Biryani Masala

Biryani Masala, special blend of exotic spices, handcrafted to give you the very best taste, flavor and aroma in every single rice grain. Be it with veggies or with meat of your choice, this speciality blend is a superb finger licking preparation. 

Biryani also known as biriyani, biriani, birani or briyani, is a mixed rice dish with its origins in Indian subcontinent. This dish is especially popular throughout the Indian subcontinent, as well as among the diaspora from the region. It is made with Indian spices, rice, meat (chicken, goat, beef, lamb, prawn, or fish). 

The dish that commands a whole day. Now ready in under an hour.

Biryani is not just food. It is an event. It is the dish people request weeks in advance, the one that fills the entire house with fragrance from the moment it hits the pot, the one that makes everyone stop what they are doing and come to the kitchen just to lift the lid and inhale.

For centuries, biryani masala was a closely guarded secret — each family, each royal kitchen, each legendary ustad had their own blend, passed down in whispers. Kardemome's Biryani Masala No. 15 carries that same tradition forward. Hand-roasted whole spices, ground fresh in small batches, balanced across twelve exotic spices to give you that layered, complex, deeply fragrant biryani that people will talk about long after the plates are cleared.

This is not a shortcut. This is the real thing — made honest, made pure, made with love.

No artificial flavours. No colours. No preservatives. Just pure, handcrafted biryani heritage.

What's inside

A grand, complex blend of green cardamom, black cardamom, clove, cinnamon, star anise, mace, nutmeg, bay leaf, cumin, coriander, black pepper, and rose petals — twelve exotic spices individually roasted and ground together to create the full, multi-layered aroma that defines great biryani.

Chicken Biryani — the classic dum method

Serves 4–6 | Prep: 20 minutes | Marination: 1 hour | Cook: 45 minutes

For the chicken marinade:

• 750g chicken, curry cut with bone (bone-in gives the best flavour)
• 4 tbsp thick yoghurt
• 2.5 tbsp Kardemome Biryani Masala No. 15
• 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp oil
• Salt to taste

For the rice:

• 2.5 cups basmati rice, soaked for 30 minutes
• 4–5 cups water
• 1 bay leaf, 2 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick
• Salt generously — the rice water should taste like the sea

For layering:

• 3 large onions, sliced thin and fried until deep golden (birista)
• A generous pinch of saffron soaked in 3 tbsp warm milk
• Fresh mint and coriander leaves
• 2 tbsp ghee

Method:

1. Mix all marinade ingredients with chicken. Coat thoroughly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour — overnight if you can.
2. In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat oil and cook the marinated chicken on high heat for 5 minutes, then medium heat for 10 minutes until partially cooked. Set aside.
3. Boil rice in salted water with whole spices until 70% cooked — it should still have a firm bite. Drain completely.
4. In your biryani pot, layer the chicken at the bottom. Top with a layer of rice, scatter fried onions, mint, coriander, and a drizzle of saffron milk. Add remaining rice and finish with more onions, mint, ghee, and saffron.
5. Cover tightly — seal the edges with dough or foil if you want authentic dum. Cook on high heat for 5 minutes, then the lowest possible flame for 20–25 minutes.
6. Open, breathe in, and serve gently with a wide spoon so the layers stay intact.

Pro tip: The birista — those deep golden fried onions — are not optional. They are the soul of the biryani. Fry them slowly in plenty of oil until they are a deep mahogany brown. They will make or break the dish.

Also magnificent with:

• Vegetable Biryani — same recipe, replace chicken with mixed vegetables, paneer, and mushrooms. Reduce cooking time to 15 minutes on dum.
• Mutton Biryani — increase marination to overnight and dum time to 35 minutes. Extraordinary.
• Prawn Biryani — marinate for just 20 minutes, cook prawns for only 5 minutes before layering. Quick, spectacular.
• Egg Biryani — halve boiled eggs, pan fry until golden, layer in place of meat. A brilliant vegetarian alternative.

The secret to biryani that tastes like a restaurant

Three things that home cooks skip and restaurants never do. First, always use aged basmati — not fresh rice. Aged basmati has lower moisture and each grain stays separate after cooking. Second, never skip the dum — that sealed, slow steam is what melds all the flavours together into one extraordinary whole. Third, be generous with the ghee and saffron in the final layer — these are not garnishes, they are integral to the flavour.

Why Kardemome No. 15?

• 100% natural ingredients — twelve whole spices, individually roasted
• No preservatives or artificial colours
• Complex, layered spice profile — not a generic powder
• Works for chicken, mutton, prawn, vegetable, and egg biryani
• Handcrafted in small batches in Mumbai
• The fragrance alone will tell you this is something different

Perfect for Weekend family biryanis that become traditions, Eid and festive celebrations, dinner parties where you want to genuinely impress, gifting to anyone who loves Indian food deeply, NRIs abroad who want to recreate that Sunday biryani feeling from home, and anyone who has ever spent a whole day making biryani and thought — there has to be an easier way to get this right.