- Ingredients for marinating the chicken
- 1 Kilo Chicken on the bone cut into 12-16 pieces
- 1/2 Teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 Tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
- 1 Teaspoon of coriander powder
- A little salt
Mix all of the above ingredients and let the chicken marinate for 6-12 hours, more the better.
- Herbs, spices and condiments used are as follows
- 8 cloves
- 1 Cinnamon stick
- 6 green Cardamoms
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1/2 Teaspoon shahi jeera (caraway seeds)
- A few pinches grated nutmeg and mace each
- 1 Teaspoon Coriander powder
- 1 Teaspoon red Chili powder (to taste)
- 5-6 Tablespoon of chopped fresh mint
- 2-3 chopped green Chilies
- 4-5 chopped Tomatoes
- A whole bunch of fresh coriander leaves
- For fried onions
- About 8-9 medium size onions
- Other Ingredients
- Oil for deep frying and 3-4 tablespoon for cooking
- 1 Tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
- 1/2 cup of milk
- A few strands of Saffron (kesar)
- Desi ghee (clarified butter) about 6-7 Tablespoons
- Cashew nuts ( a few or as many as you want)
- Raisins and almonds are optional
- Salt to taste
- Alternative authentic ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Gram Masala Powder
- 1 tablespoon or less of Green Cardamom Powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- a pinch of red chilli powder(Optional)
- a pinch of green chilli(Optional)
- 2 - 3 teaspoon gralic powder
- 2 -3 teaspoons of onion powder
- 2 - 4 teaspoons ginger powder
- 1 kilo basmati, jasmine or ganador rice
- 1 cup tomato paste(not tomato sauce)
- 1 cup milk or cream
- Yogurt
- Salt to taste
- Coriander leaves
- Saffron
Method
Deep fry the onions:
While the chicken is marinating, slice the onions very thin. You can use
a food processor for this or a slicer. Now heat oil and fry these
sliced onions in batches. The heat should be medium. Definitely not
high, otherwise the onions will get burned.
Stir the onions continuously for uniform browning. When they become
light brown, drain them on kitchen paper. Keep them aside. They will get
nice crispy as they cool down.
Cook the Chicken:
Take a deep, wide mouth vessel and heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil in it. In
this add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms, little bit of
shahi jeera and allow to crackle. Now add a tablespoon of ginger garlic
paste and stir a little. Now tip out all the marinated chicken and the
marinade. Cook on a high flame so that the water gets evaporated
quickly. Add the chopped tomatoes, mint, green chilies, all dry
powders(coriander, chili), and salt. Cook till the chicken is cooked and
the gravy (masala) is not watery. Add one third of the fried onions.
Mix well. Keep aside.
Boiling the Rice
Boiling rice is one of the most important part of cooking a biryani. The
rice needs to be parboiled. Meaning, it should be three fourth cooked.
The rest of it gets cooked on dum (when we layer the chicken and rice,
seal it and put on a very slow fire).
Take a big deep wide mouth vessel, add lots of water (at least 10 times
more than rice). Add ample salt (this is very important because the rice
needs to be salty when cooked). Also add a cinnamon stick, a couple of
green cardamoms, a few cloves and the rest of caraway seeds (shahi
jeera), for flavoring the rice.
Now boil all this for a few minutes on a high flame (7 minutes or so).
This is how to check if the rice is done. Without burning your fingers,
take a few grains of rice (use a clean spoon to take some out of the
boiling water), break a grain, if it breaks into 3 parts easily, your
rice is done.
Strain the rice and spread it on a clean surface (a tray or something),
so that it cools faster. If you want to pick out the whole spices which
you added, you can do that now. Or else just let them be.
- Chop the coriander leaves
- Boil the milk and add crushed saffron in it. Give it a stir.
- In desi ghee, fry the cashew nuts till golden brown. Also the almonds and raisins, if using. Keep aside.
- Keep some melted desi ghee aside.
Layering the biryani:
- Take a heavy bottom pan with a lid (non stick is best).
- Take some melted ghee and grease the bottom of the pan with it. Then
- Put a layer of rice,
- Then a layer of chicken
- followed by a layer of fried onions
- then a layer of chopped coriander.
- Repeat and finish off with the rice layer. Lastly, sprinkle the leftover
fried onions (if any), cashews and other nuts. Pour the saffron milk on
top. Also pour some desi ghee down the sides of the pan and some on top
of the rice. It will trickle down with the heat.
- Yep, you are done. Seal the lid by sticking it with
some chapati dough or simply fix a big foil before placing the lid. The
idea is to restrict the steam from escaping. Place this pot on a very
slow flame. Ideally place this vessel on top of another flat pan or
tawa, so that the bottom of the pan doesn't come in direct contact with
the heat source.
- Leave for one hour. When you open it, what you get is
the magical, flavorsome and aromatic chicken biryani. Please dig in.
Don't forget to prepare a riata while your biryani is cooking. Enjoy hot
biryani with a cold raita.
Here is Another method
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this is my style of cooking ............Please share your recipe here