Hyderbadi Chicken Biryani Recipe

Hyderabadi Biryani Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

1. Whole chicken – 1/2 lbs chicken,
2. Basmati rice – 1 kg
3. Thinly sliced onions – 1 cup
4. Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
5. Chili powder – 3 tsp
6. Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
7. Cashew nuts – 100 gm
8. Bay leaves – 4 or 5
9. Cloves – 4 to 5
10. Cinnamon sticks – 2 cm long
11. Cardamom pods – 3 or 4
12. Shah jeera – 1 to 2 tsp
13. Mint leaves – 2 cups
14. Coriander leaves (cilantro) – 1 cup
15. Garam masala powder – 1/2 tsp
16. Lemon – 1
17. Salt – 1 1/2 tsp or to taste
18. Ghee – 1 cup
19. Yogurt – 1/2 cup
20. Oil – 1 cup
21. Saffron – few strands
22. Finely sliced onions – 2 cups

Preparation:

• Make deep incisions on the chicken flesh – deep enough for spices to get absorbed but making them too deep could render the pieces smaller.
• Mix turmeric, chili powder, salt, garlic paste, yogurt, and half-lemon’s juice. Thoroughly apply this paste onto the meat flesh and let marinate for an hour.
• Heat about 100 ml of oil. Roast cumin, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom pods, bay leaves, ½ spoon cumin, 1 spoon coriander powder, and finally add onions(2). Wait a couple of minutes to add mint leaves.
• When onions turn slight brown, add marinated chicken and cook for about 20-30 min.
• It should NOT be fully cooked at this stage; add garam masala and coconut powder and turn off flame when about ¾ cooked.
• Gravy should not be much, chicken pieces should look roasted.
• Meanwhile, while the chicken is still cooking, prepare the Biryani rice.
• Slightly rinse 3 cups of rice, and add water little less than the volume of the rice itself so that it’s only half cooked preferably in an electric cooker.
• Amount of water actually depends on kind of rice at hand and your experience helps to judge it. Also add 1-2 teaspoons of salt to it.
• Take a few semi-cooked grains of rice and color them with diluted saffron for garnishing. You will need a utensil of about 12″ (300 mm) base.
• Place about half of semi-cooked rice in it. Next, layer half of chicken on it again topped by a layer of rice (half of the remaining). One more layer of remaining chicken, finally with layer of rest of the rice on top ends the rice-chicken layering stage.
• Heat oil and deep fry half the sliced onions to golden brown. Similarly fry cashew.
• Garnish the top layer with these two along with 100 ml ghee, coconut milk, saffron rice grains and coriander.
• Lid the vessel and try making it airtight (but no pressure should build up). Put on high flame for 5 min before reducing it to low flame.
• The flame should NOT be at the vessel’s centre, but on one side of it.
• Wait for 2-3 min and turn the vessel to heat other next part on its circumference. This way, keep rotating the vessel every 2-3 min for about 20 min.
• Every time you turn it, carefully disturb the contents by a shake/jerk so as to avoid settling of ghee at the bottom.
• Put off the flame and wait for about 10 min before opening. Before serving, mix the medley from the bottom. Serve with boiled egg halves.