Afghani Pulao | An Easier Kabuli Pilau

Modified: Jul 8, 2024 · Published: Dec 2, 2015 by Fatima Cooks · This post may contain affiliate links · 42 Comments

The first time I had Kabuli Pilau, also known as Afghani Pulao, was in my first year of college, at a local restaurant with my family. I remember seeing the dished out serving platter of lightly browned rice, scattered with glistening raisins and carrots covering large chunks of meat and thinking 'Oh, well. Guess I'm not eating tonight'.

Before that night, I was ethically against mixing sweet and savoury together. But that was before that night.

That night, I learnt that sweet + savoury combinations have the potential to be insanely good - but only if all the flavours are balanced juuuuust right. Afghani Pulao/Kabuli Pilau just gets that combination ohhhhhh so right! The way the sweet, juicy raisins and carrots complement the savoury, moreish meat and the mellow, soft flavour of the spice-infused rice.

I was sold, for life.

After that night, I stopped wanting burgers and chips on the nights I went out for dinner. I began to actively search for Afghani restaurants to eat at- because now, the only thing that appealed to me was a sweet and savoury flavour party. And then soon, I became brave enough to try to cook it myself. And eventually, I set out to develop a solid, successful recipe for it, to share with you.

Kabuli Pilau - Afghanistani Rice with Mutton, Raisins, Nuts and Carrots

The results? It's now a firm favourite in our home. It's my go-to menu item to serve on dawats, Eids and any special occasion. I've cooked this for small gatherings and large crowds and it's never let me down. I cannot even put into words how safe this recipe feels to me, because I *know* it won't fail me.

You see, there are quite a few essentials for a good Kabuli Pilau, which took me quite some time to learn. Whilst I am not Afghanistani, nor do I have any Afghanistani influences on my cooking, I have learnt by asking friends, researching on the internet and of course eating out from as many Afghan restaurants as possible.

Here is what I have concluded make a darned good Kabuli Pilau:

The meat should be mutton and should be cut into large, meaty chunks. It needs to be cooked till tender to the touch and should fall apart with minimal resistance.
The stock shouldn't be spiced too strongly, nor should it be too bland. We're going for mellow and aromatic, and absolutely not spicy.
The raisins and carrots should be tender. The raisins should be cooked till they swell up and the carrots should not have any rawness to them.
Rice used should ideally be 'sella' basmati rice, which is different to the standard basmati rice. Traditionally, Afghani Pulao is made with sella rice. That doesn't mean you can't use basmati - it's just that sella enhances the experience.
Kabuli Pilau should always be served with a salad. Always.

Here we have it! Those are my essentials for The Rice From Heaven! I am very happy to be sharing this recipe with you all. It's one that my little brother and husband regularly request from me and I love it all the more because I had to go through many botched attempts before I found the perfect recipe for me!

I'd like to make a disclaimer before I proceed! My method is NOT the authentic, traditional method for Kabuli Pilau/Afghani Pulao recipe. I wanted to create the same flavour I loved using methods within my comfort zone (and my readers too!), so I mimicked the techniques from my Mutton Pulao and Chicken Yakhni Pulao recipe. This recipe I'm sharing makes Kabuli Pilau as simple as I found I could make it, whilst still maintaining the traditional flavour from restaurants. I wanted to make this clear, so as not to offend anyone who may think I'm being disrespectful by claiming my method is the method - that's not my intention at all. ❤️

Enjoy, with love x

📋 Recipe

Aghani Kabuli Pulao (Easy Recipe)

Cook Time: 2 30

Total Time: 2 30

Servings:

4.53 from 127 votes

Print Rate

Ingredients

For the stock (yakhni)

1.7 lb (750 g) mutton bone in
8 cloves garlic
1 black cardamom pod
8 green cardamom pods
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon whole black pepper corns
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
5 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 large cinnamon stick
2 tablespoon salt or to taste

For the rice

4-5 tablespoon (60 ml) oil
2 (300 g) medium onions sliced
3 cups (600 g) basmati rice ideally sela
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
4 cups/1l water (IMPORTANT: please read notes if you are changing the serving size)

For the carrot topping

2 (120 g) medium sized carrots julienne cut
1 large handful raisins or sultanas
1 large handful nuts lightly crushed (I used pistachios but any will do)
2 tablespoon (25 g) sugar
4 tablespoon (60 ml) oil for frying

Instructions

Add all the ingredients for the yakhni to a pot and cover with enough water to submerge all the meat. Bring to a boil and then cover, simmering for 1.5-2hrs, till the meat is tender but not falling off the bone. Keep checking after the 1.5hr mark to get till the right doneness.
Meanwhile, in a pan heat 3-4tbsp of oil and add your julienne-cut carrots. Saute these on medium heat for 5 minutes, till they are tender, and then add the raisins. Cook for an additional 5 minutes, till the raisins begin to swell up. Finally, add 2 tablespoon of sugar and the lightly crushed nuts and cook for just a minute. Turn off the heat.
Take a clean sheet of aluminium foil and place the carrot mixture with all the oil onto it. Fold it around the edges tightly into a parcel shape. Set aside.
When the mutton is tender, strain out the liquid stock using a colander and discard the whole spices. Reserve the stock.
In a heavy based pot, heat 4-5 tablespoon of oil and add the thinly sliced small onions. Sauté this on medium-high till the onions become lightly brown. The darker the onions become, the darker the rice will be. I prefer my Kabuli Pilau to be a light shade of brown, therefore I sauted my onions this much. You can saute them more if you prefer a darker shade. Add in the cumin seeds when your onions are just approaching your desired colour, so they get 1-2 minutes of frying.
Once the onions are to your desired colour, add the mutton from the stock. Sauté for 5-8 minutes
Add the reserved yakhni/stock. If you're short of stock, you can top it up with water. Bring to a boil.
Add the basmati rice.
Cook on high heat till the water begins to boil, and then reduces, until there is very little water left in the pot. Stir once or twice using a flat spoon (see picture below), being careful not to break any rice pieces.
At this point, reduce the heat to the lowest possible, add the foil parcel full of the carrot mix and cover with a lid wrapped with a tea towel. Allow it to steam like this for 10-15 minutes.
To serve, plate the rice on a rice platter and scatter with raisins, nuts and carrots from the foil parcel on top.

Notes

If you are adjusting the serving size: the amount of water you use will be: 0.5x = 2.5 cups/600ml water, 1x = 4 cups/1l water, 2x = 7 cups/1.65l water , 3x = 10 cups/2.5l water

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