I invited my friends and their family last weekend for dinner.  I enjoy socialising, inviting friends and cooking something special for them.  My friends were looking forward to eat Chicken Biryani for dinner.   I cooked this dish and believe me they didn’t stop praising my preparation.  This Biryani was delicious.  One should have lot of patience to cook Chicken Biryani.  Try this dish at home, your family will love it too.

Ingredients:

1 kg of chicken with bones, cut into medium sized pieces.

750 gms of good quality long grain Basmati Rice.

4 large sized onions. Slice them into long pieces.

3 medium sized onions. Grind it to paste.

2 large sized tomatos. Grind it to paste.

6 tsp of ginger and garlic paste.

500 gms of Curd (Dahi).  Whip it until no lumps are seen.

Fresh Corriander leaves.  Chop them into small pieces.

Fresh mint leaves.  Chop them into small pieces.

One green chilli.  Chop it finely.

5 tsp of lime juice.

Whole Garam Masala – 4 cloves, 10 black pepper, 2 inch cinnamon stick, 1 tbs fennil seed, 4 Bay leaves, 6 green cardimom, 3 black cardimom, 2 tbs of cummin seeds, 4 mace leaves and pinch of fenugreek seeds.

3 tsp of red chilli powder.

2 tsp of corriander powder.

3 tsp of Garam masala powder.  I prepare my own garam masala powder with 14 dry masala ingredients, roast them, grind them and store it in glass bottle.  It remains fresh for atleast six months.  I will share my own garam masala powder recipe in my next blog.

1 tsp of turmeric powder.

Salt to taste.

200 gms of Cashew nuts.

100 gms of green raisins (kismis).

200 gm pure Ghee.

4 tsp of cooking oil.

5 gms of Saffron soaked in warm milk.

Method: This Biryani is cooked in Four stages.

Stage 1:

Marination of Chicken.

Take Curd in a bowl.  Add 1 tbs of red chilli powder, 1 tbs of corriander powder, 1 tbs of garam masala powder, half tbs of turmeric powder,  2 tbs of ginger & garlic paste, half tbs of salt,  2 tbs of lime juice.  Mix all these ingredients very well with Curd.

Add chicken pieces in this bowl.  Mix it well until the curd and masalas are quoted nicely on the chicken pieces.  You can see the picture on how this marinate looks like.

Keep this bowl, having chicken marination, in the Refrigerator for minimum one hour. The more time your keep this marination in the Refrigerator, the better will be the marination with all the masala flavours infused into the chicken.

Take a kadai. Add 4 tbs of cooking oil and heat it up.

Add all the whole garam masalas into the hot oil.  Let the masalas release its flavours into the hot oil.

Add chopped green chillis.

Add Onion paste (Not the sliced onions) to the hot oil.  Fry the onions until it turns golden brown.

Add remaining ginger & garlic paste.  Stir well until ginger/garlic is cooked well.

Add remaining red chilli powder, corriander powder, turmeric powder, salt to taste.  Add little water into the Kadai so that the masalas are mixed well with the onion and this also helps to de-glaze the kadai. Cook this mixture until the masalas are fried properly.

Add tomato paste.  Keep stirring this mixture well until tomato is cooked to perfection. The rawness of tomato should not be there.  You can taste it to confirm.

Reduce the heat to minimum.  Add marinated chicken with the curd slowly and keep mixing it continuously on slow heat, so that the curd doesnot split or curdle.

Donot add water.

Cover the Kadai with lid and allow the chicken, along with curd, to cook to almost 3/4th. Keep stirring from time to time.

Keep this chicken curry aside and let it cool.

Stage 2:

Rinse the rice twice with clean water.

Soak the rice with clean water for 30 minutes.  For 750 gms of basmati rice, add only one liter of water. Add 1 tbs of lime juice and salt to taste.

Cook this rice until almost cooked (not completely).  Remove excess water if any.  Remove this cooked rice in a large bowl.  Rice should not stick to each other.

Stage 3:

Heat up a frying pan.  Add oil to the pan. After the oil is heated up, add sliced onion little by little.  Fry this sliced onion until they are golden brown and crisp.  Remove the fried onions and keep them in  bowl.

Stage 4:

Now you have to set layers of cooked rice and chicken curry, with other ingredients.

Take a large, thick base, utensil to cook the Biryani.

Place first layer of cooked rice, bottom of the utensil.  Spread it evenly.  Donot apply pressure or press the rice layer.

For second layer, add cooked chicken pieces evenly on the rice.  Add half of the chicken curry evenly on the top of this layer.

Add half of the fried (sliced) onions evenly, sprinkle garam masala powder, 3 tbs of ghee evenly, spread half of the corriander leaves and mint leaves, 1 tbs of lime juice, spread half of the cashew nuts, spread half of the raisins and sprinkle half of the Saffron milk.

Add third layer of remaining cooked rice and spread it evenly.  Then again add remaining half of the chicken curry evenly on the top of this layer.  Again add remaining of the fried (sliced) onions evenly, sprinkle garam masala powder, 3 tbs of ghee evenly, spread remaining corriander leaves and mint leaves, 1 tbs of lime juice, spread remaining cashew nuts and raisins, sprinkle remaining Saffron milk on top.

Cover this utensil with tight lid.  Place a Tawa on the gas and heat it up. Place the Biryani utensil on top of the Tawa to avoid direct heat to the utensil.  This also prevents biryani rice burning from bottom.  Place some weight of something that can prevent the steam coming out of the utensil.  Dum cook the biryani at medium heat for 25-30 minutes.

Chicken Biryani is ready after 30 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Donot open the lid for another 15 minutes.

While serving this biryani, place the serving spoon in such a way that all three layers of biryani in removed from the untensil before serving on a plate.

Serve Chicken Biryani hot along with veg raita, sliced onion and lime piece.

This will definetly taste awesome.  My friends and their families relished this Chicken Biryani.

Enjoy Eating.