A novel pre-milling technique involving enzyme is prospective to improve hulling efficiency upon reducing the dehulling loss and improving cooking quality of pigeon pea. The effects of four enzymatic hydrolysis parameters viz., enzyme concentration (20, 27.5, 35, 42.5, 50 mg/100 g dry sample), incubation time (4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 h), incubation temperature (35, 40, 45, 50 and 55 °C) and tempering water pH (4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0) on hulling efficiency, protein content and cooking time were optimized using response surface methodology. For the comparison of enzymatic pretreatment, the dry milling method was considered as control. From the above study, it could be recommended that higher recovery and better quality of pigeon pea dhal could be obtained by enzymatic pre-treatment of enzyme concentration of 31.62 mg/100 g dry matter, incubation time 7.34 h, incubation temperature 44.70 °C and tempering water pH 5.34 which gave the predicted values of hulling efficiency 80.95 %, protein content 21.42 % and cooking time 14.64 min. This could an increase in hulling efficiency of 15.84 %, protein content 11.77 % and decrease in cooking time 22.28 % as compared to dry milling method.