[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":447},["ShallowReactive",2],{"recipe:kacchi-biryani":3,"recipe:country:bangladesh":234},{"slug":4,"title":5,"nativeName":6,"pronunciation":7,"countrySlug":8,"region":9,"emoji":10,"summary":11,"intro":12,"story":13,"whyThis":14,"tips":19,"substitutions":26,"variations":43,"serveWith":53,"storage":55,"faq":56,"equipment":72,"baseServings":77,"prepMinutes":78,"cookMinutes":79,"restMinutes":80,"difficulty":81,"course":82,"diet":84,"mainIngredients":86,"ingredients":92,"instructions":177,"nutrition":209,"images":215,"keywords":225,"publishedAt":232,"updatedAt":232,"authorSlug":233},"kacchi-biryani","Kacchi Biryani (Dhaka Wedding Mutton and Rice)","কাচ্চি বিরিয়ানি","KAH-chee bi-ri-YAH-nee","bangladesh","Dhaka","🍚","Dhaka's wedding biryani, where raw yogurt-marinated mutton, whole potatoes and half-cooked rice go into one sealed pot and cook together exactly once, so the meat perfumes the rice from below.","Kacchi biryani is the biryani that never browns its meat. Goat or mutton on the bone is marinated raw in yogurt, papaya and ground spice, laid in the bottom of a heavy pot under whole potatoes, half-cooked aromatic rice, ghee, saffron milk and fried onions, and then sealed with dough so nothing escapes for the next ninety minutes. \"Kacchi\" means raw, and that is the entire idea: the meat cooks a single time, in its own juices, and everything above it is seasoned by the steam rising through. The result tastes different from a layered pakki biryani — softer, milkier, less fried, with rice that carries mutton fat and cardamom all the way to the top grain. In Dhaka it is wedding food, ordered by the kilo and eaten with a sweet-salty borhani yogurt drink alongside.","Biryani travelled into Bengal with the Mughal court and stayed on in Dhaka long after the empire ended, changing as it settled. The kacchi method — meat and rice cooked together from raw, sealed under dough — belongs to the older Persianate tradition of dum cooking, where a pot is closed and left over a slow fire so that steam does all the work. What Dhaka added was its own scale and its own rules: whole peeled potatoes buried among the meat, aromatic short-grain chinigura or kalijira rice rather than long basmati, a restrained sweetness from ghee and dried plums, and a serving culture in which the biryani is not one dish among many but the entire meal.\n\nThe potatoes are the detail outsiders argue about most. They are not filler and they are not a wartime substitution — in a Dhaka kacchi they are treated as the best part of the pot, soaked in mutton fat and saffron and often the first thing a guest looks for. Cooks fry them briefly in turmeric so they hold their shape and take on colour, then bury them where the rendering fat collects. Serve a kacchi in Dhaka without potatoes and someone will comment.\n\nThe dish is inseparable from weddings. A Bangladeshi wedding kitchen cooks kacchi in cauldrons wide enough to need two people to lift the lid, the seal made from a rope of flour dough pressed around the rim, the fire banked with ash so it never rises past a whisper. Guests get a mound of rice, a piece of mutton, a potato, a boiled egg, and a glass of borhani — a spiced yogurt drink whose sharpness exists precisely because the biryani is so rich. Old Dhaka restaurants have made a business of it for generations, and the reputation of a wedding is genuinely affected by whose kacchi was served.\n\nAt home the same logic works in a Dutch oven. The variables that matter are the marinade doing its tenderising job overnight, the rice being pulled from the water while still firm, and the heat being low enough that the bottom layer of meat cooks through before the rice above it overcooks.",[15,16,17,18],"True kacchi method — raw marinated meat and parboiled rice sealed in one pot, not two dishes combined at the end.","A long yogurt and papaya marinade that tenderises goat properly instead of relying on a pressure cooker.","Clear doneness signals for the rice parboil, the stage that decides whether the finished biryani is fluffy or paste.","Honest about the home version: no charcoal on the lid, and an explanation of