Mutton Pulao

Rice cooked in aromatic and flavorful mutton stock, easy and simple to make. Mutton pulao is a favorite of many Pakistani people, especially Punjabis. For those of you interested to make chicken pulao, you can follow exactly the same recipe but you will boil the chicken until its half done and use 4 cups of water instead of 5-6...

Ingredients: 

For stock 

500 gm Mutton (with bones, you can also use beef)

5-6 cups Water

2 tbsp fennel seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp cumin seed

2 inch slice of ginger

2 medium onions (peeled)

6-7 garlic cloves

1 large bay leaf

2 tsp salt

For Rice:

500 gm rice (soaked for 30 minutes)

2 large onions (finely sliced)

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

2-3 cinnamon sticks

7-8 black pepper corns

6-7 cloves

4-5 green cardamoms

2 black cardamoms

1 tsp red chili powder/or crushed red chilies (optional, as some people don't like to add it in mutton pulao)

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste (mixed in ¼ cups of water)

3/4 cup yogurt
2 medium tomatoes (chopped finely, tomatoes are optional)

 Method:

1) For the yakhni/stock make a spice bag of fennel seeds, cumin seeds & coriander seeds, Put water 2 whole onions, garlic cloves and ginger, bayleaf and 2 tsp of salt in a large pot along with meat and let it cook till meat gets tender. Strain the meat and the spices. Reserve the stock. Discard the spices by taking out the meat pieces from it.

2) Take another  large pan and heat oil, (keeping in mind that the rice will double after cooking so you will need to have enough space in the pan), add onion and fry till they get golden brown. 

3) Add in the ginger garlic paste (be careful as the water we added in ginger garlic paste tend to splutter), fry it for a minute or two and add, cumin seeds, cardamom, black peppercorn, cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaf and chili powder and tomatoes, fry for a couple of minutes. Now start adding the yogurt in and fry it well, remember to lower the flame while adding yogurt  Fry for some time then add the mutton pieces in, fry for 5-8 minutes. 

4) Now add 3 cups of stock and , Let the water boil and taste the salt. You should be able to feel the saltiness. If it feels just right, it means you have too little. Remember that the rice will need some salt too, so let the salt be enough that you can taste it to be a bit more than you would want, but don’t add too much.

5) Once the water starts to boil add the rice (remember to drain the rice first).  Let this cook on high heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring every now and then, and then reduce the heat to medium and keep cooking covered until the water is almost dried, giving it a stir every now and then to make sure all the rice is cooked evenly and perfectly. 

6) Once there is very little water left in the rice, reduce the heat to as low as possible, sprinkle the chopped green chilies and cover the pan by using a tight lid, or take a kitchen towel and place it over the pan then place the lid on top of it. cook on low heat till the water gets absorbed and rice done, for about 10-15 minutes. Switch off the flame and Serve hot with raita, kachomar salad.