The process of cooking Biryani is often seen as time-consuming and labour-intensive. It includes sourcing delicate, and sometimes rare ingredients like saffron. Its plating and serving is often elaborately conducted. Sides may include raita, salads, .Biryani can often be a difficult dish to prepare. In many homes, preparations range over two or three hours. Professional cooks hired for social occasions such as weddings may take over a day to prepare the spices and let the meat marinate. 

Traditionally, many kinds of biryani are slow cooked overnight in a sealed, heavy-bottomed pot.

Many biryani recipes now feature ‘instant’ versions of the dish, readily prepared and plated in less than 30 minutes.With the advent of boxed spice powders, cooking times, particularly for home cooks, has reduced greatly. Once seen as an instrument that would destroy legacies of family recipes, passed down over generations, packet masalas are now a kitchen staple in many households where the primary burden of kitchen labour falls to women. At the cost of losing out on legacy and tradition, packet masalas can reduce the effort and sometimes the price of biryani preparation.