Your first visit to Shahi Degh: what to expect
Deg times, the wait, seating and how the kebab counter works, so your first meal here goes smoothly.
Chicken, mutton or vegetable biryani: how to choose
Texture, spice and cooking time differ more than you might think. A guide to our three degs.
Our three biryanis share the same rice, spices and dum, but they eat very differently. If you are ordering for a group, it helps to know how.
Kacchi gosht biryani is the one the house is built on. Mutton goes into the deg raw, marinated overnight in curd, papaya paste, fried onions and spices, and cooks for 90 minutes on dum. The meat is soft enough to pull from the bone with a spoon, and the rice at the bottom has absorbed the most masala. It is richer and slightly heavier. A portion is ₹420.
Chicken dum biryani is lighter and a little milder. Chicken cooks faster than mutton, so we marinate it for six hours rather than overnight and give it a shorter dum to keep it moist. Many first-time guests and children prefer it. A half is ₹320. Vegetable dum biryani is cooked in its own deg, never alongside meat, with paneer, beans, carrots, peas and potatoes. It uses the same aged basmati, saffron and fried onions, so it is not a pulao in disguise. It starts at ₹260.
For a mixed group of six, we usually suggest one mutton, two chicken and one vegetable, with extra raita. Everyone can taste the difference between kacchi and chicken that way, and the vegetarians are not left with the smallest dish on the table.
