegetable biryani, meatball biryani, and even prawn and shrimp biryani. Though they come with many different types we are going to discuss the conventional meat biryanis.
Maintain Rice to Meat Ratio
Sometimes people go out of the meat during eating biryani because the meat rice ratio was not properly maintained. I guess you would never love to eat meatless biryani, neither you would like to miss the juicy biryani rice that actually provides a greater taste in combination. According to the golden ratio, you can have the biryani with a 1:1 ratio where if you use 1kg rice, you have to use 1kg of meat. But if you love meat and like to use meat a bit more then you have to use 750gm meat with 500gm rice.
Choose Premium Rice
Good biryani is defined by the rice you use and if you go with normal rice, you will never get expected taste and fragrance. To have the best biryani experience you must get the premium rice such as basmati rice. Basmati is not the only rice you can use, there are much other long-grain rice that is good for biryani. They are tasty, aromatic, and easy to be cooked in less heat.
Soak Rice Before Cooking
Soaking is a very important part of cooking biryani and if you do not soak rice before cooking, it will not properly puff and will a long time to cook which is not good for biryani preparation. You need to keep the rice in water for 20 minutes at least. But if you are using sella rice then you need to soak for more than 45 minutes. After soaking you need to dry up a little bit but it will have no trouble because if you soak the rice properly the rice will absorb enough amount of water to make it a little be softened.
Use Thick and Wide Skillet
For perfect cooking, you are going to need a thick-bottomed skillet that will prevent rice to be burned. Moreover, your skillet also needs to be wide in the bottom part so that you can move and spread the rice evenly. This type of skillet will help your biryani to get even heat and will cook the biryani properly.
Salt to Test
Salt is one of the most prime taste enhancers for almost everything we cook and the perfect proportion is very important to have a good taste in the biryani. If salt is more, it is going to destroy your biryani. So, you cannot use more or less salt but enough for your taste. After adding a normal amount of salt, you can taste by tasting the water while cooking and if less add more according to your experience.
Spiced Your Water for Boiling Rice
Throughout the Indian region, biryani is cooked differently but the most common cooking comes with spiced water first. For cooking biryani, you should boil the water first with the right amount of spices like cardamom, cumin, pepper, bay leaf, etc. In different places, different types of spices are used. The best is you boil the water with these spices including salt and then when you see little change in the color, you give the soaked water. This will definitely give a boost to the fragrance and aromatic taste in your biryani. Cook for 10 minutes or the time that needs to cook up to 70%. This will help you stay away from the overcooking while mixing the meat and cook again. In this process, you should use Ghee for better taste and aroma and use it when boiling the water with rice.
Marinade the meat for two to three hours
Meat is another most important ingredient of biryani and you need to marinate meat for 2-3 hours before you cook separately. The marinating process is really crucial to the biryani making process because this will help the meat to absorb enough spices which will make this more aromatic and juicier.
Must Cook Rice and Meat Separately
You must not cook rice and meat together because they won’t go well and if you want the meat to be cooked 100% you must cook the meat separately. For rice, you must cook 70 percent before you add with the meat and cook again. But you have to cook the meat 100 percent so that it doesn’t go wrong.
Cook on Low Flame
You must not forget that cooking anything on the low flame will take time but they will turn out to be very delicious. Not to be confused that cooking on the high flame will also help but this will be in a rush and the spices won’t be as good as low flame cooking. Therefore, you should cook both rice and meat be cooked on low flame. But it is a must when you are mixing all the ingredients together meaning the meat and rice mix should be done on low flame so that they do not get burned.
Fried Onions
Fried onion is important for extra color and extra taste. So, before you cook the biryani, you should fry the onion in the right way so that they do not get very crunchy or very soft. They should be in between so that it tastes good. After a golden texture, you can add those fried onions with your biryani. It makes the biryani more delicious and more lucrative.
If you are intimidating to cook a better and delicious biryani, you must follow the secret rules of the biryani making process. Most importantly you must choose good ingredients that will bring the right taste in your biryani.
