Ghee Biryani Recipe: Chicken Dum and How Much Ghee to Use

Updated 12 min read Serves 4 • 4 tbsp ghee • 20 min dum

For ghee biryani for four, fry 3 onions to deep brown in 3 tablespoons of ghee, cook 500 g of marinated chicken in that masala, then layer 370 g of basmati boiled to 70% on top. Pour 1 more tablespoon of melted ghee over the rice, seal the pot, and steam it on a tawa on the lowest flame for 20 minutes. Each plate carries about 1 tablespoon of ghee and 670 kcal.

How do you make ghee biryani at home?

Cook a thick chicken masala in ghee, boil the rice separately until it is 70% done, layer the rice over the chicken, and let the sealed pot steam (dum) on very low heat. Ghee biryani uses ghee as the only fat, 4 tablespoons for four people, split between the onions and the top of the rice. It takes about an hour at the stove, plus an hour of marinating.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Chicken and marinade

  • 500 g boneless chicken thigh, 4 to 5 cm pieces (or 700 g bone-in curry cut)
  • 150 g thick curd
  • 1½ tbsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 1½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder, ½ tsp turmeric, 1 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp salt, 2 green chillies, juice of ½ lemon
  • A handful each of mint and coriander

Pot and rice

  • 370 g aged basmati (2 cups)
  • 3 medium onions (about 330 g), sliced thin
  • 2 medium tomatoes (about 250 g), chopped
  • 3 tbsp ghee for the pot, 1 tbsp melted for the rice
  • 2 bay leaves, 1 star anise, 6 cloves, 2 pieces cinnamon, 6 cardamom
  • 15 saffron strands in 3 tbsp warm milk
  • 2.5 L water and about 1½ tbsp salt for boiling the rice

Equipment: a heavy 3 to 4 litre pot with a tight lid, a flat tawa to put under it, a colander, and foil or a rope of atta dough to seal the lid.

Steps

  1. 1. Mix the chicken with everything in the marinade (half the herbs). Rest 1 hour, or overnight in the fridge.
  2. 2. Wash the rice 3 to 4 times, until the water runs almost clear. Soak 30 minutes.
  3. 3. Heat 3 tbsp ghee on medium. Add half the whole spices for 30 seconds. Pat the onions dry and slide them in gently. Fry 15 to 18 minutes, stirring, to deep brown. Lift out a third.
  4. 4. Add the tomatoes, 5 minutes. Add the chicken and marinade and cook uncovered 12 to 15 minutes, until almost cooked and about ½ cup of thick gravy is left.
  5. 5. Boil 2.5 L water with the salt and the rest of the spices. Add the drained rice, 5 to 6 minutes, until a grain bends but has a firm white core. Drain at once.
  6. 6. Spread the rice loosely over the chicken. Saffron milk in lines, 1 tbsp melted ghee, the kept onions, the rest of the herbs.
  7. 7. Seal the lid. 5 minutes on medium, then a tawa under the pot and the lowest flame for 20 minutes.
  8. 8. Rest 10 minutes shut. Serve from the side, down to the bottom.

One plate, a quarter of the pot: about 670 kcal, 34 g protein, 20 g fat (10.3 g saturated), 86 g carbohydrate, and 3.3 g fibre, worked out from USDA FoodData Central for raw basmati-type long-grain rice, chicken thigh, whole-milk curd, onion, tomato, and ghee. Spices, herbs, and the saffron milk add very little and are not counted.

Take care at step 3. Hot ghee is well past the boiling point of water, which is why wet onions spit so hard when they hit it. We know that heat from our own kettle: ghee is only ready once every drop of water in the makkhan has boiled away, and a splash of it burns worse than a splash of dal. Dry the onions on a cloth and lower them in with a spoon, not a handful from above.

How much ghee goes into a biryani?

About 1 tablespoon of ghee for each person: 4 tablespoons (51 g) for a pot of four. Three go into frying the onions and cooking the masala, and one is poured over the rice before the lid goes on. That is enough to brown the onions properly and keep the top rice soft.

Whole spices, onions, and the chicken masala

3 tbsp (38 g)

Fries the onions deep brown and cooks the masala. Most of the flavour is made here.

Over the rice, before the lid goes on

1 tbsp (13 g), melted

Coats the top grains so they steam soft instead of drying, and carries the smell when you open the pot.

At the table (optional)

½ tsp a plate

Only if the biryani came out dry. Not counted in the numbers below.

A tablespoon on each plate is a lot next to everyday eating. ICMR-NIN's 2024 dietary guidelines suggest limiting ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, and all visible fat, oil and ghee together, to 27 to 30 g a day on a 2,000 kcal diet. One plate of this biryani is 3 teaspoons. The table shows what a lighter or richer pot does to each plate.

