How To Make Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

 

        Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

45 mins

Ingredients

Marinade

• 400 gms – 0.9 lbs. chicken tenders, cut in 3 pieces
• ½ bunch coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• ½ bunch mint, roughly chopped
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 cloves
• 2 green cardamoms
• 1 black cardamom
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp cumin powder
• ½ tsp coriander powder
• ½ tsp black cumin
• 1 tbsp ginger paste
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 1 green chilli (you can use more if you like your food more spicy)
• ¼ tsp red chilli powder (you can use more if you like your food more spicy)
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp javeri mace
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup fried onions (I bought mine at my local Indian store)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 pepper corns
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• 235 gms – 1 cup yoghurt
• Salt to taste

Rice

• 300 gms – 1 ½ cup basmati rice
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Layers

• ¾ cup fried onions
• ½ bunch coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• ½ bunch mint, roughly chopped
• 1 pinch saffron, dissolved in 2 tbsp warm water
• 

Instructions

1. To make the marinade, mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl, add the chicken pieces to it, mix well and marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours (or overnight).
2. 
3. When you are ready to cook your biryani, prepare the rice. Wash it and soak it in cool water for 30 minutes. Fill a big pot with water, add salt and oil and bring it to a boil. Cook the rice in it for 4 or 5 minutes.
4. 
5. In the meantime, take another big pot, spray it with some oil and add the chicken and its marinade to the bottom. Make sure to spread it all around.
6. When the rice is ready, drain it and spread it on top of the chicken.
7. Add the mint and coriander leaves, the fried onions and the saffron water.
8. Put a tight lid on and put the pot on the fire, on top of a tawa or flat pan (this will help the heat to spread uniformly).
9. 
10. Put the fire on high for the first 5 minutes, then keep cooking the biryani on a medium fire for 15 minutes and on low for the remaining 10 minutes (for a total of 30 minutes).
11. Serve warm with some raita on the side!

How To Make Mutton Dum Biryani

Preparation Time : 90 minutes
No of servings : 3-4
Ingredients:

• Mutton or chicken : 1 kg
• Rice : 4cups (Rice cooker cup)
• Oil : 250 g (or) 1 cup (Rice cooker cup)
• Butter : 1/4 piece (or) Ghee : 3 tblsp
• Onion : 250g (chopped)
• Tomato : 250g (chopped)
• Ginger paste : 3tbsp
• Garlic paste : 2tbsp
• Curd : 1cup
• salt : 2tbsp (the reason for this much salt is when u mix the korma with rice it will be even)
• Red chili powder : 1 1/2tsp
• Turmeric : a pinch for color
• Green chilli : 3 (cut into lengthwise)
• Cilantro : 1/2 bunch
• Clove : 2
• Cinnamon : 2
• Cardamom : 2

Method of Preparation:

1. Heat 250 ml oil (Don’t reduce the quantity of oil because it gives taste to korma) in a vessel add clove, cinnamon and cardamom, and add onion fry till it becomes light brown.
2. Now add garlic paste fry a little,add ginger paste fry that too and add the meat or chicken, and salt, saute well, so that it will mix with ginger and garlic paste.
3. Add curd, red chili powder, green chili, turmeric mix well.
4. And then add tomatoes,mix it well with above mixture ,add butter or ghee and add half of the cilantro/coriander leaves.
5. Allow it to cook till the meat is tender.
6. When it is done add the remaining cilantro.
7. Cook the Korma in less than medium heat ,and make sure that it should not stick it in the bottom (strictly no water for this korma) don’t pressurize if you do so, taste might vary but work will be easy(Try not to pressure cook the korma).
8. The consistency of korma should be gravy (thick) like. So the boiling time will take 30 minutes.

Method of Preparing Rice:

1. Take a big vessel so it should be easy to cook rice add more than 10 cups of water in it boil it in high heat.
2. In the mean time wash and soak the rice for 20 minutes.
3. when the water has reached the boiling point add the rice, (at least 6 minutes in the boiling water).
4. Check it with a single rice it should be done but it shouldn’t be fully cooked(the stage of rice is 3/4 cooked) at this time drain the water.
5. Take an aluminum tray or Glass tray or oven safe put the rice in a single layer, add korma on top of it and then rice again(make sure the rice should be on top, because if you put korma on top, it becomes very dry). Cover it with aluminum foil.
6. Preheat the oven for 350′F .
7. And put the tray in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
8. After half an hour take it out mix gently so that rice and korma will mix evenly,make sure the rice should not break.

Serve hot with Raitha.

How to Make a Chicken Biryani

Ingredients 

• 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 garlic 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
• Egg
• Potato 

• Steps

  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.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Parboil 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.
  
  
  
  
  
  Keep all these ready:
  
  Now that the rice and chicken are cooked. Fried onions are ready. You just need to get a few more things organized, so that the layering can be done.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • 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.

  

  
  

  Finished.