Biryani Layering - Cooking Tips

The Science Behind Biryani Layering

Biryani is a very delicious and popular recipe. And cooking Biryani needs certain knowledge and skills. One will be amazed with small hidden facts associated with Biryani cooking, which generally go unnoticed unless we look at it carefully. I am going to share one such tips with you today! I am going explain you Biryani Layering. You will notice biryani layering is more than just tips, but rather there is a solid science behind this process. Hence, we better call it "Science behind Biryani Layering". 

Watch Science Behind Biryani Layering on YouTube

Biryani layer is a part of biryani cooking and is done at end of biryani cooking, just before last cooking or steaming. In biryani, we need to put our cooked rice, meat, curry together in a pot (handi). To do this layering correctly, you need to the following in the order mentioned:

- Add the soup/curry to the pot first
- Then add the meat (chicken/mutton/beef) (which gets mixed with the added curry)
- Then add the potatoes (Kolkata Biryani use potatoes)
- At last add the rice on top
- Cover and seal the lid tightly

Now, you put this pot on flame, it will boil the curry, which will produce steam. The flavor of meat gets mixed with the steam. This steam moves up through the rice layer toward the open space of the pot at the top. While passing through the rice, the hot steam cooks the rice and induce the flavor into the rice.
See, how wonderful it is! So, we must follow this order to get complete flavor and taste of Biryani. 

Generally, when biryani is cooked at home, we see many people add the rice layer first, which is incorrect as rice layer cannot produce the steam properly. Steam generation will need wet substance, which is curry. And when meat is cooked in curry then proper flavor is produced.

I hope this Biryani cooking tips will now help you cook tasty Biryani at home. Those who are not familiar with Biryani cooking can check my recipe here at this link. I have given multiple Biryani recipes with different style of cooking.