Reviewed: Oct. 23, 2007

I don't have a problem with recipes that have several steps and/or require a lot of prep time, as long as the results are worth it. This wasn't worth it, imo. I ended up adding a lot more spices and yogurt, and most of a can of tomatoes. The end result wasn't terrible, but it was quite a lot of work for rather mediocre results. Thanks anyway!

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Caroline C

Cooking Level: Expert

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Reviewed: Aug. 29, 2007

This was great; the cardamom offers a delicious and different flavor. The only change I made is using water rather than broth to cook the rice in; with all the spices it seems unneccessary and wasteful to use broth. I'll definitely make biryani again.

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mommymeggy

Cooking Level: Intermediate

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Reviewed: Aug. 28, 2007

This recipe is awesome! The best biryani recipe ever! I skipped the potatoes since it dint work well for me before. After reading a few reviews, I decided to add more spice. I added 1 tsp of chilli powder, 1 tsp of ground pepper instead of half tsp each. This is the first time that I have succeeded in making a good biryani! Thank you so much!

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San

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Reviewed: Aug. 27, 2007

I made this as a covered dish for our foreign exchange student's orientation. It was a huge hit. My son, who is a picky eater, told me the recipe was a keeper! I did not have cardamomor powdered saffron. I used a biryani spice mix, omitting the spices included in the mix. I also used saffron threads, which probably would have made the rice a beautiful yellow had I known how to use it properly. Thank you for sharing this wonderful dish!

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PNLewis

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Bishopville, South Carolina, USA

Living In: Columbia, South Carolina, USA

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Reviewed: Jul. 4, 2007

This really isn't the best biryani recipe I've made, but it's fast for biryani so I thought I'd give it a shot. I had to double all the curry spices and added a good helping of garam marsala. I never even tasted a hint of mint so I'm thinking that doubling the mint might help as well. When you're cooking your rice, I would eliminate the onions and let the spices sit in the oil until it's nice and fragrant. Then add the rice and cook for five minutes to let the rice absorb some of the flavors. Once you've added it to the rest of the recipe don't cook on the lowest temp or it will get soggy. You need to cook basmati rice on a med-low heat and much faster to avoid soggy rice. This recipe is HUGE. I cut it down to four servings and still had too much food.

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SOLRAVR

Cooking Level: Intermediate

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Reviewed: May 10, 2007

Even with all the spices, it was slightly bland in my opinion, but better the second day.

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Hipchickrecords

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Chicago, Illinois, USA

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Reviewed: Dec. 28, 2006

hey I jst made my 1st biryani wid ur recipe n u no what it turned out to be awsome.. thanks a million..i never thought making biryani was so easy.. once more thanks

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Gulzar

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Reviewed: Dec. 10, 2006

While this recipe is time consuming, it is well worth it! I made a couple changes, I added cashews and raisins when adding the chicken broth, and I used chicken wings and drumsticks with the bone-in instead of cutting up the whole chicken. This is easier, and I wanted to avoid dry pieces of chicken in other biryani dishes that I have had. The chicken came out extremely tender, it was falling off the bone. Absolutely delicious! The flavor is mild for the Indian palatte, so if you like it spicy add more spice, but overall this recipe is a definite keeper. This would be a great dish to make for a lot of people as the quantity is large. Also be sure to use basmati rice with this it is so aromatic and delicious.

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Jeannine

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Reviewed: May 31, 2006

It was magnificent! the most delicious biryani i ever [made] and ate! it was perfect. fortunately, all my procedure went good . thanks a lot NAZIA!

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sayali k

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Reviewed: Nov. 29, 2005

This was pretty good. I think I messed up in chopping the onions too finely as the mixture was quite liquid-y. And I think cooking the rice on the lowest setting on my stove was too low as it ended up being mushy as well. But texture aside, the flavors were mild, but very nice. I would season the potatoes & chicken a bit next time, or dice them a bit smaller, as they were a bit bland.

