Get ready to eat this mouthwatering, aromatic brown rice beef/lamb biryani. Tender pieces of meat and perfectly cooked, springy grains of rice are coated in a perfect blend of spices.
Before getting an instant pot, I’d only make biryani on special occasions. Now, we can make this one-pot brown rice and meat dish on a whim.
I shared a recipe for chicken biryani a while back, but have gotten many requests for beef biryani and lamb biryani. I decided to use brown basmati rice in this recipe because it cooks perfectly in the same amount of time as either beef or lamb.
If you read my post on cooking brown basmati rice in an Instant Pot then you already know it takes 22 minutes. Thankfully, you can cook beef and lamb cubes in that amount of time as well. The result: tender morsels of meat mixed in nutty brown rice.
It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with my Instant Pot, especially when it comes to Indian cooking. In fact, I wrote a blog post with 5 Reasons Why Instant Pot is Perfect for Indian cooking. The main reason: what traditionally took several pots and pans plus several hours to cook can now be made in a single pot!
Biryani is an example of one of those recipes that used to take hours to make, a dish reserved for special occasions. Now we eat some type of biryani almost weekly – sometimes we’ll have shrimp biryani and other weeks we’ll enjoy egg biryani, keema biryani or veggie biryani.
Some background on biryani: there are two main methods to making biryani: pakki biryani and kacchi biryani.
With pakki biryani, you cook the meat separately and partly cook the rice then you have to layer them together then cook the whole thing together. A lot of steps, right? The only reason I would ever use this method is if I have leftover curry that I want to use (like my leftover goat curry biryani).
With kacchi biryani, you marinate the meat for a long time then cook it with the rice over low heat.
Then there’s my method. Skip the marinating and cook both the meat and rice together in ONE pot in an electric pressure cooker. This new method is clearly my favorite one. You get all the same flavor of traditional lamb biryani (or beef biryani) with the least amount of work.
That said, my method works with brown rice because the cook time for the meat and the rice works out perfectly.
I can’t wait to hear what you think of this dish! If you love it, then be sure to check out my Instant Pot Cookbook: Indian Food Under Pressure for more Indian recipes!
Instant Pot Brown Rice Biryani with Beef or Lamb
Yield: 4 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
- 1 cup brown basmati rice, soaked 15 minutes
- 2 tablespoons oil
Whole Spices
- 5 cardamom pods
- 4 whole cloves
- 2 bay leaf
- ½ cinnamon stick
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 pound beef stew meat or lamb (the meat should be cut into bite-sized pieces)
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 4 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger
Ground Spices
- 2 teaspoons coriander powder
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 2 teaspoons salt, adjust to taste
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne, adjust to taste
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 cup water
Optional Garnish:
- 2 tablespoons ghee
- 2 tablespoons golden raisins
- ⅓ cup cashews, halved
- Cilantro leaves, chopped
- Mint leaves, chopped
Instructions
- Soak the brown basmati rice in cold water for 15 minutes. Drain, rinse and set aside.
- Press the sauté button, adjust the heat to high, and add the oil to the pot. Allow it a minute to heat up, then add the whole spices and stir. Once they begin to sizzle, add the meat and the onions. Stir-fry for 5-7 minutes, or until all sides of the meat have browned.
- Add the garlic, ginger, ground spices and stir, then add the rice and water to the pot. Give everything a good stir.
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve and cook for 22 minutes at high pressure.
- Naturally release pressure for 10 minutes, then open the valve to release any remaining pressure.
- Discard the whole spices, add garnish if desired and serve.
Optional Garnish:
- While the rice is cooking, melt ghee in a pan over low-medium heat on the stovetop. Add the cashews and raisins and stir-fry until the cashews begin to turn golden.
- Sprinkle the ghee-coated cashews and raisins along with the cilantro and mint on top of the biryani.
Ooh I would definitely be interested in the recipe with white rice!
Maneesha, adding that to my list! May even try it this weekend if I can 🙂
ooh looking forward to your recipe! I love your blog!
Have you done one with white rice? I couldn’t find it!
I have several other biryani recipes using white rice: shrimp, veggie, chicken and egg 🙂 You can find those here: https://myheartbeets.com/?s=biryani
Love your recipes!!! Healthy and yummy!!!
Thanks Priya!! So happy to hear that 🙂
Hi Ashley, is this recipe possible with ground lamb?
Maneesha, I am sure it’ll taste great with ground lamb! Also, if you have my cookbook you can also use ground lamb in my keema pulao recipe! Let me know if you try either recipe!
Hi Ashley! I tried your kheema recipe numerous times, with turkey, chicken, and lamb – all SLAM DUNK SUCCESSES!! I love your recipes and i LOVE your cookbook! I bought three of them – one for myself, then for my mother, and then for my cousin!
That is awesome!! Thank you so much!! 🙂 I appreciate all the support!!
Hello! I’m a fan of a few of your other recipes and excited to try out biryani! I was wondering about increasing portion size. If i want double the amount of food, can I just double all the ingredients but keep the pressure cook time the same? Thanks!
Hi Elton, glad to hear you like my recipes! I haven’t tried doubling this but I think it’d be okay – and yes, I’d keep the cook time the same. Please let me know how it turns out for you!
Ashley Singh Thomas, for your brown rice goat biryani, how long would you pressure cook the goat if the meat was on the bone? I thought 45 min like your kerala goat curry may be too much?
Hi Puja, I haven’t tried this with goat on the bone but I think if the pieces are small that it’ll work with this recipe 🙂 Let me know how it goes!
I was really looking forward to making this. Flavours are great but the resulting biryani was too liquidy- what could have been the issue?
