Recipe for Mutton Biryani made Dindigul Thalapakatti style. Tamilnadu Dindigul style biryani. Recipe with step by step pictures.
One of the most popular recipes in the site is the Chicken Biryani Thalapakatti Style Recipe that I had posted years back. I had got many requests asking to make it with Mutton. This is a recipe that my mom had saved from a magazine cut out years back. Here is the recipe for mutton biryani recipe preparation.
Thalapakatti style biryani has a very nice flavor that is so different from all the other biriyani. It is made with seeraga samba rice. Seeraga Samba biriyani has to be the pride of Tamilnadu. Seeraga samba is a very aromatic rice. The grain of the rice is very tiny and it gets its name for its resemblance to Cumin seeds, also called as Seeragam/Jeera in Tamil. It has a very distinct taste, fluffs up well when cooked and south Indian biriyani’s are made with this rice. Samba rice is grown for a longer duration than other types of rice. Seeraga samba rice is the most important ingredient for this biryani. Before starting to cook, wash and soak the rice for at-least half an hour.
We will need a masala paste for making the biryani. Here is what you will need.
Grind all the ingredients listed under masala paste with half a cup of water to a very smooth paste. Set aside.
Heat oil and ghee in a pressure cooker and add in the Thalappakatti Biriyani Masala paste. Add in the mutton to the pan. For biryani, always use mutton with bone. Bone has a lot of flavour.
Add in two cups of water and add in the salt.
Add in the plain yogurt (curd) and red chilli powder.
Mix well and cook the mutton in the masala for 20 minutes on a medium flame. Ignore the number of whistles in the cooker. Just cook for 20 minutes and remove the cooker from heat and wait for the pressure to settle.
Open the cooker and see if the mutton pieces are cooked well. Cook for 2-3 whistles more if the meat is hard. Set aside.
Remove the cooked meat to a bowl and roughly measure how much liquid is left behind.
Mine had about 1.5 cups of liquid. Just measure roughly. It need not be accurate.
Measurements used – 1 cup rice = 250 ml
We are using 2 cups rice. We require 2 times water to the quantity of rice. So we need to add 4 cups water. There was already 1.5 cups gravy that we measured before. So I added 2.5 cups water to the gravy mixture in a pan. Add in the chopped coriander leaves and the mint leaves. Let the mixture come to a boil.
Add back the meat and let it come to a boil again. Check for seasoning. Add more salt if necessary. Drain the soaked rice and add it to the pan.
Wait for it to boil. Add in the lime juice.
Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for the first three to four minutes on medium flame.
Open the lid. Gently mix once from the bottom, cover the lid again and simmer for 10 minutes on very low flame.
After that time, open the lid and mix well. The rice will be three fourth cooked. Cook for a couple of minutes more.
Switch off the flame and close the pan with a lid. Do not disturb for the next 20 minutes. The rice will get swollen and absorb all the left out moisture. This time is very important. Do not rush.
After the rest, Enjoy Thalappakatti Biriyani!
- Measurements used – 1 cup rice = 250 ml
- 5 Green Chillies
- 3 small two inch cinnamon sticks
- 3 cardamom
- 3 cloves
- ⅛ th of a nutmeg (Jaadhikai) (Do not use too much)
- 1 small piece Mace (Jaadhi Pathiri)
- 2 inch piece grams ginger
- 10-15 crushed Garlic
- 15 shallots (small onions)
- 500 ml Seeraga Samba Rice
- 500 grams Mutton with bone
- 2 tablespoon Ghee
- 3 tablespoon Sunflower Oil
- ½ teaspoon Red Chilli Powder
- ½ cup curd
- 1½ teaspoon salt
- 1 hand full Mint Leaves
- 2 hand full Coriander Leaves
- Juice of half a lime
- Before starting to cook, wash and soak the rice for at-least half an hour.
- Grind all the ingredients listed under masala paste with half a cup of water. Set aside.
- Heat oil and ghee in a pressure cooker and add in the Thalappakatti Biriyani Masala paste. Add in the mutton to the pan.
- Add in two cups of water and add in the salt.
- Add in the plain yogurt (curd) and red chilli powder.
- Mix well and cook the mutton in the masala for 20 minutes on a medium flame. Remove the cooker from heat and wait for the pressure to settle.
- Remove the cooked meat to a bowl and roughly measure how much liquid is left behind.
- Mine had about 1.5 cups of liquid. Just measure roughly. It need not be accurate.
- We require 2 times water to the quantity of rice. So we need to add 4 cups water. There was already 1.5 cups gravy that we measured before. So I added 2.5 cups water to the mixture. Add in the chopped coriander leaves and the mint leaves. Let the mixture come to a boil.
- Add back the meat and let it come to a boil again. Check for seasoning. Add more salt if necessary. Drain the soaked rice and add it to the pan.
- Wait for it to boil. Add in the lime juice.
- Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for the first four minutes on medium flame.
- Open the lid. Gently mix once from the bottom, cover the lid again and simmer for 10 minutes on very low flame.
- After that time, open the lid and mix well. The rice will be three fourth cooked. Cook for a couple of minutes more.
