Buhari Biryani

Buhari Biryani is a popular rice and chicken dish in Chennai (formerly Madras), India from the popular restaurant at the Buhari Hotel where it was introduced in 1951.

Legends say that hotelier Buhari experimented over 200 variations of biryani along with his chief biryani master Shamydeen before launching it in Chennai in the early 1950s. Since then it came very popular across the region and many restaurants and cooks of various regions started to emulate the buhari style biryani in their kitchen and 50years down the lane most of the local biryanis of Chennai would taste like it.

A lot different from the Hyderabad biryani and Ambur biryani, it was made to suit the madrasi taste buds with lots of tomatoes, coriander and mint in the ingredients and some secret spices they say. The Buharis were also successful in Colombo, Srilanka in the 1940s before coming back to their homeland India after the post independence political changes in both countries. Biryani being a popular dish among Muslims and tamils, the Singalese used to love the biryani. The singalese used it call it as 'the buhari rice' instead of biryani. Even now Sri Lankans would never fail drop in at the Buhari Restaurants in Chennai.