Lamb Pilau Rice
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Fluffy rice with a delicious spice aroma and the savory taste from the meat stock, combined with meltingly tender meat, is the best way to describe this lamb pilau rice. It’s a simple, one-pot meal that delivers deep, authentic flavor without a long list of complicated steps.
What Is Lamb Pilau Rice?
Lamb pilau rice is a savory rice dish cooked in spiced lamb stock. It’s sort of a one-pot dish that offers comfort carbs from the rice with nutritious protein from the lamb.
Allegedly, it is a dish influenced by Persian pilaf, rice cooked in an aromatic, spiced stock.
And the stock will use the main ingredient as its base. Therefore, there are so many types of pilau rice. They differ depending on the stock’s primary element.
You can find my recipes for chicken pilau rice, vegetable pilau rice, and yakhni mutton pulao rice that I’ve shared before.
Now, I’m sharing the recipe for the one with the lamb.
What Do You Serve the Pilau With?
Traditionally, pilau rice is served with curries or sides with a lot of gravy, such as aloo gosht, chicken shorba, or chicken korma.
And often, vegetable curry such as aloo palak (potato and spinach curry) will be on the menu.
This rice dish often appears among the food spread for gatherings and celebrations.
Key Ingredients
In principle, every pilau rice dish uses similar (if not the same) spices in its stock. However, the proportion of each item makes a significant difference in the end result. And this depends on the main ingredient of your pilau stock.
For example, if you use chicken, you don’t need as many whole spices as you would need for lamb. And to make vegetable pilau, you will need even fewer spices.
To make this pilau rice, you will need lamb and whole spices such as black peppercorns, cloves, black cardamom, whole cumin seeds, whole coriander seeds, and a cinnamon stick. You also need onions, ginger, garlic, bay leaves, and cooking oil.
Needless to say, rice and salt will be among the ingredients for this rice dish.
Now, as for the rice, I strongly suggest you choose Basmati rice. Because the texture of this rice is best for making pilau.
If you cannot get basmati rice, long-grain rice is the second-best option for this dish.
Equipment You Need
- Large cooking pot/ pan.
- Colander/ strainer.
- Wooden spoon.
How to Make Delicious Lamb Pilau Rice
In short, you must make the lamb stock before cooking the rice, since the rice will be cooked in it.
First, chop one onion and fry it until golden. Then add the remaining whole spices and continue frying until the onion turns light brown. If you want your pilau rice to be brown, fry the onion until it becomes dark brown. But do take care so it won’t get burned.
Next, add the whole onion, ginger, garlic, and salt. Then, place the meat into the spices. Fry for about 2-3 minutes until the meat browns.
Pour over the hot boiling water from the kettle and cook the lamb at medium-high heat.
When the water reboils, some impurities float on the surface. Try to skim off and discard them. Then, turn the heat down to low and simmer the lamb for about an hour.
When the stock is ready, remove the meat from the pot and strain it into another large pot. Then, add the rice to the stock and cook until the liquid has evaporated.
Lastly, turn the heat down and put the lid on the pan to let the rice steam.
Top Tip to Make the Best Pilau Rice
- Wash, rinse, and soak the rice before cooking for at least half an hour. When soaked in water, the rice grains will turn white and opaque.
- The basic rice-to-water ratio for basmati rice is 1:1.5. So, you will need 4.5 cups of lamb stock for this recipe. Therefore, you may want to measure the stock before you use it to cook the rice. If you add too much liquid, your pilau rice will be sticky.
- The longer you cook the meat broth, the better your pilau will taste.
- Choose the part of the lamb that has a combination of bones, meat, and fat. So the stock will be more flavorsome. I usually choose either lamb shoulder or lamb neck.
Storing Matter
You can keep and store your lamb pilau rice in the freezer for up to 2 months. Take it out of the freezer the night before serving and leave it to thaw in the fridge overnight. And reheat the rice until it is piping hot before you eat it.