Pot of 4

Ghee in the pot

Ghee a plate

kcal

Sat. fat

How it cooks

Light

In the pot: 2½ tbsp (32 g)

A plate: about 2 tsp

626 kcal

Saturated fat 7.3 g

2 tbsp for the onions and masala, ½ tbsp over the rice. Still tastes of ghee; the onions brown a little slower.

This recipe

In the pot: 4 tbsp (51 g)

A plate: 3 tsp (1 tbsp)

668 kcal

Saturated fat 10.3 g

Enough to brown the onions well and keep the top rice soft.

Rich, wedding style

In the pot: 6 tbsp (77 g)

A plate: about 4½ tsp

724 kcal

Saturated fat 14.3 g

Ghee pools at the bottom and the rice looks glossy. A festival plate, not a Sunday habit.

Per plate, a quarter of the pot. USDA FoodData Central: rice 169756, chicken thigh 173627, curd 171284, onion 170000, tomato 170457, ghee 173412 (1 tbsp = 12.8 g, 112 kcal). Daily line: ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024. Checked 27 September 2026.

At home in Gir Somnath each of us eats 1 to 2 teaspoons of ghee on an ordinary day, on roti, dal, and khichdi. A biryani day is not an ordinary day, so on that day the dal and rotis go without. The full daily budget, and how it changes for children and older people, is on how much ghee per day, and calories by the spoon are on ghee nutrition facts.

Is ghee biryani the same as ghee rice or pulao?

No. Ghee biryani has a meat, egg, or vegetable masala layered under rice and steamed sealed. Ghee rice has no masala at all, and pulao cooks the rice and vegetables together in one go. The name confuses people because each region uses it a little differently.

In Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, "ghee biryani" usually means a chicken or mutton biryani cooked in ghee instead of oil, which is what this recipe makes. In Kerala, the dish sold as ghee rice is neychoru: short-grain rice cooked in ghee with whole spices, cashews, and fried onion, eaten with a separate chicken or mutton curry. If that is what you are after, our ghee rice recipe is the closer match. For a quick weeknight pot with vegetables and no dum, make ghee pulao.

The layered method here is the pakki style: the chicken is cooked almost through before the rice goes on. Kacchi biryani puts raw marinated meat under the rice and relies on a long dum to cook it, which is harder to judge at home, especially with a thin pot.

Can you make biryani with oil, or half oil and half ghee?

Yes. The easiest split is to fry the onions in oil and keep the ghee for the layer over the rice, because that top tablespoon is the one you smell when the pot opens. You keep most of the ghee taste and use a quarter of the ghee.

Onions fried in oil taste cleaner and a little sharper; in ghee they come out sweeter, with a toasted-milk note that runs through the masala. Both brown fine at the heat onions need. For a full comparison of fats per tablespoon, see ghee vs vegetable oil, and for why ghee copes with long frying, see ghee smoke point. Some caterers make biryani with vanaspati (dalda) because it is cheaper; how that differs from ghee is on ghee vs vanaspati.

Why is my biryani mushy, dry, or burnt at the bottom?

Mushy biryani comes from rice boiled too long or a watery masala, dry biryani from steam escaping, and a burnt bottom from too much heat under a thin pot. More ghee fixes none of these. Find the problem below.

Mushy, broken rice

Rice boiled past 70%, not drained at once, or a watery masala under it.

Fix: Pull the rice when a grain bends and still has a firm white core. Cook the masala down until only about half a cup of thick gravy is left before you layer.

Top rice dry and hard

Steam escaped: a loose lid, or the pot was opened during dum.

Fix: Seal the lid with foil or atta dough. Sprinkle 2 to 3 tbsp hot water and ½ tbsp ghee over the dry patch, close it, and give it 5 more minutes on the tawa.

Burnt at the bottom

Thin pot, flame too high during dum, or a masala with too little liquid.

Fix: Use a heavy pot on a tawa, and the lowest flame after the first 5 minutes. Serve from the top and leave the scorched layer; do not stir it through.

Tastes flat

Onions only soft, not brown, or not enough salt in the rice water.

Fix: Fry the onions to deep brown, 15 to 18 minutes. The rice water should taste as salty as sea water; the rice takes up only a little of it.

Greasy, heavy plate

More ghee than the rice can take, often a ladle poured over at the end.

Fix: Keep to 4 tbsp for 370 g rice. If ghee pools when you serve, spoon it off the side and keep it for tomorrow's dal.

Chicken tough or pink inside

Cold chicken straight from the fridge, or pieces cut too big.

Fix: Take the marinated chicken out 20 minutes before cooking and cut thighs to 4 to 5 cm. Break the thickest piece open before layering: no pink, clear juices.

The 70% test is the one step worth practising. Press a grain between your thumb and finger: it should bend and squash at the edges but still show a white, firm centre, and break into two or three pieces. Two minutes too long in the boiling water and no dum can save it.

