A Pakistani–Iranian hybrid, in which saffron-spiced rice is layered with yoghurt-marinated chicken and potatoes, and baked to form a golden tahdig. Recipe and photographs by Javahir Askari.
May 13, 2026
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Good morning and welcome to Vittles Recipes. Today, Javahir Askari writes about Biryani Tahchin — her vibrant, aromatic, and delicately spiced creation that combines Pakistani biryani and Iranian tahchin.
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Showstopper, Centre Piece
In Biryani Tahchin, saffron-spiced rice is layered with yoghurt-marinated chicken and potatoes and baked to form a golden tahdig. Recipe and images by Javahir Askari.
For my thirtieth birthday, I invited friends for dinner in my flat in London. When I brought the pot of biryani tahchin I had made to the table and inverted it onto a platter with a soft thud, the room fell quiet. A cloud of steam cleared to reveal a golden dome of fragrant rice, masala chicken and saffron potatoes crowned with glossy zereshk or barberries and fried pistachios. The scent of biryani filled the room when I cut into it. My friends filmed me, like I was a bride cutting her wedding cake.
Few foods offer built-in theatre like biryani tahchin. It is a dish of my own creation, a delicately spiced combination of Pakistani biryani and Iranian tahchin. Structurally, it is a classic tahchin: saffron and yoghurt-bound rice are pressed into the base of a pot, then layered with chicken and baked until the bottom crisps, forming the much-coveted tahdig (crispy golden rice layer). But the chicken, cooked with ginger, garlic, onions and masala, carries the soul of biryani (thankfully without the laborious hours of preparation and cooking usually required).
In my recipe, I also add sliced potatoes and lemons between the layers. This underlines the fact that, while this dish has its roots in two different traditions, it’s also happy to reinvent both.
My family is Pakistani; we settled in Mehmudabad and Faizabad in North India in the 1930s. But our roots trace back to Nishapur and Shiraz in Iran, a lineage that’s more common among South Asians than people in the West might expect. My grandfather spoke fluent Farsi, and passed down a love of Iranian food that still anchors our family table today. Like him, I’ve lived across different countries. That sense of movement shows up in my cooking; in dishes like biryani tahchin, which emerged out of attempting to bring the disparate parts of my background together in one dish.
Biryani Tahchin looks like a centrepiece, but it plays well with whatever’s on the table: kachumber salad, thick yoghurt, hummus, pickled vegetables, even potato salad. I’ve also made versions in which I swapped the chicken for leftover kofte, beef or oyster mushrooms. Some days I garnish with candied orange peel, fried onions and barberries, other days with mint and coriander. Using different garnishes opens this dish up to a wide range of flavours.
Biryani tahchin is a dish for rule-breakers and for those whose idea of home spans more than one nation or culture. I encourage you to make this dish as uniquely yours as it is mine.
Biryani Tahchin
Serves4 Time 2 hrs
You can make this either on the stove or in the oven – I have provided the method for both below. A drizzle of kewra water, made from the Indian screwpine flower, is central to this dish: similar to rose water but fruitier, it adds a delicately fragrant note. You can find kewra water in Asian supermarkets or the world foods aisle of a big supermarket.