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HAILBUZZY

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Taiping, Perak, Malaysia

Living In: Austin, Texas, USA

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Reviewed: Sep. 20, 2005

Wow!! This was amazing. I made it for a bunch of friends and made very few modifications. I used boneless skinless drumsticks which I beleive were the perfect choice for this dish as they had enough dark meat to stay plenty moist. The only change I amde was to add raisins and cashews during the rice cooking stage but that was only due to personal preference. I didn't find the recipe particularly time consuming. I started making it 2 hours prior to the time I wanted to serve it and it was ready right on time, during the 2 long cooking stages there isn't anything to do except set the table, pour some wine and enjoy the delicious smells.

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WILLESDENGIRL

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Reviewed: Jun. 4, 2005

Very good; really reflects the complex interplay of spices and flavors that is biryani. But I can't give it five stars because, while not a difficult recipe, it is very time consuming: it took me 2.5 hours from beginning chopping to putting it on the table. (I imagine I'll be faster next time, but it's probably still nearly two hours in raw cooking time. I'm trying to think of ways to do this faster. If I come up with something significant I'll try to remember to update this review.)

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Mark P

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Berkeley, California, USA

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Reviewed: Apr. 6, 2005

I've never tasted indian food before, even if I came from it's neighbouring country, so I decided to give this a try. I didn't wanted it to be too dry, so I doubled the amount of yoghurt (actually I think I dumped in 1/2 cups of yoghurt, while I reduced the meat to using only 2 chicken breast-halves). After tasting the gravy, I added crushed corriander, sugar, and garam masala but that was my own preference. The end result was delicious!! I served it over nasi kuning, which is an Indonesian yellow rice dish. Giving it 4 stars because I didn't follow the recipe exactly.

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SummerRain

Cooking Level: Expert

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Reviewed: Nov. 24, 2004

I haven't made thsi recipe, but I am an Indian and both my husband and I loovveee Biryani and cook often. If you want to know the secret to fast biryani cooking, go to any Indian/Pakistani grocery store and buy "Shan" spice mix for it, its so easy adn really good. I can't say the best, but its so much easier than doing everything that Biryani recipe makes you do.

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KHATTI

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Reviewed: Nov. 14, 2004

Awesome!

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Steelhead

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Reviewed: Aug. 1, 2004

this recipe is absolute rubbish , excuse me but it is not biryani its more like a mixture of tahiri and pullao

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MDSGH

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Reviewed: Jun. 5, 2004

It was really good, but not quite up to expectations. It could be my fault...I didn't have cardamom pods, so I substituted 1/2 tsp ground cardamom per pod for it. The whole dish was overly redolent of cardamom. I was expecting something more balanced, so next time (and there will be a next time), I'll give the pods a try as the recipe calls for. Finally, I didn't add the salt into the rice portion of the dish, figuring the salt in my Swanson's chicken broth would be enough. It wasn't. Next time I'll trust the recipe more. Absolutely worth a try, just be aware that you may need to be more literal about this recipe than some other ones on the site.

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AUNTWEBBIE

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Reviewed: May 10, 2004

this was tasty, but was alot of work. I was hoping it would be a little more spicy.

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Huggle Buggle in MA

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Reviewed: Mar. 26, 2004

I do not know when was the last time I made Indian food from scratch so as I was making this I did not know if it was going well or not. However, in the end it was delicious. It does take time to make but if you have preparations made in advance, it is not so bad and is well worth it. Thank you for this delicious recipe. Please send more.

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MRSBELBEKKOUCHE

Cooking Level: Expert

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Reviewed: Mar. 23, 2004

I found this recipe to be tasty but I agree with some of the other reviewers- a lot of time and energy required for this recipe! I also found that my chicken went rather dry. The amount of food it made was also huge!! I could have fed a family of 10 on this amount. Additionally, it did not keep very well as the leftovers were quite dry the next day. But to be fair, the flavour was very nice when fresh from the pan.

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