what that costs you.",[20,21,22,23,24,25],"Use bone-in goat or lamb shoulder and leg, cut into large 5–6 cm pieces. Small boneless cubes dry out before the rice is done, and the bones are where the flavour in the rice comes from.","Raw green papaya paste is the traditional tenderiser and it works fast — one tablespoon per kilo is plenty. Too much turns the meat mushy and slightly bitter.","Parboil the rice to roughly 70 percent: a grain should snap in half when pressed between two nails, with a chalky white core still visible. Fully cooked rice becomes porridge under dum.","Seal the lid properly with a dough rope or a sheet of foil crimped hard under a heavy lid. Escaping steam is escaping cooking liquid, and the meat at the bottom will not get there in time.","Give the pot fifteen minutes off the heat before opening. The layers settle, the rice finishes on residual steam, and it stops the top from collapsing when you serve.","Serve by digging vertically down through all the layers with a flat spoon, never by stirring — the point is that each plate has rice, meat and potato in their own textures.",[27,31,35,39],{"original":28,"swap":29,"note":30},"Chinigura or kalijira rice","Aged basmati rice","Basmati is longer, drier and less perfumed, so the biryani will be fluffier but less sweetly aromatic. Reduce the parboil by about a minute since basmati absorbs faster.",{"original":32,"swap":33,"note":34},"Green papaya paste","Extra yogurt plus 30 minutes more marinating, or a teaspoon of grated raw pineapple","Both are honest tenderisers. Pineapple is stronger than papaya, so use half as much and do not exceed four hours of marinating.",{"original":36,"swap":37,"note":38},"Goat or mutton","Lamb shoulder on the bone","Lamb is fattier and cooks 15–20 minutes faster. Chicken does not work in a kacchi — it overcooks long before the rice is ready, which is exactly why morog polao exists as a separate dish.",{"original":40,"swap":41,"note":42},"Mawa or dried milk powder","Two extra tablespoons of ghee","Mawa adds a mild milky sweetness typical of Dhaka kacchi. Without it the pot is slightly leaner but still correct.",[44,47,50],{"name":45,"description":46},"Kacchi with boiled eggs","Whole peeled boiled eggs are fried in turmeric until blistered and added to each plate at serving. Standard at weddings, never buried in the pot where they would overcook.",{"name":48,"description":49},"Chicken tehari","The everyday Dhaka cousin: rice cooked with small pieces of meat and plenty of mustard oil and green chile, all in one stage, without the dum seal or the layering.",{"name":51,"description":52},"Beef kacchi","A common Dhaka variant using beef shank or chuck. It needs a longer marinade and roughly 30 extra minutes of dum, so parboil the rice a touch less to compensate.",[54],"Borhani — a chilled yogurt drink blended with mint, green chile, roasted cumin, black salt and a little mustard — plus a plain salad of raw onion and cucumber.","Kacchi keeps 3 days refrigerated and reheats better than most rice dishes because of its fat content. Reheat covered in a low oven at 150°C with a splash of water sprinkled over the rice, or in a covered pan over the lowest heat, until steam comes through. Microwaving dries the top layer. It freezes for up to 2 months in portioned containers; thaw fully in the fridge before reheating, or the meat warms while the rice is still frozen.",[57,60,63,66,69],{"question":58,"answer":59},"What is the difference between kacchi and pakki biryani?","In kacchi biryani the meat goes into the pot raw, marinated in yogurt, and cooks only once — under a layer of parboiled rice sealed with dough. In pakki biryani the meat is cooked into a finished curry first and then layered with rice for a short final steaming. Kacchi tastes milkier and less fried, but it is harder to control because the meat and rice must finish at the same moment.",{"question":61,"answer":62},"Why are there whole potatoes in Bangladeshi biryani?","They are traditional in Dhaka kacchi, not a substitute for meat. Whole peeled potatoes are fried in turmeric and buried in the bottom of the pot where the mutton fat collects, so they absorb the richest part