Chicken biryani

l Chicken biryani

Serves: 04

Preparation Time: 60 Minutes

Level: Moderate

See notes for adapting the same recipe for mutton, mushroom or vegetables.
For another method of preparing chicken biryani, click here

Chicken biryani

Ingredient:

For marination

• Chicken - 1 Kg
• Curd - 200 ml
• Chili powder - 2 teaspoon
• Coriander powder - 4 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
• Garam masala - 2 teaspoon
• Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tablespoon
• Salt - to taste

For rice

• Rice - 4 cups
• Refined oil - 4 tablespoon
• Cumin - 2 teaspoon
• Fennel - 1 teaspoon
• Clove - 5 no.
• Green cardamon - 3 no.
• Black cardamon - 1 no.
• Bay leaf - 2 no.
• Cinnamon - 1 small piece
• Ginger-garlic paste - 2 tablespoon
• Onion - 2 medium sized
• Tomato - 1 medium sized
• Red chili -  2 no.
• Chili powder - 2 teaspoon
• Coriander powder - 4 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
• Garam masala - 2 teaspoon
• Salt - to taste

For topping

• Onion - 1 medium sized
• Green chili - 3 no
• Ginger - small 
• Ghee - 1 tablespoon
• Cashew - 10-12 no.
• Raisins (optional)
• Lemon - 1/2 
• Coriander leaf - 1/2 bunch
• Mint leaf - 1/4 bunch

Preparation:

• Pick medium sized chicken pieces
• Whisk curd with all other ingredients for marination and marinate chicken 
• Keep aside for minimum 1 hour
• Wash and soak rice for at least 30 minutes
• Slice onions, divide them to 3 portions (1 for deep fry, 1 for chicken & 1 for rice)
• Chop tomatoes
• Slit green chilies
• Cut ginger to thin stripes (as thin as possible)
• Chop mint and coriander leaf; keep them in cold water

Cooking

• Deep fry one portion of sliced onions
• Heat oil in a thick bottom vessel (or pressure cooker)
• Add all dry spices and fry
• Add ginger-garlic paste and fry them
• Add onion and sauté until onion turn brown
• Add chili powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder and fry until it off raw flavor
• Add water as per your usual water (for that particular rice)
• Once water starts boiling add salt, half quantity of coriander and mint leaves
• Cook rice until done

• In another pan,
• Heat oil, temper cumin and red chili
• Add onion and saute until they turn brown
• Add tomatoes and cook well
• Add marinated chicken and cook until meat is tender (sprinkle water occasionally only if required)
  
  

Take a much bigger pan (to hold cooked rice and chicken together)

• Put a layer of rice, sprinkle some fried onions, strips of ginger, green chili,coriander & mint leaves cooked chicken, and cover it with another layer of rice
• Squeeze lemon on top and add remaining coriander & mint leaves
• Melt ghee (if using nuts) fry in them add remaining fried onions, strips of ginger, green chili,coriander & mint leaves
• Fry nuts in ghee and pour on top
• If using a pressure cooker, close and cook in slowest flame for 3 minutes. After ten minutes open and serve
• Or dum biryani as instructions in the link: How to dum biryani at home

Notes: 

• Same recipe can be adapted for vegetable, mushroom and mutton; just replace chicken with them as below
• For vegetable biryani, replace chicken with choice of vegetables
• For mutton biryani, use 400-500 gram of mutton
• The marination mutton at least 3-4 hours before cooking (keep in fridge until 30 minutes before cooking)