Chicken Biryani


 



The very first recipe post on my food blog. Yay! I realize that I am adding another Chicken Biryani recipe to the gazillion Chicken Biryani recipes already floating around on the Internet. But this recipe works for me and it's my go-to recipe for Chicken Biryani. This was a recipe that my husband's colleague emailed him several years ago. I have made a few small changes to the original recipe to suit my taste. I make this dish once every 4-6 months and it gets better with every try. It is an elaborate dish, which requires a lot of prep time, so it is one of those weekend recipes (for me anyway), and whenever I make this, I take the rest of the day off. Being a raving carnivore, my husband absolutely loves this dish and when he starts buying mint leaves at the grocery store, I know what he's hinting at. Here's the recipe.

Chicken Biryani

Prep time: 45 min Servings: 3-4
Cook time: 1 hr 30 min Difficulty: 4/5

There are 3 main steps in this recipe.
  1. Prepare chicken khurma.
  2. Cook rice.
  3. Add cooked rice, chicken khurma, ginger-garlic paste, garam masala, fried onions, cashews, chopped cilantro and mint leaves in layers and finish cooking on very low heat, covered tightly, for 30 minutes.
Ingredients

Chicken khurma
  • 6 Chicken drumsticks (or) 3 Chicken drumsticks and 3 chicken thighs cut into medium-sized pieces (or) an assortment of cut-up chicken pieces
  • 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 2 tsp garam masala powder
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1tsp salt or to taste
  • 1 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1 cup plain yogurt (full fat/reduced fat)
  • 3-5 small green chillies
  • 1/2 bunch of cilantro
  • 1 small yellow onion, sliced
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
Rice
  • 2 cups Basmati rice
  • 10 cups or more water, for cooking rice
  • salt for seasoning
Layers
  • 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 2 tsp garam masala powder
  • 1 medium onion, sliced
  • 15 cashews, halved
  • 1/2 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 bunch mint leaves, coarsely chopped
  • juice from 1 lemon
  • 1/2 tsp saffron
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1tbsp ghee (clarified butter) to fry the whole spices
  • whole spices (4 cloves, 2 pieces of cinnamon, 8 whole pepper corns, 3 whole cardamom with husk slightly crushed, 3 star anise, 3 bay leaves)
Garnish
  • 1 small yellow onion, cut into circles
  • 1 lemon, cut into wedges or circles

Preparation

Chicken khurma
  1. Add ginger-garlic paste, garam masala, turmeric, salt, red chilli powder, vertically halved green chillies, chopped cilantro and yogurt to chicken. Mix well and marinate for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Heat 2tbsp oil in a pan and fry thinly-sliced onions until golden brown. Add the marinated chicken to these onions and cook it until the chicken is 9o % cooked.
Rice
  1. Take enough water (at least 5 cups of water for every 1 cup of rice) in a stockpot or large saucepan and bring it to a boil. Add salt for seasoning.
  2. Wash the basmati rice and add to the boiling water. Stir 2-3 times during the cooking time until the rice is 75-80% cooked. Rice grains should be separate and not mushy.
  3. Drain the water completely and let the rice cool for 5-10 minutes.
Final step: Layering
  1. Be ready with the following ingredients: a. Fried onions and cashews--In a few tsp of oil, fry halved cashews, remove, and then
    fry thinly-sliced onions until brown. Drain and set aside.
    b. Coarsely chopped cilantro and mint leaves.
    c. Garam masala powder
    d. Juice from 1 lemon
    e. Saffron soaked in 1/2 cup of warm milk
  2. Now in the main dish, add 1 tbsp oil and swirl it around to evenly coat the pan.
  3. Add a thin layer of cooked rice at the bottom, sprinkle some ginger-garlic paste evenly on the rice. Do not use ginger-garlic paste after this step.
  4. Add another layer of rice. Now, sprinkle 1/3 of the layering ingredients except milk with saffron (gram masala, fried onions and cashews, chopped cilantro and mint leaves, lemon juice).
  5. Repeat step 4.
  6. Add a layer of rice, and once the dish is half-full, transfer all the cooked chicken khurma on the rice.
  7. Repeat step 4 again. Finally, pour the milk with saffron on the top layer of rice.
  8. Heat the ghee (clarified butter) in a small skillet/saucepan and fry the whole spices until they give off their aroma, making sure not to burn them. Pour the ghee and the spices on the top layer of rice. Put the lid on and heat the dish tightly covered at a low temperature (low/med-low setting) for approx. 30 minutes. At this point, the aroma of biryani will let you know that it's done.
  9. Let it rest for 5 minutes, mix, and serve with an onion cut into rings, lemon wedges and raita.
Note: The correct quantities of ingredients (particularly seasonings like salt, chilli powder and green chillies) are intuitional and can be varied according to taste and preference.




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