Yakhni — meat broth — is the foundation of this rice dish, and the yakhni is what the Sindhi cook will spend the most time on: bone-in meat simmered for hours with whole spices until the broth is deep, clear and rich enough to cook rice in directly. There is no layering, no par-boiling and draining, no dum sealing of two separate preparations meeting at the end. The rice goes into the measured yakhni, absorbs it entirely, and finishes in one pot. The result is subtler than a biryani — the rice fragrant with bone and spice, each grain separate and glistening, the dish carrying its celebration quietly. It is what Sindhi households serve when there are many guests to feed.
Zone: Indus Plains
SOURCE: Sindhi family recipe shared on Pakistani food Facebook group, Karachi, 2022
LOCAL NAME: سندھی یخنی پلاؤ
INGREDIENTS
- 700 g bone-in lamb shoulder or mutton (cut into pieces)
- 400 g aged basmati rice (soaked 30 minutes)
- 2 large onions (1 quartered for the yakhni, 1 sliced for birista)
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 2 tbsp fennel seeds (tied in muslin)
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 2 black cardamom pods
- 6 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp mace blades
- 2 bay leaves
- 1½ tsp salt (plus more to taste)
- 4 tbsp ghee or neutral oil
- 3 tbsp plain yogurt (whisked)
- 1 tbsp kewra water (optional)
- chopped coriander to serve
METHOD
- Put the meat, quartered onion, ginger-garlic paste, spice pouch, whole spices, 1 tsp salt and 1.5 litres of water in a pot. Bring to a boil, skim, cover and simmer until the meat is completely tender, 60–70 minutes.
- Lift out the meat and set aside. Squeeze and discard the spice pouch. Strain the yakhni and measure it — you need 600ml for 400g of rice; top up with water if needed.
- Fry the sliced onion in the ghee until deep golden. Remove half as birista.
- Add the ginger-garlic paste, the cooked meat and the whisked yogurt to the remaining onion. Fry for 3 minutes.
- Drain the soaked rice and add it; toss gently for a minute.
- Pour in the hot, measured yakhni. Bring to a boil, stir once, then cover tightly and cook on the lowest heat for 15 minutes until fully absorbed.
- Rest 10 minutes. Scatter with birista and coriander, fold through gently and serve.
NOTES
UK adaptation: Bone-in lamb shoulder or mutton from any halal butcher — the bone is essential to building a proper yakhni. Aged basmati from any supermarket. Whole spices (cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, mace) from any South Asian grocer. Everything else widely available.
US adaptation: Bone-in lamb or goat from halal butchers. Aged basmati from Patel Brothers or H-Mart. Whole spices from Indian grocery stores. Everything else widely available.
Cook’s note: Measure the strained yakhni carefully against the soaked rice — you need exactly 1½ times the rice volume. Weak or diluted broth produces a flat pulao; the yakhni must have real body.
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