How much do you need to make ghee biryani for 10 or 20 people?

Plan on about 92 g of raw rice, 125 g of boneless chicken, and 1 tablespoon of ghee for each person, and cook in pots of no more than eight. In one very deep pot the bottom scorches before the top layer has steamed.

People

Basmati

Chicken

Onions

Ghee

Pots and dum

4 people

Basmati 370 g (2 cups)

Chicken 500 g

Onions 3 medium

Ghee 4 tbsp (51 g)

One 3 to 4 L pot, dum 20 min

8 people

Basmati 740 g (4 cups)

Chicken 1 kg

Onions 6 medium

Ghee ½ cup (100 g)

One 6 to 7 L pot, dum 25 min

12 people

Basmati 1.1 kg (6 cups)

Chicken 1.5 kg

Onions 9 medium

Ghee ¾ cup (155 g)

Two pots of 6, dum 25 min each

20 people

Basmati 1.85 kg (10 cups)

Chicken 2.5 kg

Onions 15 medium

Ghee 1¼ cups (255 g)

Two or three pots, dum 25 min each

Curd, tomatoes, and spices scale the same way. Boil the rice for each pot separately, so every batch comes out of the water at 70%.

For 20 people the ghee comes to about 1¼ cups, roughly 300 ml, so a 500 ml jar covers it with some left for the table. At our live prices a tablespoon of our cow ghee costs about ₹36 and of our buffalo ghee about ₹30, which puts the ghee in a pot of four at ₹120 to ₹144. Frying the onions in oil and keeping ghee for the rice brings that down to about a quarter.

Mutton, egg, and veg ghee biryani: what changes?

Only the masala under the rice and the dum time. The ghee, the rice, and the layering stay the same.

Mutton ghee biryani

Use 600 g bone-in mutton. Cook it in the masala, covered, 60 to 75 minutes (or 4 to 5 whistles in a cooker) until a fork goes in easily, then boil the gravy down before layering. Dum 25 minutes.

Egg ghee biryani

Make the same onion and tomato masala with the curd and spices, add 6 to 8 boiled eggs, slit, and cook 5 minutes. Layer and dum 15 minutes.

Veg or paneer ghee biryani

Use 500 g mixed vegetables (potato, carrot, beans, peas) cooked in the masala 8 to 10 minutes, and 200 g paneer cubes on top of the masala. Dum 15 to 20 minutes.

Meat that is tough before the dum stays tough after it, so judge the mutton in the pot, not by the clock. Vegetables and paneer need less time than chicken; a long dum turns potatoes to mash. If you want a dry, fiery ghee dish rather than a rice one, the coastal Karnataka way is the chicken ghee roast.

Is ghee biryani healthy?

It is a rich festival meal, fine now and then for most people. One plate of this recipe has about 670 kcal and 10.3 g of saturated fat, and 7.9 g of that saturated fat comes from the tablespoon of ghee. The chicken, curd, and rice bring 34 g of protein.

The ghee is not the only lever. A plate with less rice and more chicken, raita, and a salad on the side keeps most of the pleasure. The light pot in the table above takes off about 40 kcal and 3 g of saturated fat a plate and still tastes of ghee. On days you eat biryani, keep ghee out of the other meals.

If a doctor or dietitian has set you a fat, calorie, or salt limit for a heart, kidney, or liver condition, or for diabetes, their number comes before this recipe. The same goes for weight loss; the wider plan is on ghee for weight loss.

Cow or buffalo ghee for biryani?

Buffalo ghee for frying the onions and the masala, and cow ghee for the tablespoon over the rice. Buffalo ghee tastes richer and does the heavy frying well; cow ghee is lighter and more yellow, and its smell is the one you notice when the lid comes off.

If you keep one jar, either will do the whole biryani. Both are almost pure milk fat with about the same calories a spoon. The texture of the jar changes with the season, which people ask us about on WhatsApp: in winter our ghee cools to a fine grain, in summer it stays liquid. It makes no difference in the pot. Melt the tablespoon for the rice in a small katori over the rising steam, or on the lowest flame for a few seconds, before you pour it. Why the grain forms is on why ghee is grainy, and the side-by-side is on cow vs buffalo ghee.

Ghee biryani: a recipe card to keep

Screenshot this and keep it by the stove.

