Biryani

Biryani

Hyderabadi chicken dum biryani
Alternative names	Biriyani, biriani, buriyani, breyani,briani
Course	Main dish
Place of origin	Indian subcontinent
Region or state	Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Burma, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Kenya , Singapore and Sri Lanka
Main ingredients	Rice, Indian spices, base (vegetables, meat or egg), yoghurt, other optional ingredients (e.g. dried fruits)
Variations	Many

Biryani (pronounced [bɪr.jaːniː]), also known as biriyani or biriani, is a South Asian mixed rice dish with its origins among the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. It is popular throughout the subcontinent and among the diaspora from the region. It is generally made with spices, rice, and meat.

The word "biryani" is an Urdu word derived from the Persian language, which was used as an official language in different parts of medieval India, by various Islamic dynasties. One theory is that it originates from "birinj", the Persian word for rice. Another theory is that it derives from "biryan" or "beriyan" (to fry or roast).

The exact origin of the dish is uncertain. In North India, different varieties of biryani developed in the Muslim centers of Delhi (Mughlai cuisine), Lucknow (Awadhi cuisine) and other small principalities. In South India, where rice is more widely used as a staple food, several distinct varieties of biryani emerged from Telangana (Specifically Hyderabad), Tamil Nadu, Malabar region in Kerala and Karnataka (Specifically Bhatkali biryani), where minority Muslim communities were present. Andhra is the only region of South India that does not have many native varieties of biryani.

According to the Delhi based historian Sohail Nakhwi, more than four thousand years ago, people in Central Asia started adding the meat of cows, buffaloes (beef) and goats (mutton) to rice, thus resulting in the dish that later began to be called pulao, and a precursor to the modern day biryani. The more well to do people used the meat of goat (it being more expensive) and the poorer people used beef (it being cheaper). As per author Lizzie Collingham, the modern biryani further developed in the Mughal royal kitchen, as a confluence of the native spicy rice dishes of India and the Persian pilaf. However, all the spices used in biryani were also grown in Persia and were also available to Arabs through trade. According to Kris Dhillon, the modern biryani originated in Persia, and was brought to India by the Mughals. However, another theory claims that the dish was known in India before the first Mughal emperor Babur came to India. The 16th century Mughal text Ain-i-Akbari makes no distinction between biryanis and pilaf (or pulao): it states that the word "biryani" is of older usage in India. A similar theory—that biryani came to India with Timur's invasion—also appears to be incorrect, because there is no record of biryani having existed in his native land during that period.