Hi Deepa, I’d love to help troubleshoot if I can. Did you add more meat by any chance? If so that could have been the issue as meat releases water. If that’s not the issue, please let me know if you made any other changes to the recipe…
Hi Ashley,
I would like to try this recipe out but have a few questions.
The recipe asks for 1cup water under the “Ground Spices” section. I am assuming this is for cooking the rice. Is that much water enough?
I don’t have an Instant Pot but do have a Tefal Neo5 Secure pressure cooker. I am assuming the recipe and cook time would still remain the same right? Do you see any changes that you would recommend if any?
Thanks
Hi Leon, yes 1 cup of water is enough – the meat releases some water as well. Is your pressure cooker an electric pressure cooker? If so then it should work 🙂 Let me know how it goes!
Hi Ashley,
I’d like to try this recipe but wondering if you have a recommendation for brown basmati rice brand?
Thanks,
Zion
I typically buy brown basmati rice from Trader Joes 🙂 It’s good but seems pretty similar to other brands I’ve tried. If I find a brand I love, I’ll be sure to update the post!
Can you use regular white basmati rice? Why is the brown specifically used? Thanks!
Vicki, the brown is used because it has a longer cook time and so does the beef/lamb. I plan to share a white rice version soon too but it will be a bit different as I’ll have to marinate the meat in order to get it to cook in a faster time.
How serendipitous to find your website while searching for recipes to use up a pound of beef in my refrigerator. Thankfully I had all of the other ingredients (except for the mint, ghee & cilantro), and in no time I had dinner made. The only change I made was to add a bit more turmeric and about 1/8 cup water. The water wasn’t necessary, it’s just a personal preference to have some sauce. I warmed up the golden raisins in a tiny bit of salted butter. This is definitely one I’ll be keeping for family and company. Thanks! I’m looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
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Lynn, so happy you found my website and made this recipe! Thank you for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of any other recipes you try!
Hi,
I made this with grass-fed beef stew meat. I made a half batch in a 3 quart instant pot. Unfortunately, the meat came out very tough. Could you suggest why this might be?
Thank you,
Kimberly
Hi Kimberly, I usually make this with grassfed beef stew meat too so I don’t think* it would have to do with that… the only thing I can think of is that perhaps it has something to do with the 3-quart? Did you halve the quantity of the beef too? And you kept the cook time the same, right?
Hi Ashley,
I’ve really enjoyed the simplicity and flavor of the recipes of yours that I have tried. Will definitely be trying more in the future! You mentioned the possibility of developing a biryani recipe that includes the step of marinating the meat overnight so it can be cooked with white rice. I would love to try a recipe like that, especially with coconut milk marinade. Thanks for sharing all your delicious recipes!
Clara
Clara, so happy to hear that you like my recipes 🙂 Thank you! And great to know there’s interest in that kind of a recipe – I hope to share something like that soon!
Thanks Ashley! One quick question on this recipe; when removing whole spices, are you mainly focusing on the bay leaves, cinnamon stick, and cardamom pods? I assume the cumin and fennel seeds are left in? Thanks!
Yes leave the cumin and fennel seeds and just remove the larger whole spices. I actually wrote a blog post about removing whole spices because I get asked about this often: https://myheartbeets.com/do-i-remove-whole-spices-before-serving-indian-food/
This was my first instant pot recipe after the water test and it was DELICIOUS! Just about to make it again a little over a week later. Thank you!
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Cecilia, that’s awesome! I’m so happy to hear that you liked this biryani so much 🙂
I doubled this recipe and had no issues. This was absolutely DELICIOUS!!! I recommend using the optional garnishes, it just adds more depth. I will make this again!
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Tina, that’s so great to hear! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
I have no brown basmati rice, but I do have a lot of brown long grain rice. Will this be a good substitution?
I am interested in this question, too!
Thanks!
Hi – I want to double the quantity of meat and rice. Should I also double the amount of water? Thank you.
Yes, to double this recipe double all ingredients but keep the cook time the same 🙂
Hi,
I have tried your butter chicken recipe and it turned out amazing in my instant pot!
I was just wondering..with this biryani recipe how many ml is 1 cup? I am using UK measurements.
Hi Ashley – by 1 cup of water do you mean a standard cup or the cup that comes with the Instant Pot Duo? Thanks
Hi Farah, standard US measuring cup 🙂
Hi
I made this for the first time in my Pressure cooker (different make from the Instant Pot) the rice was a bit soggy. Could it be that I didn’t rinse it enough and it was to starchy? Also I think 1.5tsp if black pepper is too much of the wrong type of heat.
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Hello,
We tried this recipe today with white basmati rice and it was perfect
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I should mention it was leftover slow cooked lamb we used
Stace, so happy to hear that! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out with the white rice!
Luckily, even in quarantine 🙂 I had all the ingredients (except I used ground chicken) WOW!!! So happy to have found this recipe and for it to be in the instant pot and using brown rice, I just can’t say enough great things about it, thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Christine, I’m so glad you were able to make this and happy to hear that you liked it 🙂 Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you!
Hey Ashley,
I really want to make this dish, but what if I only have regular brown rice? How will that affect the cooking time? I am trying to work with what I have during this quarantine!
I just want you to know I have shared your recipes to many people and your recipes have always worked so well for me. They have made me way more confident with Kerala/Indian cooking in the kitchen!
Thanks so much, Alvina
Tripled the recipe and it came out perfect except the raisins were chewy. I think I’ll include them in the rice next time and fry only the cashews. Browned the meat in two batches to allow it all to brown properly. Every last bite got eaten among a family of 10.
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Srishti, I’m so glad you liked it (minus the chewy raisins)! I’m guessing the raisins needed more time in the ghee to plump up? Cooking them in the rice should do the trick – that’s a good idea. Great to hear that your family of 10 enjoyed this!