I have been procrastinating to blog this recipe for quite some time and today, I had to post it. Today is the last day for the Rice Mela and had to get to work as soon as I woke up. I did not prepare the biryani today, I just had to draft the post, select the picture to include in the post and water mark it. Lot of work, right? It took me almost the same amount or even more time than cooking the recipe from the scratch. So, you see, I had to start working on it, first thing in the morning, to meet the deadline 🙂 .

Total Time: 1 hr
Serves: 4-5

• 6 Eggs
• 1/3 – ½ cup Oil
• 1 large Onion sliced
• ¼ cup Mint Leaves chopped
• 2-3 tsp ginger Garlic Paste
• 6 Green Chilies cut length wise
• ¾ cup Frozen Green Peas
• ½ tsp Chili Powder
• ½ tsp Biryani Masala (I Used Shaan biryani masala)
• ¼ tsp Garam Masala (I used store bought Rajah brand)
• 1 tbsp. Salt (this is an approximate measure. I have not measured it. Adjust to taste)
• ¾ cup Yogurt
• ½ lime juice or 2-3 tbsp lime juice
• ½ cup Cilantro/Kotmir chopped
• 1/3 cup Milk
• Few strands of Saffron
• Soaking the Rice
  • 3 cups Rice
  • 4-6 Cardamoms
  • 3-4 Cloves
  • ½” Cinnamon
  • ½ tsp Saha Jeera/Black Jeera/Caraway seeds
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 1 Biryani Flower

• Boil Eggs, peel and make some slits on it or poke it with a fork or a knife.
• Wash rice wash and soak in 4 cups of water. Ratio here is 1cup rice: 1 1/3 cup water. Add all the ingredients listed under soaking the rice. Soak the rice for 10-15. Cook the rice in rice cooker or on a stove top. I prefer rice cooker, because I don’t have to keep an eye on it. Once the rice is done let it sit for 10 minutes before arranging it for dum.
• In a pan add all the oil, keeping aside 2 tbsp of for later use. Fry sliced onion until golden brown and remove ½ of the browned onions and keep it aside.
• To the remaining onion, add mint, ginger garlic paste, green chilies and saute for a minute.
• Add frozen peas and saute for a few seconds.
• Add chili powder, garam masala, biryani masala, salt and boiled eggs. Cook until the spices are well coated to the eggs.
• Add beaten yogurt and saute until oil separates.
• Add lime juice and half of the cilantro and mix well and turn of the heat.
• Taste the mixture for salt and add salt if required.
• Add saffron to milk and heat for a minute in the microwave.
• Take a wide sauce pan with a lid and grease the pan with oil.  Spread ½ the cooked rice in it. Transfer the egg mixture to the sauce pan to make the second layer. Follow this layer with the remaining rice. Sprinkle remaining oil, saffron milk, fried onions and the remaining chopped cilantro.  Cover the pan with a well fitted lid.  Seal the pan with aluminum foil to seal the steam from escaping from the pan.
• Cook it on medium heat for 3-5 minutes until the pan and the rice inside gets warm. Reduce the heat to low and cook it for another 10-12 minutes.  This step can be done in the oven too.  Refer to the 2nd point in the notes section below.
• Serve hot with your favorite raita or gravy.

• Green peas can be substituted with ones choice of vegetables or with cashews and raisins. I personally don’t like nuts in my biryani. If one likes nuts and raisins, it can be substituted with green peas.
• Last step of the cooking can be done in the oven too. Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Arrange the rice and egg mixture in layers in an oven proof dish.  Cover the dish with an aluminum foil.  Once the oven is pre-heated, reduce the temperature to 350F and bake the rice for 20 minutes or until done. Oven temperatures vary from oven to oven so check the rice before removing it from the oven.

If you like biryani, you may also like

I am sending Egg Dum Biryani, Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani and Hyderabadi Mutton Biryani to Rice Mela, hosted by Srivalli.