India · Meat Dishes · Gluten-free
Meat Pulao
An Indian one-pot rice dish — basmati rice cooked together with tender lamb or beef, whole spices, onion, and ginger until every grain is fluffy and fragrant. Simpler and cleaner than biryani, with the same deeply satisfying spiced rice and meat combination. Serve with yogurt and fresh salad.
65 min 300 kcal 4 serves Advanced🌾Gluten-free🇮🇳India★★★★☆4.4· 5 reviews
Ingredients
ServingsMetric
- 400 glamb or beef
- 1.5 cuplong-grain rice
- 1 onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 cmfresh ginger
- 2 tbspghee or butter
- 3 cupwater or broth
- salt to taste
- 1 tspcoriander seeds
- 1 tspcumin seeds
- black pepper
- 2 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 green cardamom pods
- saffron or turmeric
Method
- Brown the onion in ghee until golden. Add grated ginger and garlic, then the meat. Brown for 5–7 minutes.
- Add the whole spices, stir and toast for 1–2 minutes until fragrant.
- Pour in water or broth, reduce heat and braise covered for about 30 minutes until meat is tender.
- Rinse the rice, add to the pot. Salt. Cook on the lowest heat covered for 15–20 minutes until all liquid is absorbed.
- Rest covered for 5 minutes off the heat. Fluff gently with a fork without breaking the grains. Serve with yogurt or fresh salad.
FAQ
No. In pulao rice is cooked together with meat in one pot with gentle spices. In biryani rice and meat are cooked separately then layered and slow-cooked together. Biryani is more complex, more aromatic, and richer in spices. Pulao is simpler, cleaner, and quicker.
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Comments (1)
Salt the lamb at least 30 minutes before cooking meat pulao, or right before — never in between. Salt draws moisture to the surface; given 30+ minutes it reabsorbs. At 10 minutes, it's just sitting there making things wet.