Shrimp Biryani (Indian Shrimp and Rice)

By amreen, posted 8 months ago

Photo: Sarah Shatz

Amanda & Merrill's Notes:

This biryani has the distinction of being both delicate and full of flavor. A bowl of this fragrant rice and shrimp would be equally suited to lunch or dinner, either enjoyed alone in private bliss or served for a dinner party. We love that the same mixture of garlic, ginger, cilantro and chilies gets incorporated into both the rice and shrimp, the two parts of the dish mirroring each other aromatically. And amreen reminded us of the beauty and ease of baked rice! - A&M

As a kid I loved seafood and hated Indian food ... Over the years somehow that got switched up to loving Indian food and becoming vegetarian. About a year ago I decided to make the move to being pescatarianism which has opened a whole new culinary world for me. For my 30th birthday my dad made this amazing Shrimp Biryani dish for me marrying my two favorite things, seafood and Indian food. Send thanks to him for the flavors you are about to indulge in. - amreen

Serves 6

2 cups basmati rice
1 pound Shelled and de-veined Shrimp
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric
1/4 bunch cilantro
2 serrano chilis
1 1 inch piece of ginger
4 large cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons oil
1 large yellow onion
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 1 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
1/4 stick of butter
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
10 - 12 whole green cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
3 cups water
2 sprigs mint
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash the rice and soak it in cold water until needed.
Wash the shrimp and drain it well. Add the salt and tumeric and mix. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Peel the ginger and garlic and use a food processor to blend it to a paste with the cilantro and chilis. You can use a little water if it is too dry.
Chop the onion and mint and leave to the side until needed.
Heat the oil on medium in an oven safe dish. Add the peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and 1 bay leaf. Saute until fragrant, approximately 2-3 minutes.
Add the chopped onion and saute until light brown, stirring constantly.
Add 1/2 of the paste and saute for another minute or two.
Add water and salt (1-2 teaspoons depending on taste) and bring to this to a boil.
Drain the rice and add it to the boiling water and add the butter and mint. Bring this to a boil, cover and place it in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes.
When the rice has been in the oven for about 10 minutes heat some oil in a saute pan and add the remainder of the paste along with the other bay leaf. Saute this for a minute or two and add the shrimp. Saute the shrimp until done (they should be light pink) about 5 minutes.
Remove the rice from the oven. Top it with the shrimp and serve with kachumber (recipe can be found on my profile :P)

