Irani Chai Recipe (Hyderabadi Dum Tea)
Irani Chai (Irani Tea, Hyderabadi Dum Chai) is a Persian-influenced tea extremely popular in Hyderabad. Use my simple recipe to make this creamy tea at home.
Servings: 2 people
Ingredients
For The Tea Decoction
- 2 cups water
- 2 teaspoons Assam black tea leaves (chai patti) or 2 tea bags
- 2 teaspoons granulated white sugar adjust as per your taste
- 2 green cardamoms (hari elaichi) lightly crushed
- 1 inch piece of cinnamon stick (dalchini) lightly crushed
For The Creamy Milk
- 2 cups whole milk (full-fat milk)
- 2 tablespoons khoya crumbled
Instructions
Make The Tea Decoction
- Add water, tea leaves, sugar, green cardamoms, and cinnamon stick into a saucepan.
- Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Cover the saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and reduce the heat to low.
- Cook the tea on low heat for 30 minutes.
Make The Creamy Milk
- While the tea is cooking on dum, make the milk mixture. Add milk to a saucepan and bring it to a boil on medium-high heat.
- Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the milk is reduced to half. Stir frequently to avoid scorching at the bottom of the pan.
- Add khoya and cook for 3-4 minutes until it is mixed well in the milk.
Assemble The Chai
- Strain the tea using a tea strainer and pour ¼ cup of decoction in a serving cup.
- Top with ¾ cup of the milk mixture and serve immediately.
Video
Notes
To make Irani chai spicier and stronger, you can add more spices, such as star anise (chakri phool), black cardamom (badi elaichi), cloves (laung), and black peppercorns (kali mirch).
Use loose black tea powder or tea bags; that’s up to you. You can add more tea leaves than the recipe calls for if you like a stronger tea.
Adjust the sugar as per your taste.
I prefer buffalo milk because it is creamier than cow milk, but if it’s not readily available, you can use cow milk too.
If khoya is unavailable, mix 2 tablespoons of milk powder with 1 tablespoon of milk and whisk until smooth. Use it in place of khoya.
Some people replace khoya with heavy cream, malai (fresh cream), or condensed milk in their Hyderabadi Irani chai recipe. It is not traditional, and the taste will also be slightly different, but you can try it. Skip adding extra sugar if using condensed milk, as it is already very sweet.
If the lid does not fit tightly over the saucepan, you can seal it with a dough made from whole wheat flour to prevent steam from escaping.
Nutrition
Calories: 225kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 32mg | Sodium: 145mg | Potassium: 390mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 463IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 416mg | Iron: 0.3mg
