Instant Pot egg biryani
Fragrant basmati layered with golden onions, yogurt, mint and warm spices, with hard-boiled eggs tucked on top, a festive one-pot Indian dinner.
- 70 min total
- 40 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $2.58 a serving
- 570 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1½ cups basmati rice
- 8 large eggs
- 2 yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 Roma tomato, chopped
- ¼ cup fresh mint, chopped
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 cup plain yogurt, divided
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
From your pantry
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1¼ tsp salt
- 1½ cups water
Each serving has about 570 calories, 23 g protein, 71 g carbs and 22 g fat, and costs about $2.58 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No basmati rice? Jasmine rice or long-grain white rice works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
- No plain yogurt? Plain Greek yogurt works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the rice until the water runs clear, then cover it with fresh water and let it soak 20 minutes.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Timer: 20 min
Dolly’s tip: Soaking is what makes basmati cook up long and separate instead of broken.Meanwhile, bring a of water over high heat. Lower in the eggs, boil 10 minutes, then cool them in cold water and .
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Peel. Peeling means removing the skin with a vegetable peeler or a small knife. It takes off tough or bitter skins, though potato and carrot skins are fine to leave on unless the recipe insists.
How you’ll know: The color underneath is even all over, with no patches of skin left behind.
High heatTimer: 10 min
Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
the onions, the garlic, the ginger and the tomato, mint and cilantro.
Thinly slice. Thinly slicing means cutting slices about an eighth of an inch thick, roughly two coins stacked. Thin slices cook in seconds and soften fast, which quick dishes need.
How you’ll know: A slice bends a little when you hold it by one edge, and slow, steady cuts beat fast ones.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Grate. Grating means rubbing food across the holes of a grater to make fine shreds or flakes. It spreads cheese, garlic or ginger evenly through a dish so it melts right in.
How you’ll know: Even shreds fall off the back of the grater, and you stop while the piece is still big enough to hold.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Set the Instant Pot to and heat the oil.
Sauté. Sautéing means cooking cut-up food in a little oil or butter over medium to medium-high heat, stirring now and then. It cooks things quickly and browns them lightly without burning.
How you’ll know: You hear a steady, lively sizzle, not a hiss and spit, and the edges start to soften and color.
Cook the onions, stirring often, until deep , 12 to 15 minutes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 13 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Take the time here. Deeply browned onions are what make biryani taste like biryani.Scoop out a third of them for the top.
Add the garlic, ginger, bay leaves, garam masala, coriander, turmeric and cayenne and stir for 1 minute. Add the tomato and cook 2 minutes, until soft.
Timer: 3 min
Turn off .
Sauté. Sautéing means cooking cut-up food in a little oil or butter over medium to medium-high heat, stirring now and then. It cooks things quickly and browns them lightly without burning.
How you’ll know: You hear a steady, lively sizzle, not a hiss and spit, and the edges start to soften and color.
Stir in ½ cup yogurt, half the mint and cilantro and the salt.
the rice, add it with the water and scrape the bottom clean.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Dolly’s tip: Scrape every bit off the bottom so the pot doesn’t flash a Burn warning.Cut 3 shallow slits in each egg and nestle them on top of the rice. Lock the lid, set the valve to sealing and pressure cook on high for 6 minutes.
Timer: 6 min
Let the pressure come down on its own for 10 minutes, then release the rest.
Timer: 10 min
Gently fluff the rice around the eggs, scatter the saved onions and the rest of the herbs on top, and serve with the rest of the yogurt and lemon wedges.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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