This pressure cooker mutton biryani is an easy-to-cook version of the famed Malabar mutton biryani. Unlike the traditional preparations, this recipe doesn’t involve any elaborate cooking. There are only two main steps involved – One, cooking the meat in a pressure cooker. Two, adding rice cooked with spices to the meat.
If you are a purist, don’t worry! This pressure cooker mutton biryani recipe doesn’t compromise on the authentic flavours. The end result is still a great tasting Kerala mutton biryani.
Jeerakasala rice cooked with whole spices, soaking up the flavours of juicy mutton simmered with onions, spices, mint and coriander leaves – it is a union that you cannot refuse!
Jeerakasala or Khyma rice is the variety of rice used for cooking traditional Malabar mutton biryani. If you cannot get hold of Jeerakasala rice, you can replace it with Basmati rice.
Bookmark this recipe. This pressure cooker mutton biryani will be a lifesaver (slightly exaggerated, but if you are biryani lover you’ll know what I am saying!) when you crave for a homecooked Kerala biryani.
About this pressure cooker mutton biryani
We’ll start by marinating the mutton pieces with green chillies, ginger, garlic and salt. Most of the cooking happens in the pressure cooker. Onions are shallow fried with other ingredients in the pressure cooker. Marinated mutton is added to the mix. All the ingredients are combined well, and then pressure cooked to perfection.
Check out the recipe notes if you are not familiar with cooking meat in a pressure cooker. Wait for the pressure to drop naturally before opening the lid.
When you open the lid, you’ll see the mutton pieces cooked well, falling off the bones and simmering in the flavourful juices. Rice cooked with whole spices is added to the pressure cooker, and cooked for some more time to complete our delicious, pressure cooker mutton biryani.
If you liked this pressure cooker mutton biryani recipe, don’t forget to check out the following Kerala recipes as well.
- Thalassery Chicken Biriyani
- Kerala Mutton Curry
- Erachi Choru (Meat Rice Kerala Style)
- Kerala Homemade Chicken Curry
- Kerala Fish Fry
Pressure Cooker Mutton Biryani
Ingredients
For marinade
- 5 green chillies moderately hot
- 1 inch ginger
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons mint leaves roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons coriander leaves (cilantro) roughly chopped
For mutton
- 1/2 kg mutton medium-sized pieces
- 5 medium onions thinly sliced
- 10 green chillies moderately hot (sliced lengthwise)
- 1 inch ginger finely chopped
- 10 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1/4 cup mint leaves roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup coriander leaves (cilantro) roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- salt
For rice
- 1/2 kg jeerakasala rice about 2 1/2 cups
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 1 piece star anise
- 2 cardamom
- 3 cloves
- 1 piece mace
- 1/4 cup mint leaves roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup coriander leaves (cilantro) roughly chopped
- salt
Instructions
- Take the green chillies, ginger and garlic mentioned under the marinade ingredients, chop them, and mix well to create a coarse paste.
- In a mixing bowl, add the mutton pieces, the marinade, and salt.
- Add chopped mint and coriander leaves.
- Combine well to get the mutton pieces evenly coated with the marinade ingredients.
- Keep aside to marinate for 10 minutes.
- Heat some oil in a pressure cooker and shallow fry the onions.
- Once the onions are tender, add sliced green chillies, ginger, garlic, coriander leaves and mint leaves.
- Add the mutton pieces, combine well, close the lid and pressure cook till the meat is done.
- Add 5 cups water in a pot. Add the whole spices and the mint and coriander leaves.
- Bring to boil.
- Wash and drain the rice. Add to the boiling water.
- Cook the rice to 90%. It shouldn't be fully cooked.
- Open the pressure cooker. The mutton pieces should be cooked well by now.
- Transfer the almost cooked rice to the pressure cooker.
- Add the remaining coriander and mint leaves as a top layer.
- Level the rice so that it evenly covers the cooked mutton in the cooker.
- Close the lid and cook for 10 more minutes on a low flame (without pressure cooking).
- Switch off. Keep the cooker closed for another 15 minutes.
- Serve hot with some raita and pickle.
Loved this recipe. It was subtle yet so flavourful.
Thank you very much, Rajashree.
Happy to hear that the Pressure Cooker Mutton Biryani recipe came out well 🙂
Hi Arun
In south africa where i hail from nearly all the indians put black mysore dal into their biriyanis.
they boil it first with salt then add to the rice after its cooked.
I dont know where the idea came from because I never saw biriyani with lentils when i visited India.
It may have come from the arabic dish Mujaddara,and the indians may have incorporated it into their biriyanis.
I didnt know about jeerakasala rice so i sent my old man to buy a kg and he came back with a 5 kg bag! that was all they had but we love your recipe and we love the rice too!
its so good experimenting and trying new things
thank you so much
This recipe was very good . I added cinnamon sticks.,cloves.cardamon powder and 1 black cardamon and 1/2 tsp white pepper to the marinade and 1 tin of puy lentils to the biriyani rice after it was cooked .It was very yummy.
thank you for great recipe
That’s a beautiful feedback. Thank you, Isa.
Love the changes you have added to the marinade. 🙂
Puy lentils in a biriyani? Never tried that before. I suppose that adds to the texture?
Hi Arun, when u add the marinated meat to the onion masala in the cooker.. do u add any water at that point ..? Wondering whether the contents would get burnt if water is not added…? Ta
Hi Usha,
Juices from the meat is usually sufficient to pressure cook the mutton. Especially with tender mutton/lamb, we don’t have to add any water. However, I recommend adding a little water (just enough) if you have to cook the mutton for a long time.
Hello Chef,
I badly want to try this recipe. But very often I find it difficult to cook the biriyani rice perfectly. Most of the time, it turns either over cooked or under cooked. Please share some tips on it.
Thanks in advance😊
Hello Vinsha, Thank you for checking out the biriyani recipe. Did you try this recipe? If not, shall we try once? Stick to the instructions especially keep an eye of the amount of water you use.
Tried this biriyani,it was amazing. Thanks for the recipe.Your measurements are very accurate
Thank you very much Anindita! 🙂 I am glad you liked the biriyani. It is one of my favourites.