Comments (42)Add yours

jazzdad 25 days ago: I made this for my daughter tonight. My tolerance for spicy found it to be perfect hers found it a little to much so. So next time I make it for her, one of the serranos will lose the pith and seeds. I loved the cardamom in the rice and maybe didn't put in enough cinnamon but it still had a wow factor off the charts! great recipe looking forward to fine tuning it to suit my tastes, highly recommended, will make again especially for the delicious fragrance that permeates the house when making.
J-Dizzle 28 days ago: Made this at the cottage - and the wonderful aromas had the neighbours coming over; or casually dropping by.....! It was a huge hit - I threw in some extra veggies (only way i can sneak then in)....Thank you Amreen for the wonderul recipe - it definitey is a keeper!
monkeymom 4 months ago: Made this tonight. It was not only amazingly delicious, it was very fun to make. We didn't happen to have serranos so I had to leave them out. But my daughter (who usually hates spices/herbs) "I like it because of the spices". Essentially, a miracle. A big huge thanks to your dad!
amreen 3 months ago: wow thats awesome! i never thought this would be a kid friendly dish ... goes to show you how much our culture's palates are changing ... will pass the word on to my pops :D
bonnie59 5 months ago: I just made this for the second time for my family and we all loved this dish. Even my fussy eater 13 y.o. daughter gobbled it up and didn't pick out the onions. Quite a success for our household meals. I just love your site and continue to tell all my friends at work about your site and of course I pass on my favourite recipes.
amreen 3 months ago: I taught at a middle school for a long time and the kids would always wrinkle their noses at my lunch ... but once they tried it it was always Ms. Karmali when are you bringing meeee lunch :P There definately is something to say about the appeal of all things exotic!
Daphne 5 months ago: Made this last night and it was not only fun to put together but tasted like nothing I've ever made before. The smells got raves and we felt like we'd been transplanted to some exotic place. Just love to make food a few hours before dinner. I can sneak bites when I'm starving at 5 pm. Just re warm and serve after sharing a glass of wine with my husband after he arrives home at 7:30. Thank you for the fantastic recipe. P.S. loved the very few dishes to wash too!
amreen 3 months ago: Im a big fan of the minimal dishes too!!! I love how this recipe is super simple but appears to be so fancy!
Evangeline 6 months ago: I made this last night for a dinner party - I totally screwed up the recipe - but is was still a huge hit. For some reason I thought the order of the instructions was to make sure the rice was finished at the same time as the shrimp - so I did everything out of order. Here's what I did: I baked the rice as instructed, in a cast iron pot. However, I only baked it with the butter and the mint. Later, when I realized my mistake, I mixed in a bit of the chili paste with the rice and let it sit in the pot - which was still hot - so it cooked a bit into the rice. It had a delicate, slightly spicy flavor. Oh - also, I used about 3/4 of a jalepeno pepper because that's all they had at the market. They are less spicy than serranos, but the spiciness level was just fine for me. Meanwhile I sauteed the onions and all the wonderful spices and then I added the shrimp to this mix and sauteed it all together for about 10 minutes. The shrimp had an amazing flavor. We ate with the rice on the side. End of the story - the spices are so wonderful and well balanced, I don't you can mess this dish up! Thanks Amreen!
AntoniaJames 6 months ago: I made this tonight and it was fabulous! For a variety of reasons, I needed a one-dish meal for the family tonight, so I added a few vegetables -- I diced two carrots and added them with the onion, and added frozen petite peas when cooking the shrimp (along with the juice of half a lime). I was short on time, so I boiled some water in a tea kettle while I was chopping the vegetables and aromatics. I added the rice to the onion mixture and stirred it to coat it well, as one would do with a risotto. Then I poured the boiling water over it, adding a bit extra because some went up in steam immediately upon hitting the pan. I then stirred in the butter and salt, and covered it immediately, to take advantage of the steam I was creating. I also added just a touch of cumin (ground) with the other spices, and passed some chopped, toasted cashews as a garnish, just for fun. I didn't have the recipe with me in the kitchen, so I forgot to add the mint, but it still tasted great as it was. Definitely a keeper! And so quick, too. Thank you for posting it.
amreen 6 months ago: I love the sharing and improvising that is going on Antonia! many blessings to you and your family on this new year :D
lacerise 7 months ago: was expecting great things from this recipe. the ingredients/techniques looked solid and tantalizing. but i was disappointed. the house smelled fantastic...even the next day. but i felt the dish was a let down. a lot of great stuff, for me and my family, turned out to be a little lacking in flavor when finished. don't get me wrong; we will eat all the leftovers. but i won't be cooking it again. and a question: is the cook supposed to remove all the solid material from the rice prior to serving or does everyone pick it out of their mouth while eating? is their some Indian protocol of which I'm unaware?
amreen 7 months ago: hey there ... sorry the dish didn't work out for you ... would you alter it in any way? also no there is no indian protocol ... just good old fashioned being careful of what you eat ... cloves are actually a great digestive and while they pack a punch they can be eaten whole :D
lastnightsdinner 7 months ago: Maine shrimp have just come into season here - I can't wait to try them in this dish :)
amreen 7 months ago: oh wow ... lucky you! let me know how it turns out ... im banished to the world of frozen fish ... i am sure yours is going to be amazing!
Maria Teresa Jorge 7 months ago: Congratulations for the prize. Fantastic recipe and thank you for sharing your talent.
amreen 7 months ago: thank you so much maria! all credit to my pops on this one :)
melissav 7 months ago: Made this for dinner tonight and it was another Food 52 hit. Great flavors and it smelled divine. My husband said he knew it was going to be a good meal as soon as he stepped off the elevator and smelled the aromas drifting down the hall from our apartment. I used brown basmati rice so I let it cook for about an hour.
amreen 7 months ago: Haha thats why i love cooking indian food ... the smell alone will make anyone happy! I love the brown rice idea ... did you pair it with any other dishes? thanks for sharing :D
melissav 7 months ago: The Brown Basmati turned out well - it was all I had in the pantry. This was the sole dish last night as I got stuck at work late; however, I think this would be a great dinner party dish paired with a bunch of other Indian inspired dishes!
nisha 7 months ago: mmmmm....cardamom.....
amreen 7 months ago: u kno it!
LeaMoniqueC 7 months ago: can't wait to try the recipe. love your dishes so far. thank you for sharing the gifts of cooking skills, good food and feeding others. much respect.
amreen 7 months ago: egualmente hermana!
pumpkinhead 7 months ago: I have been eating her recipes for ten years strong! SOOOoooo good!
amreen 7 months ago: thanks punkin!
tribe1 7 months ago: I love amreen
amreen 7 months ago: and i love my tribe!
ChezSuzanne 7 months ago: This looks amazing and can't wait to try it. The combination of spices and herbs that you have married together for this dish look so enticing. And my new favorite spice is cardamon - so I've been on the hunt for good recipes incorporating it. I have a house party coming up over the holidays and plan to put this on the menu! Thanks!
amreen 7 months ago: Thanks Suzanne, I am so with you in your love for cardamom ... a couple days ago i made a simple desert with bannannas sauteed in butter and cardamom ... put that on some vanilla ice cream for pure bliss! I would love to hear any recipes that you have found too! Have fun at your party!
luvcookbooks 7 months ago: looks like a great weekend or company meal, thanks!
amreen 7 months ago: ha ... i made it the other weekend ... for company ... they loved it :P
healthierkitchen 7 months ago: I will be trying this one soon!
amreen 7 months ago: you can easily substitute the butter for a vegan margarine to make this healthier ... enjoy :D
lastnightsdinner 7 months ago: We have a wonderful little Indian market just up the street, and I've been dying to work with the wonderful ingredients they sell. I'll be trying this for sure.
amreen 7 months ago: looking forward to hearing how it turns out :D
WinnieAb 7 months ago: This looks delicious...it took me a long time to accumulate all the spices necessary to make dishes like this, but I think at this point I do have them all...yum!
amreen 7 months ago: winnie have you ever tried cardamom in fruit pies? it adds an amazing aroma and taste! I love it in peach cobbler!
WinnieAb 7 months ago: that sounds wonderful...I made roasted vegetables with cardamom as one of my Thanksgiving side dishes- heavenly
amreen 7 months ago: oooooohh yum! u gonna post the recipe :P
AntoniaJames 7 months ago: Oh, this looks heavenly! My sons, who adore shrimp, will love this. If you were having a party to which vegetarians were coming, you could easily prepare some toasted cashews in a separate pan to use instead of the shrimp for them. I made something similar to this last night, using cumin instead of the sweet spices, and because I was a bit hurried and wanted a one-pot dinner, threw some leftover brussels sprouts on top of the pilaf simply to steam for a few minutes before serving. I am really looking forward to trying this one, soon!!
amreen 7 months ago: I love the cashew idea antonia ... and so do all my vegetarian friends!

You can post comments here after you log in.

Editors' Pick

Cooks' Rating:

5 people like this recipe