of the dish. In Bangladesh the potato is often considered the best thing on the plate, and a kacchi served without one draws comment.",{"question":64,"answer":65},"How do I know when the rice is parboiled enough?","Fish out a grain and press it between two fingernails. It should snap cleanly in half and still show an opaque white core in the centre — roughly 70 percent cooked, usually four to six minutes in furiously boiling salted water. If the grain squashes rather than snaps, it is already too far and the finished biryani will be sticky.",{"question":67,"answer":68},"Can I make kacchi biryani without a charcoal fire?","Yes. Traditional dum places hot coals on the lid so heat comes from above as well as below, but a heavy lidded pot on a low gas flame over a heat diffuser, or a covered pot in a 160°C oven, gives the same result. What you lose is a faint smokiness, which some cooks replace by resting a lit piece of charcoal in a small bowl inside the pot for two minutes before sealing.",{"question":70,"answer":71},"My meat was tough when the rice was done. What went wrong?","Almost always one of three things: the pieces were too small and lean, the marinade was too short, or the heat was too low for the pot to reach a proper steam. Bone-in goat needs at least six hours in yogurt with a tenderiser, large pieces, and a pot that is genuinely simmering under the seal — you should hear a faint hiss and see the dough seal darken.",[73,74,75,76],"Heavy lidded pot or Dutch oven, at least 5 litres","Large pot for parboiling rice","Heat diffuser or a flat cast-iron pan to sit the pot on","Slotted spoon",6,45,100,360,"hard",[83],"main",[85],"halal-friendly",[87,88,89,90,91],"goat","basmati-rice","yogurt","potato","ghee",[93,98,102,107,110,114,118,121,125,127,130,135,137,140,143,146,150,153,156,158,161,166,170,173],{"ref":87,"qty":94,"unit":95,"name":96,"group":97},1.2,"kg","bone-in goat or mutton (shoulder and leg), in 5–6 cm pieces","For the marinade",{"ref":89,"qty":99,"unit":100,"name":101,"group":97},350,"g","thick full-fat yogurt",{"ref":103,"qty":104,"unit":105,"name":106,"group":97},"ginger",2,"tbsp","ginger paste",{"ref":108,"qty":104,"unit":105,"name":109,"group":97},"garlic","garlic paste",{"qty":111,"unit":105,"name":112,"note":113,"group":97},1,"green papaya paste","tenderiser — see substitutions if unavailable",{"ref":115,"qty":104,"unit":116,"name":117,"group":97},"garam-masala","tsp","garam masala",{"ref":119,"qty":104,"unit":116,"name":120,"group":97},"chili-flakes","red chile powder",{"ref":122,"qty":123,"unit":116,"name":124,"group":97},"nutmeg",0.5,"grated nutmeg and mace",{"qty":104,"unit":116,"name":126,"group":97},"fine salt",{"ref":91,"qty":128,"unit":100,"name":91,"group":129},120,"For the pot",{"ref":131,"qty":132,"unit":133,"name":134,"group":129},"onion",4,"piece","onions, thinly sliced and fried crisp (beresta)",{"ref":90,"qty":77,"unit":133,"name":136,"group":129},"medium potatoes, peeled and left whole",{"ref":138,"qty":111,"unit":116,"name":139,"group":129},"turmeric","ground turmeric, for frying the potatoes",{"qty":132,"unit":133,"name":141,"optional":142,"group":129},"dried plums (alubukhara)",true,{"qty":144,"unit":105,"name":145,"optional":142,"group":129},3,"mawa or full-fat milk powder",{"ref":88,"qty":147,"unit":100,"name":148,"group":149},900,"chinigura, kalijira or aged basmati rice","For the rice",{"ref":151,"qty":104,"unit":133,"name":152,"group":149},"cinnamon","cinnamon sticks",{"ref":154,"qty":77,"unit":133,"name":155,"group":149},"cardamom","green cardamom pods, bruised",{"ref":157,"qty":77,"unit":133,"name":157,"group":149},"cloves",{"ref":159,"qty":104,"unit":133,"name":160,"group":149},"bay-leaf","bay leaves",{"ref":162,"qty":79,"unit":163,"name":164,"group":165},"milk","ml","warm milk","To finish",{"ref":167,"qty":111,"unit":168,"name":169,"group":165},"saffron","pinch","saffron threads",{"qty":171,"unit":100,"name":172,"noScale":142,"group":165},250,"plain flour, for the dough seal",{"qty":174,"unit":175,"name":176,"group":165},null,"to taste","salt for the rice water",[178,182,186,191,194,198,203,206],{"title":179,"text":180,"tip":181},"Marinate the meat overnight","Mix {qty:goat} of goat with the yogurt, ginger and garlic pastes, papaya paste, garam masala, chile powder, nutmeg and salt until every piece is coated. Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours, ideally overnight — the surface should look matte and slightly loosened, not slick.","Take the bowl out of the fridge an hour before cooking. Fridge-cold meat drops the pot temperature and stalls the dum.",{"title":183,"text":184,"timerSeconds":147,"tip":185},"Fry the onions and potatoes","Fry the sliced onions in half the ghee over medium heat, stirring often, until deep golden and papery at the edges — about 15 minutes. Lift them out to drain. In the same fat, toss the whole potatoes with the turmeric and a pinch of salt and fry until the outsides are yellow and lightly blistered but the centres are still raw.","Pull the onions a shade before the colour you want. They keep darkening on the paper and burnt beresta turns the whole pot bitter.",{"title":187,"text":188,"timerSeconds":189,"tip":190},"Parboil the rice","Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a hard boil with the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaves. Add the rinsed rice and boil 4–6 minutes, until a grain snaps in half between two fingernails and still shows a white core. Drain immediately and spread it out to stop the cooking.",300,"Taste the water before the rice goes in — it should be as salty as a good soup, because this is the only chance the rice gets to be seasoned.",{"title":192,"text":193},"Build the pot","Spread the marinated meat with all its marinade across the bottom of a heavy pot in a single layer. Tuck the fried potatoes and dried plums among the pieces, scatter over half the fried onions and the mawa, then pile the parboiled rice on top in an even mound without pressing it down.",{"title":195,"text":196,"tip":197},"Add fat, saffron and the seal","Steep the saffron in the warm milk for two minutes, then drizzle it over the rice along with the remaining melted ghee and the rest of the fried onions. Knead the flour with water into a firm dough, roll it into a rope, press it around the rim, and clamp the lid down hard.","No dough? Lay foil over the pot, crimp it tightly down the sides, then set the lid on top of the foil.",{"title":199,"text":200,"timerSeconds":201,"tip":202},"Cook on dum","Set the pot over high heat for 5 minutes to get steam moving, then move it onto a heat diffuser over the lowest possible flame and leave it for 80 minutes. Do not lift the lid. You should hear only a faint hiss, and the dough seal should slowly darken from cream to tan.",4800,"If your hob will not go low enough, put the sealed pot in a 160°C oven for the same time — the heat is steadier and nothing catches.",{"title":204,"text":205,"timerSeconds":147},"Rest, then open","Take the pot off the heat and let it stand sealed for 15 minutes. Crack the dough seal off in pieces and lift the lid — the rice should be dry and separate, the fat pooling at the very bottom, and the meat should give way when pressed with the back of a spoon.",{"title":207,"text":208},"Serve in layers","Dig straight down with a flat serving spoon so each plate gets rice from the top, a potato and a piece of meat from the bottom, and spoon over some of the fat from the base of the pot. Serve immediately with chilled borhani and raw onion.",{"calories":210,"protein":211,"carbs":212,"fat":213,"fiber":132,"sodium":214,"estimated":142},780,42,82,31,920,[216,219,221,223],{"src":217,"alt":218},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fkacchi-biryani\u002Fhero.jpg","Open pot of Dhaka kacchi biryani showing saffron-streaked rice, bone-in mutton and a whole yellow potato",{"src":220,"alt":218},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fkacchi-biryani\u002Fhero-16x9.jpg",{"src":222,"alt":218},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fkacchi-biryani\u002Fhero-4x3.jpg",{"src":224,"alt":218},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fkacchi-biryani\u002Fhero-1x1.jpg",[226,227,228,229,230,231],"kacchi biryani","bangladeshi biryani","dhaka","mutton biryani","dum cooking","wedding 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