Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Biryanis are a favorite in my home. Since we discovered Shaan - Bombay Biryani, we haven't tried any other recipe. So in the last year and a half we haven't cooked any other biryani recipe. It's the easiest biryani recipe ever and once we stumbled upon it, didn't try anything else till I ate this awesome Hyderabadi Biryani, that my friend Sudha cooked. 

This is our new favorite and will be yours too. 

Biryanis are a combination of long grained rice layered with meat cooked in spices, and potatoes. It is natural to get intimidated with the laundry list of spices that go into cooking the meat. However what I did to get over it, was organize the list of ingredients into manageable chunks, and then it didn't look so scary anymore. That's the reason I have organized the list of ingredients into three marinades. In fact it has helped me memorize the recipe too. Now when I cook this biryani, I don't need to look at the recipe. :-)

Potatoes are optional and many recipes do not include but since we are so fond of it, I end up adding it to all my biryanis. So you can completely skip potatoes. Also at times we may not have shahijeera, star anise and black cardamoms readily available in the kitchen. It's ok to skip them too. 

Recipe credit : Sudha J

Ingredients for rice:

1. Basmati Rice – 500 gms
2. Oil – 1 tbsp
3. 6 peppercorns 
4. ½ tsp shahijeera 
5. Salt to taste

Chicken – 500gms

4 large onions (sliced, deep fired till dark brown)
**The recipe my friend shared, requires the onion to be deep fried but I shallow fry the onions, and this has not altered the taste of the biryani in any way.

Marinade 1

1. 3 black cardamoms
2. 4 small cardamoms
3. ½ tsp shahijeera
4. ½ tsp jeera/cumin seeds
5. 5 cloves
6. 3 bay leaves
7. 2 star anise
8. 2 inch cinnamon stick

Coarsely grind the above.

Marinade 2

1. ¼ cup mint leaves
2. ¼ cup coriander leaves
3. 4 green chilies (adjust according to spice tolerance)
4. 5 cloves of garlic or 1 tbsp of paste
5. 1 inch piece ginger or 1 tbsp of paste

Grind to a fine paste using little water.

Marinade 3

1. 200 ml yoghurt
2. 1 tsp chili powder
3. ½ tsp turmeric powder
4. ½ tbsp coriander powder
5. Juice of half a lemon or one lime.

Garnish:

1. A few sprigs of coriander and mint leaves chopped finely
2. Food color (Red, yellow, green) – dissolve color as required in milk
3. 1/4 of the fried onions.

Method for rice:

1. Wash and soak the rice for half hour before you cook it.
2. In a pan big enough to cook the rice, add water so that ¾ of the pan is full. Put this on the stove.
3. Bring the water to a boil and add the rice.
4. Into this water add, salt, a tablespoon of oil, ½ tsp shahijeera and 6 peppercorns.
5. Cook till the rice is ¾ cooked, and drain the excess water using a colander.
6. Keep aside.

Method for chicken:

1. In the pan you wish to cook the biryani, add the washed and drained chicken, add marinade 1, marinade 2, marinade 3, salt, two tablespoons of oil and ¾ of the fried onions.
2. Mix all the ingredients well and let it rest for one hour at least. Marinate longer for better results.
3. When your ready to cook the biryani, layer the cooked rice on top of the marinated uncooked chicken.
4. Put your garnish on top of the rice. I also add a tablespoon of ghee on top of the rice. This is purely optional.
5. Seal the pan, and put it on the stove.
6. Now cook the biryani on high flame for 10 minutes, next cook on medium flame for ten minutes and finally on low flame for the last ten minutes.
7. After you put off the stove, let the biryani rest for at least half hour before serving.
8. Serve with cucumber raita.

                                      

You can add fried potatoes while layering, but ensure that the potatoes are cooked well. I used two large potatoes and par boiled them before pan frying for a few minutes and adding them to the chicken. I did this as the chicken was marinating.

One of the reasons the biryani is easier to cook, is cause it eliminates the whole process of cooking the chicken separately, layering and cooking on dum. It also works well since you are not using too many utensils so the cleaning process after cooking is much simpler too.