- Switch off the flame and close the pan with a lid. Do not disturb for the next 20 minutes. The rice will get swollen and absorb all the left out moisture. This time is very important. Do not rush.
- After the rest, Enjoy Thalappakatti Biriyani!
I tried with mutton. It was awesome. Can we use mushrooms instead of mutton.
Hi,
I don’t have mace and nutmeg.. can I replace this spices with something else ? What should I do ?
This was my first attempt at making biriyani and it was a hit. Very easy and tasty recipe!!!!
Hi Suguna, I am.pure vegetarian, however cook non veg for my husband. This is first time I am trying to make mutton biriyani. The end result was awesomeness according to my husband and neighbors, with whom u shared the biriyani. I do not taste either, since the measurements were perfect the dish turned out very well.. thank a ton!!!
Thank you Sunitha.
Ma’am what should i serve this with? Like some raita aur salad. Which authentic south indian accompainment would you suggest?
The very traditional side dish in TN is Dalcha
https://www.kannammacooks.com/dalcha-recipe-mutton-dalcha-recipe/
Mam.. Tried this briyani for my moms birthday.. Vera level…
Thank you!
It made a day…husband made this briyani…it’s owesome…thanks
Thank you
Hi suguna madam I’m living Australia I want to know about briyani 10 to 15 people how much measure ingredients pls. And if i need to add any tomato ?
Thanks.
Panner.
This Monday I will cook biryani for dinner.
500ml rice will suffice 3-4 people if biryani is the only main dish.
No Tomatoes in this recipe.
totally loved your recipe. The pictures were super helpful on the quantity of ingredients required, how the cooked looks like in different stages inspiring confidence on the progress. It turned out really well. Its hard to please my sis who makes awesome biryani herself, she asked what and where to find the recipe. Now, you got me inspired to try more of your recipes :). Btw, I was surprised to see you were also born and brought up from coimbatore.. shout out to a fellow cbe-an :).
Thank you so much. Really glad that you liked the recipe.
Don’t we need to add tomatoes?
Hello mam how are you? Today I tried your mutton biryani it comes very well all my family members liked very much especially my mother in law prasied me she is non veg lover I got those good words from her it makes me very happy thanks for your recipes this credit for you only mam☺☺
Thank you Nagalakshmi!
Hi Karnama. The recipie is awesome. Can we substitute with basmati rice instead of seeraga samba rice? It’s not available near me. Will there be difference in flavour or taste?
Hi Suguna
Since the day I prepared this Biriyani, my family members became a big fan of it, especially this kids and thank you so much for giving such a wonderful recipe. I prepared Mutton chops along with this which also I prepared based on your recipe which was another big hit.
My dad, who is a big critic has become the biggest fan of this recipe and he had requested me to try Hyderabadi biriyani and my husband requested for Mughal biriyani.
It would be great if you can post authentic Hyderabadi biriyani recipe and Mughal biriyani recipe in near future.
Waiting for more new recipes !!!
Thank you so much. Glad your family liked the recipe!
Will post more recipes soon!
I must say that this is the best Biryani I prepared in my life, I followed your instructions from the scratch, my whole family loved it and now they are demanding me to prepare this every Sunday, the recipe is so simple and very flavourful. Thanks a lot for the lip smacking Biryani dear.
Thank you so much! Glad you liked it!
Hi mam!
I am a huge fan of all your recipes. Right now I am rummaging your blog for biriyani recipes and I stumbled on this one!
My question is, will this still taste spectacular if I were to avoid the meat? Or do you think the mutton is intrinsic to the essence of the biriyani?
Thank you
SANGEE
Hi Sangeetha, the biryani gets the flavour from the broth and the fat from the mutton. Its very difficult to bring that rich taste if you avoid meat!
Hi can you pl post a recipe for Hyderabadi style mutton briyani pl..
Hi, thanks again for a great recipe. Can we substitute the shallots we get in US markets for the indian shallots or is there any other onion we can use. Also do we use the same number as the Indian shallots. Thanks again.
Hi Shefali, You can use pearl onions.
Thank you!!
Hello
I tried this Briyani for second time. First I didn’t liked it much because of the less flavour of the Briyani
This time I added one more mace and pinch of nutmeg,2 green and one black cardamom. And I loved it……
It came out very good….. the flavour is awesome
Thanks so much for the recipie
Thank you!
So yum! I tried it with mushroom instead of mutton I loved it. Salt was little too much for me.. But taste was awesome!! Thank you so much
Thanks Sowmya.
Tried it .. Came out very well .Thank you Mam..
Thank you so much!
Can we use Lamb In place of Goat meat We get in U. S. here you know well. If that be is there any changes in Cooking method please tell me Mam
Hi Santhanam, Lamb will work just fine. Cooking for 10-15 minutes in a pressure cooker should be enough.
Hi Akka, I am from udumalpet. I love your blog, especially your writing. Your stories and kongu recipes makes me nostalgic 😊
Thank u for this recipe. I am a vegetarian. Can I replace meat with vegetables and follow the same recipe?
Sure. You may try. But there are a lot of veg biryani recipes on the site that you may try too!
Hi mam, thanks for the recipe..🙂 if I’m keeping in cooker how many whistles mam….
2 whistles and use only 1.5 cups water for every cup of rice.