Walking past a local biryani shop or in a wedding venue, the aroma of Kacchi biryani melts our hearts in a second. Kacchi biryani is an Old Dhaka, or more popularly, a Puran Dhakaiya delicacy loved by all, as the dish has its fan base throughout the world. There are varieties of biryani in South Asian cuisine, but hardly any variety can put up against the Dhakaiya Kacchi biryani for its taste, flavours, and aroma.

The biryani rice is fried before cooking. Historians said that the Chagatai people of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan used to have a dish cooked with rice and mutton. However, biryani entered the South Asian region through Timur, the Turko-Mongol conqueror in 1398.

Later, in the Mughal era, when Mumtaz Mahal went on a visit to see the Mughal army, she was shocked to see the malnourished army and ordered the cook to create a nourishing dish combining meat and rice that paved the way for biryani in the Indian subcontinent.

Basically, biryani can be divided into two major groups- Pakki biryani- where the meat is cooked before adding it to the rice, and Kacchi biryani- where the raw meat is added and then cooked with rice. The versatile latter recipe of biryani by layering raw meat with partially cooked rice was developed in the kitchen of Lucknow’s Nawab Wajid Ali Shah.

Later on, the Mughals’ influence allowed biryani to make its way into the centre of Dhaka. Dhaka became the provincial capital when the Mughal emperors established it in 1610 AD. The high-ranking officials and Mughal Subahdars (mostly originated from Lucknow) migrated to Dhaka. And thus Dhaka started to see biryani in the rich kitchens.