Biryani
rice dish from the Indian subcontinent
Biryani is a mixed rice dish traditionally made with spiced meat, seafood, or vegetables. It was present in Mughal-era India, though whether it was created there is debated. It is thought to derive from a Persian rice dish, either pilau or birinj biryan. The dish makes use of slow-cooking as in Persian pilau, combined with Persian-style yoghurt-marinated meat and a spicy Indian style of cooking; it was likely developed in the Mughal court kitchens. It is also possible that biryani was brought to South India before the Mughal era, or that pilau was brought to India and biryani was developed from it before being adopted by the Mughals.
Biryani is one of the most popular dishes in South Asia and among the South Asian diaspora. The dish is often associated with the region's Muslim population in particular, but is nevertheless a mainstream culinary staple embraced by every demographic. Similar dishes are prepared in many other countries, often with local variations, and often brought there by South Asian diaspora populations. Biryani is the most-ordered dish on Indian online food ordering and delivery services, is used in weddings and celebrations throughout the region, and has been described as the most popular dish in India.
Etymology
The word biryani (Hindi: बिरयानी, Urdu: بریانی) is derived from biryan or beriyan (Persian: بریان), which means "to fry" or "to roast", said by Merriam-Webster probably to be related to Sanskrit: भृज्जति bhṛjjati with the same meaning.
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This entry incorporates text from “Biryani” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.