Hyderabadi Egg Dum Biryani (Anda Biryani)

This Egg Dum Biryani is delicious, flavorsome and easy to make. Boiled eggs are simmered in a flavorsome biryani masala gravy and layered over parcooked basmati rice. It is finished off with another layer of spicy ghee fried eggs, saffron soaked milk, mint and coriander leaves. Lastly it is dum cooked (steamed) briefly on a low heat, for a blast of biryani flavors.

I know it sounds amazing and this recipe is easy enough for beginners to try out. Having said that, it is important to note making a great dum biryani takes time and it’s worth the effort. This is not a one pot biryani like this Classic Egg Biryani, so you need to prep up for the various components.

This recipe consists of 4 components – hard boil eggs, make the egg dum biryani gravy, parcook basmati rice and lastly assemble & dum cook. If you are a slow cook, you may make the first 2 components a day ahead and refrigerate. Cook the basmati rice and dum cook the day you want to serve.

Firstly you may wonder why an Egg Dum Biryani when you can make a one pot biryani. Both taste completely different and this one tastes more like an authentic dum biryani but without the meat flavors. I reserve this egg dum biryani for occasions when we really don’t want to eat the one pot/pressure cooker spicy biryani and the second reason is for being more kids’ friendly.

In the past when my boys couldn’t handle spice and heat I would make this more often than the one pot biryani. Because this is layered, I could serve the less spicier portions to the kids. That’s how this recipe made to the blog. The idea of topping with fried eggs was to increase the heat levels for my husband. So this recipe is great for occasions and when you have guests.

This Egg Dum Biryani is best served with a Raita and if you want you may try out this Biryani Shorba/gravy. On the side this onion salad, kachumber or Indian cucumber salad goes well.

Photo Guide

Step by step Photo Instructions

1. Hard boil eggs, remove the shells. Pierce with fork randomly or make incisions on 3 eggs. Set them aside.

2. Wash and soak rice for about 20 to 25 minutes. Drain the water. Bring 5 cups of water to a boil, add few green cardamoms, half tsp. shahi jeera and rice to the boiling water. Cook till al dente. Fully cooked but grainy and firm. Under cooked rice doesn’t work well for this recipe, since eggs do not release any moisture like meat or veggies, rice doesn’t get cooked further during the dum process. Drain the rice to a colander. Set this aside.

3. You can skip this step if using store bought fried onions. Heat oil/ghee in a pan, add thinly sliced onions and fry until deep golden (avoid burning them). Set these aside to a plate. Also set aside half of the oil to a small bowl. Turn off the stove as the pan will be very hot now.

4. Soak a pinch of saffron in 3 tbsp. hot milk. Also set aside kewra water.

5. Turn on the stove. Add whole spices to the pan and let them sizzle.

6. Add ginger garlic paste, green chili and saute until the raw smell is gone, for about a minute.

7. Add red chili powder and biryani masala. Give a quick stir.

8. Add yogurt, salt and mint leaves. Stir and cook.

9. Add the eggs and 3/4 portion of the fried onions.

10. Stir and cook on a medium flame till the gravy turns thick. The gravy must look thick and uniform, of a flowing consistency. Switch off the stove and set the pan away from the burner else the gravy tends to get cooked further and reduce the quantity.

11. Grease a small pot generously. Spread some of the rice to a thin layer. We are making a small quantity here, so avoid a wide pan. I used a 3.5 liters pressure cooker here.

12. Pour the saffron milk over the rice. Evenly layer the egg mixture over the rice. The quantity is less, but try to spread it well evenly.

13. Layer with the remaining rice.

14. Put back the same pan on the stove and heat it with the oil/ghee we had set aside earlier. Fry the eggs lightly. Add red chili powder, a pinch of salt and biryani masala or garam masala.

15. Flip the eggs. Switch off the stove. Do not over fry.

16. Add the left over fried onions, few mint and coriander leaves. Transfer the eggs gently to the biryani, also pour the spiced oil/ghee from the pan. Pour the oil over the rice and not to the eggs.

17. Cover the pot. You can use a aluminum foil to seal the pot or a moist cloth too works well. Place a lid over it. I just went ahead using a tight and heavy lid. Heat a tawa or a pan, When it turns hot, place this dum pot over the hot tawa and set the flame to very low.

Cook it this way for 10 minutes. Switch off and let rest for another 10 minutes. If you do not own a tawa, you can use any heavy bottom pan or pot. Any stainless steel or cast iron pans too work well. I have used stainless pressure pan. Do not use nonstick tawa as the coating gets damaged.

Serve with raita or shorba or hyderabadi mirchi ka salan.

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