Rich and Flavorful Beef Biryani

Name: Rich and Flavorful Beef Biryani
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 15 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: 2 lbs Halal chuck roast; 3 cups basmati rice; 4 potatoes, choopped; 1 green chili, sliced and deseeded; 5 tomatoes, diced; 2 yellow onions, thin sliced; 1 cup neutral flavored oil; ¼ cup cilantro, chopped; 2 tbsp lemon juice; Salt and Pepper, to taste; 4 cloves garlic; 3-inch piece of ginger; ½ cup plain yogurt; 1 tsp mace; 1 star anise; 1 cinnamon stick; 4 cloves; 4 green cardamoms; ½ tsp nutmeg; ½ tsp turmeric; 1 tbsp chili powder; 1 tbsp coriander; 1 tsp paprika; 2 bay leaves; 2 tsp Salt and Pepper, each

A purple bowl of biryani, made with seasoned basmati rice and tender chunks of Halal beef and potatoes, topped with cilantro.

There’s something special about making a great biryani. Sure, the time it takes to get right might be off-putting when you’re looking for something quick and easy, but if you’re willing to follow the steps and take the time, the rich and decadent flavors and tender beef make this a must-have recipe when you need to feed hungry friends and family.

There’s a fair number of steps needed to get this recipe just right and get the best out of the final product. But the long cooking time not only lets all of the flavors come together, it also lets you do a couple things at once to be efficient with your time. Either way, a great place to start is by prepping your vegetables and beef. We used Midamar Halal chuck roast, chopped into small chunks. Cuts of beef like this are great for giving you a good amount of tasty beef, and the long cook-time lets what is usually a tougher cut get nice and tender.

Once you start cooking in a large pot, you don’t need much else in the way of dishes besides another small pot to boil your rice in. Otherwise, most of your time will be spent making the masala, the key feature that makes this recipe a worldwide favorite; this is simply done by letting your diced tomato simmer down into a thick paste in the simmering liquids from the chuck roast. Tempting though it may be to snack on the simmering beef here, it’s only going to get more tender and delicious as the recipe continues to come together.

As that simmers and comes together, it’s a great time to make the yogurt blend that makes the masala so decadently creamy later. It’s a mix of plain yogurt and a ton of spices like cinnamon, coriander, and cardamoms just to name a few, and this recipe makes a lot of biryani, so don’t be afraid to really season this blend to get the most out of all of these great spices. This will go into the masala at the same time as the potatoes to simmer together even longer, infusing it with even more flavor and giving the potatoes time to start to soften.

While these ingredients are getting to know one another in the main pot, now is a great time to cook your basmati rice. You don’t need it cooked entirely at this step; in fact, you want it still a bit firm as it will get layered into the pot to finish cooking later. Cooking it to completion here might leave you with mushy rice in the end, and no one wants that.

It’s time to start to layer the biryani for the final step before you can dig in and enjoy. Everything in the main pot will need to get set aside in a large mixing bowl, then half of the rice gets spread over the bottom of the pot with a bit of water. Spread the masala over the rice, then top this with the last half of your rice and sprinkle with some of the crispy onions from earlier in the recipe. Covering this with foil AND the lid to the pot while it finishes cooking will keep that steam inside and ensure that the rice and potatoes reach just the right amount of tender needed.

When it’s all finished cooking, unveiling this dish feels like an occasion itself, and the smell of all these flavors that have been cooked together for hours at this point is hard to resist. If all done right, the beef, potatoes, and rice are all perfectly tender, the masala is decadently creamy, and everything is rich and flavorful, infused with your blend of amazing spices and hard work. And it all pays off with a biryani that begs to be enjoyed and will have you, friends, and family all coming back for seconds.

That’s it for this week, we hope you enjoy as much as we did, and when you do, make sure you share this with someone else who’s in need of a great recipe and we hope to see you next time.