Whole chickpeas are soaked overnight and simmered until tender (or pressure-cooked). The chickpea cooking liquor is measured and reserved as part of the rice cooking liquid. A fried-onion base is built in ghee with whole spices, ginger-garlic paste and ground spices, and the cooked chickpeas are folded in. Soaked basmati is toasted in the base, then the measured cooking liquor goes in for the steam. A scatter of fried onion and coriander finishes.
A chicken yakhni (broth) is built first by simmering chicken pieces with onion, ginger, garlic, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, cardamom and bay until the meat is just tender. The broth is strained and measured; the chicken is reserved. Basmati is soaked, fried briefly with cinnamon, cumin and clove in ghee, then cooked in exactly the right amount of strained yakhni. The chicken is folded back in for the steam. Finished with fried onions and fresh coriander.
Mutton is marinated overnight in yogurt with browned onion, ginger-garlic, Kashmiri chilli, garam masala and dried plums (aloo bukhara, a Lahori signature). The marinated meat is slow-cooked in its marinade until tender and the masala has reduced to a thick, oil-slicked gravy. Basmati is parboiled in salted water with a sachet of whole spices. The biryani is built in layers: meat, rice, fried onion, saffron milk, mint, repeated; sealed under a tight lid for the dum.
Bone-in mutton (or lamb shoulder, preferably with marrow bones) is simmered for two hours with onion, ginger, garlic, a spice pouch (coriander, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon, peppercorns, cumin) and salt, until the meat is fork-tender and the stock has reduced to a deep, fragrant yakhni. The stock is strained and measured. Basmati is soaked and added to a base of fried onion, whole spices, ginger and the cooked meat; the exact volume of yakhni is poured in, and the rice steams under a tight lid. The bone marrow ends up dispersed through the rice; the smell is unmistakable.
Basmati is parboiled with saffron, orange colouring, whole cardamom and cinnamon until 80% cooked, then drained. A separate pan makes a sugar syrup with crushed cardamom; the parboiled rice is added back to the syrup pan with ghee, raisins, nuts and dried fruit. The mixture is steamed under a tight lid for 15 minutes to absorb the syrup. Finished with rose or kewra water and a scatter of toasted nuts.