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Mushroom Biryani

Course: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Priyanka

Ingredients

For cooking rice

  • 1 1/2 cups of basmati rice
  • 6 peppercorns
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 4 cloves
  • 3 green cardamons
  • 1 black cardamon
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 8-10 cups of water
  • salt to taste

For mushroom biryani

  • 15-20 sliced button mushrooms
  • 4-5 peppercorns
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 black cardamom
  • 4 cloves
  • 2 tsp warm milk
  • pinch of saffron
  • 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp ghee
  • 1 cup sliced onions
  • 1 cup mint leaves
  • 1/2 cup coriander leaves
  • 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 3-4 slit green chilles
  • 1 tbsp coriander-cumin powder
  • 1 tbsp garam masala powder
  • 1 cup fried onions optional
  • 1 cup yogurt
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • salt to taste

Instructions

To prepare rice

  • Wash and soak basmati rice for 30 minutes.
  • Heat water in a big pot. Add all the dry spices and salt to it and bring the water to rolling boil. Taste the water, it should be salty.
  • Add rice and stir it gently. 
  • Cook the rice till its 70-80% done or 3/4 cooked. Keep an eye on it and check for the doneness of rice in between. When it is 3/4 cooked, it should look cooked from outside but when u break it should still has a bite to it. 
  • Remove it from the heat. Strain it in a colander, spread it on a flat plate and set it aside.

To make mushroom biryani

  • Add saffron to warm milk and keep it aside.
  • In a thick bottom pan(I usually use my cast iron pan), heat 2 tbsp ghee with 2 tbsp oil.
  • Add all the dry spices. 
  • Add sliced onions and slit green chilies to it and cook it for 2-3 minutes or till they turn translucent.
  • Add sliced mushrooms and saute them well. Cover the pan and cook it for 8-10 minutes, stirring in between. Note: Do not add salt at this point as mushrooms ooze too much of liquid.
  • Mix in cumin-coriander powder, garam masala, salt to taste and roughly chopped mint and coriander leaves to it. Add yogurt and mix it thoroughly.
  • Bring down the heat to lowest. Spread the prepared rice over cooked mushroom and onion mixture. Top it with 1 tbsp of ghee, saffron soaked in warm milk, some more mint leaves(optional) and fried onions.
  • Cover it with aluminium foil, place the lid on top of it and cook it for 10-15 minutes.
  • Turn of the heat and let it sit for additional 15 minutes.
  • Serve hot with cucumber raita or just plain yogurt.

Notes

  • Alternately, you can also fully cook rice and layer it over mushroom mixture. In that case, cut down the cooking time to 5 minutes after layering rice over mushroom-onion mixture. Also make sure the mushroom-onion mixture is dry otherwise it will overcook the rice and break the long grains of basmati rice. 
  • To make quick fried onions: Take 1 tbsp oil in same vessel you are going to cook biryani. Add 1 cup of sliced onions to it. Over medium-high heat cook onions, stirring occasionally. Once the onions start turning golden brown, stir continuously till it turns crispy and brown in color. Take it out on a plate and let it cool. This is a non-fried recipe for fried onions.