Once it has thawed, you must not refreeze it.
This heartwarming rice dish is also a good choice for keeping. You can cook it in bulk on the weekend and keep it for a meal during the week. The rice keeps well in the fridge/ refrigerator for up to 4-5 days.
Take care and all the best.
Lamb Pilau Rice Recipe
Lamb Pilau Rice
Lamb pilau rice is a savory rice dish cooked in spiced lamb stock. It’s sort of a one-pot dish that contains comfort carbs of the rice with nutritious protein of the lamb meat.
Equipment
- Colander
- Large cooking pot
Ingredients
- 21.16 ounces lamb shoulder cut in chunks.
- 2 medium onions.
- 6 cloves garlic peeled.
- 2 inches ginger peeled.
- 2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds.
- 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns.
- 1 ½ teaspoons whole coriander seeds.
- 1 teaspoon whole cloves.
- 2 inches cinnamon quill/ stick.
- 4 black cardamoms.
- 3 bay leaves.
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt.
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil.
- 5 cups water.
- 3 cups basmati rice.
Instructions
- Wash and rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Then soak the rice in plenty of water. Set aside.
- Peel and chop one of the onions. Heat the oil in a large cooking pan and fry the onion until it turns golden. Do take care and keep stirring so the onion cooks evenly.
- Then add the whole cumin seeds, whole black peppercorns, whole coriander seeds, whole cloves, cinnamon quill, black cardamoms, bay leaves, ginger and garlic. Toss and stir until the spices release a delicious aroma and the onion turns golden brown.
- Stir the lamb pieces in and fry until the meat turns brown.
- Peel and cut the other onion in two. Add it to the meat along with the salt.
- Pour the hot boiling water from the kettle and cook until it reaches boiling point. Then turn the heat down. You will see the meat impurities floating on the water's surface. Skim it off and discard as much as you can. Continue cooking the stock until the meat is tender.
- Next, take the meat pieces out and place them into another large cooking pan.
- Then strain the broth into the meat and discard the onion, ginger, garlic, and other spices. You now should have around 4.5 cups of meat stock.
- Reheat the stock until it reboils. Then drain the rice and place it in the stock. Give it a good stir and cook at medium-high heat until all the liquid evaporates. You may have to stir it every now and again to ensure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Once all the stock liquid has gone, turn the heat down and cover the pan lid with a tea towel. Put the lid on and let the rice cook at low heat until the steam comes out.
Notes
- You may have to measure the stock before you use it for the pilau rice. For this recipe, you need 4.5 cups/ 1.125 ltr of stock. If your stock is less than this, you can easily add some water to make up the required amount.
- Take care when you boil the rice. You don’t want your rice to go soft and mushy. Therefore, cook the rice at medium-high heat, so it won’t cook for too long in the liquid.
Nutrition
What does pilau rice contain?
Lamb pilau rice is a one-pot dish that combines comforting carbs from rice with nutritious protein from lamb.
Why is my pilau rice sticky?
It is overcooked and has too much liquid. If you put too much liquid when cooking pilau rice, the pilau rice will be sticky.
Can I use long-grain rice instead of basmati?
Yes, if you can not get basmati rice, you can use long-grain rice as a substitute.
What do you serve pilau with?
Traditionally, pilau rice is served with curries or sides with a lot of gravy, such as aloo gosht, chicken shorba, or chicken korma.
And often, vegetable curry such as aloo palak (potato and spinach curry) will be on the menu.
What gives pilau the brown color?
If you want your pilau rice to be brown, you have to fry the onion until it turns dark brown. But do take care so it won’t get burned.
Devy founded So Yummy Recipes and Drizzling Flavor to share her love of food after exploring various cultures and cuisines for more than two decades. Her mission is to help others easily recreate traditional and non-traditional food with readily available ingredients. Her works have been featured in Reader’s Digest, Al Jazeera, MSN, Yahoo, Bon Appétit, and more.