  • 1. For 4: 370 g aged basmati, 500 g chicken thigh, 150 g thick curd, 3 onions, 2 tomatoes, 4 tbsp ghee.
  • 2. Marinate the chicken with the curd, ginger-garlic, chilli, turmeric, garam masala, salt, mint, coriander, and lemon: 1 hour.
  • 3. Wash the rice until the water runs almost clear. Soak 30 minutes.
  • 4. 3 tbsp ghee, whole spices 30 seconds, dry sliced onions in gently. Fry 15 to 18 minutes to deep brown. Keep a third aside.
  • 5. Tomatoes 5 minutes, then the chicken and marinade 12 to 15 minutes, until almost cooked and the gravy is thick.
  • 6. Boil the rice in 2.5 L salted water with whole spices for 5 to 6 minutes, to 70%. Drain at once.
  • 7. Rice over the chicken, loose. Saffron milk, 1 tbsp melted ghee, the kept onions, mint, coriander.
  • 8. Seal. 5 minutes on medium, then on a tawa on the lowest flame 20 minutes. Rest 10 minutes shut.
  • 9. Serve from the side, down to the bottom. About 670 kcal and 1 tbsp of ghee a plate.

Which ghee for biryani?

In a biryani the ghee is cooked for close to an hour and then trapped with the rice, so a jar that smells flat or stale shows up in every grain. Pick a plain ghee with nothing added that smells of toasted milk when it melts; the home checks are on how to identify pure ghee, and our ranking of the buffalo ghee on sale is best buffalo ghee in India.

We make and sell ghee, so weigh this with that in mind. For biryani we would fry in our Jafarabadi buffalo ghee and pour our A2 Gir cow ghee over the rice. Both come from grass-fed village animals near the Gir forest; the milk is set to curd overnight, churned, and the makkhan cooked in a matki on a wood chulha. The jar is made after you order, a video of it being cooked and packed comes on WhatsApp, and Varsha tastes every batch before it goes in a jar. We test every month against the FSSAI limits; the steps are on how we make ghee.

The spoon over the rice

Frying onions and the masala

Each order is cooked after you place it, and the packing video is of that batch. Past order videos are on the shop.

FAQ

Which rice is best for ghee biryani?

Aged long-grain basmati is the easiest, because it stays firm through boiling and dum and the grains grow long without breaking. In Tamil Nadu many cooks use seeraga samba, and in Kerala a short-grain kaima or jeerakasala rice, which are small and fragrant. They cook faster than basmati, so boil them for less time and check the grain early. Freshly harvested rice of any kind turns sticky more easily.

Can I make ghee biryani in a pressure cooker?

Yes, as a one-pot version. Cook the onions and chicken masala in the cooker, add the soaked raw rice with 1½ cups of water for each cup of rice, and cook to one whistle on medium, then 5 minutes on the lowest flame. Let the pressure drop on its own. The grains come out softer and the layers are lost, but it is ready in about half the time.

How long does leftover biryani keep?

Treat it like any cooked rice. The NHS advises cooling rice within an hour of cooking, keeping it in the fridge, and eating it within 24 hours, because spores of a food poisoning bacterium can survive cooking. Reheat it only once, until steaming hot all the way through, with a spoon of water sprinkled over and the lid on. Do not leave the pot out on the stove overnight.

Can I use butter instead of ghee in biryani?

Butter still holds water and milk solids, which ghee has had cooked out. Those solids burn long before the onions turn brown, so fry the onions in ghee or oil and use butter only as the melted layer over the rice before dum. It gives a creamier, fresher taste than ghee. Salted butter adds salt, so cut back a little on the salt in the rice water.

Should I add ghee on top of biryani when serving?

Only if the rice came out dry. A biryani made with 4 tablespoons of ghee for four people already carries a tablespoon on each plate, which is more than the 1 to 2 teaspoons a day that ICMR-NIN suggests. A spoon of raita or salan does more for a dry plate than more ghee. If you do add some, half a teaspoon of warm ghee over the rice is plenty.

Can I make biryani the day before a party?

Make the parts ahead, not the finished biryani. Marinate the chicken and fry the onions the night before, and keep both in the fridge in closed boxes; the fried onions stay crisp in an airtight jar. On the day, cook the masala, boil the rice, and do the dum about an hour before guests arrive. The sealed pot stays hot for 30 to 40 minutes after the rest.

Sources

  1. Rice, white, long-grain, regular, raw, unenriched (FDC ID 169756), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 27 Sep 2026.
  2. Chicken, broilers or fryers, dark meat, thigh, meat only, raw (FDC ID 173627), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 27 Sep 2026.
  3. Yogurt, plain, whole milk (FDC ID 171284), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 27 Sep 2026.
  4. Onions, raw (FDC ID 170000), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 27 Sep 2026.
  5. Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average (FDC ID 170457), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 27 Sep 2026.
  6. Butter oil, anhydrous (FDC ID 173412), SR Legacy, USDA FoodData Central. Checked 27 Sep 2026.
  7. Dietary Guidelines for Indians, 2024 (Guideline 7, visible fats), ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition. Checked 27 Sep 2026.
  8. Starchy foods and carbohydrates (storing and reheating rice), NHS. Checked 27 Sep 2026.

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