Laura the Gastronaut > Cooking Around the World > India (Biryani)

India (Biryani)

Cooking Around the World

November 15, 2021 | Updated May 16, 2023 | Laura

Culinary Trip to India

Hi! Are you ready to take your taste buds on the trip of a lifetime? If so, let's go!

Today on Cooking Around the World, we are headed to India. To say I was really excited for this would be an understatement. I love Indian food. While in pharmacy school, there was a local Indian restaurant that served up the best dishes and had an amazing lunch buffet. I could have eaten there every single day. I'm sure of it.

For this trip to India, my husband and I will be making the dish that was voted most popular in India by the internet, listening to music from India, and watching videos about Indian street food. These Cooking Around the World experiences are great because you get to eat and cook new delicious foods and have a great time in the kitchen with family and friends. It's also the perfect date night idea!

My Cooking Around the World adventures are guided by a forum I ran across on the internet. You can find the Reddit list here. Basically somebody asked, "What food is your country most known for?" and the forum blew up with responses from all over the world!

My husband and I's goal is to really capture the culture of each country by making an authentic recipe of the most popular dish listed.

So what are you waiting for? You don't even have to pack your bags because we are traveling to India without ever leaving our kitchen!

Interested in taking a trip to a different country? Check out the other countries & states we have visited here!

The Country: India

Tidbits about India

✽ Location:

✽ Most Common Languages Spoken: Hindi, Bengali, & Marathi

✽ Formal Greeting in India: namaste

✽ How to Say 'Thank You': "dhanyavaad" (formal) or "shukriya" (informal)

✽ How to Say 'Goodbye': alavida

✽ How to Say 'The food is delicious.': bhojan svaadisht hai

✽ Capital: New Delhi

✽ Flag:

Biryani

The recipe that was chosen as most popular for India was Biryani. I always try to keep these Cooking Around the World challenges as authentic as possible so I look all over the internet for an authetnic recipe. I stumbled upon the blog, Swasthi's Recipes, which had an excellent recipe for Hyderabadi Biryani with explanations and step-by-step pictures.

What is Biryani?

One theory claims the word Biryani comes from the Persian word, birian, which means "fried before cooking." Another theory says Biryani derives from the Persian word, birinj, which means rice. It is a dish that consists of basmati (long-grain rice), spices, meat (usually chicken, lamb, fish) or vegetables, and a thick gravy. It is then cooked over low heat.

There are multiples types of biryani. The most popular types of biryani in India is Hyderabadi biryani which includes meat (usually goat or chicken), basmati rice, and spices. The meat is commonly marinated in yogurt and spices prior to cooking as the acid in the yogurt helps to tenderize the meat. Caramelized onion, fruits, nuts, and fresh herbs are also common to find within a biryani.

Biryani Recipe

Head over to Swasthi's Recipes to get the delicious hyderabadi biryani recipe.

The recipe also suggested making a biryani gravy which I highly recommend. SO GOOD. This is the exact recipe that my husband and I followed for our Cooking Around the World adventure.

This recipe does take quite a few steps, but it didn't get too crazy. The recipe has many step-by-step pictures and a lengthy explanation which helps a ton.

A traditional biryani does require some specific kitchen tools, but when following this recipe, I was able to use my Lodge Dutch Oven (*affiliate link) which worked great. We did get some burn on the marinade that was at the bottom of our dutch oven (underneath the chicken). With a little bit of searching online, I was able to find a few recipes that have oven instructions for the final cooking which may help with the burning if you don't have all the right equipment.

As for the ingredients, I was able to find everything the recipe called for except for whole cardamom. I added a bit of ground cardamom to make up for that flavor. For the meat, I used skin-on chicken thighs that I marinated in yogurt and spices overnight. This seems like it was the right decision. These chicken thighs were so flavorful and tender.

I really can't decide if I liked the chicken, rice, or gravy more... It was all so good. Oh yeah, and make sure you have a bunch of naan to sop all that deliciousness.

This recipe did take us a bit of time to complete, but it's all part of the experience, right?! Also, if you can, let that chicken soak in the yogurt marinade overnight. It's worth it.

For this recipe:

*Some of these ingredient links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Cooking Playlist

I have found some Indian songs on Spotify. We listened to this while we were cooking and eating and really put us right into the country! You can find the playlist to all these songs below and by clicking here!

Youtube Videos

One of my favorite things about these virtual trips is watching videos over the food culture of the country. I love this video made by Luke Martin. All the food in this video looks sooo good, and I want to try it all!

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This trip to India was so much fun, and I hope you had fun reading about biryani! I love trying new foods and being able to fully enjoy the cooking process. Let me down below if you take a food trip to India too!

Category: Cooking Around the World
Keywords: cooking date nights, date night ideas, authentic biryani recipe, authentic indiana food, chicken biryani recipe, cooking challenge ideas

✽ Did you make this recipe too?
→ Let me know by leaving a comment below and sharing on Instagram. Tag @laurathegastronaut and hashtag it #laurathegastronaut.

More Cooking Around the World:

✽ Morocco (moroccan couscous)
✽ United Arab Emirates (harees from the UAE)
✽ Italy (bolognese and margherita pizza)
→ Check out all of my cooking around the world adventures!

बॉन एपेतीत! [bon epeteet!] - translation of Bon appétit! in Hindi

November 15, 2021 by Laura Ehlers

*This India Cooking Around the World blog post may contain some Amazon affiliate links. These link to products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase anything using my links, it will not cost you anything. It will though give laurathegastronaut.com some financial support which helps me keep this blog running. Thank you for reading my blogs and your continued support.