Chicken Biryani

This recipe for Chicken Biryani is my attempt to make biryani using khada or whole masalas rather than ready masalas. In this, I tried a slightly different combination of masalas from my recipe of the mutton biryani. I added a piece of mace and a small piece of nutmeg to the whole masala mix, after checking the recipe of Thalassery biryani in which they add both these spices. There was no strong flavor from the two spices and that could be because I added them in quite minute proportions.

Ingredients

Chicken - 600gms

Rice - 2.5 glasses (approx. 450gms)

Onions - 4, medium

Ginger - 3.5 inch piece

Garlic - 20

Potatoes - 5 small

Tomatoes - 1 large

Yogurt - 1.5tbsp

Red chilli - 1tsp

Coriander leaves - 1 cup

Oil - 3tbsp

Ghee - 5tbsp

whole spices or khada masala for Chicken

Green Cardamom - 3

Black Cardamom - 2

Shahi Jeera - 1.5tsp

Jeera - 1tsp

Cloves - 8 to 10

Cinnamon - 3 pieces

Pepper - 6

Bay Leaf - 2

Mace - 1 piece

Nutmeg - 1/4 of 1 small

Coriander pwd - 1tsp

whole spices or khada masala for Rice

Shahi Jeera - 1tsp

Cloves - 5

Cinnamon - 2 piece

Green Cardamom - 1

Black Cardamom - 1

Bay Leaf - 1

Clean and wash the chicken pieces and cut it into medium sized pieces. Grind the ginger, garlic, red chilli pwd, little salt and yogurt and apply to chicken and keep in the frig. I put this in for about an hour and thought the meat had absorbed the marinade well.

Slice the onion, chop the tomatoes. Peel the potatoes, prick with a fork all over and put them in a bowl of water. Clean the coriander and chop it. Wash the rice and keep aside.

Heat a cooker with 3tbsp oil and 2tbsp ghee. Add the bay leaves, green and black cardamoms, shahi jeera, jeera, cloves, cinnamon, crushed pepper, mace and crushed nutmeg and fry for half a minute. Add the sliced onions and sauté till light golden, add coriander powder and sauté for a minute. Add the marinated chicken along with the marinade and sauté. Keep sautéing for 10 to 12 minutes or till the raw smell of the ginger and garlic goes away.

 

Separately start the process of cooking the rice - boil 6 glasses of water. In another vessel heat 1tbsp ghee add the whole spices /khada masalas for the rice, after half a minute add the rice and sauté for 4 to 5 minutes. Add the sautéed rice along with some salt to the boiling water, stir it well and lower the heat and cover with a lid. The rice has to be cooked only till 3/4th done. This does not take much time hence keep an eye on it. Once done drain the excess water out and try and separate the rice, add a teaspoon of ghee when doing this.

 

Back to the chicken, add the potatoes and sauté for a minute or two then add the chopped tomatoes and again sauté for a minute. Add about half cup water and cover and give one whistle so that the meat and potatoes are cooked. Cooking chicken does not require a cooker and can be done just by covering with a lid and cooking on low heat.

Once cooked, take off the heat and scoop the chicken and potato pieces out, leaving some masala and as much oil / ghee back in the cooker. Start the layering, put in half of the rice first, then sprinkle the chopped coriander on it. Add all of the chicken and potato, spread to cover the rice completely. Then spread the remaining rice over the chicken. Spread the remaining chopped coriander leaves on the rice. Warm the remaining ghee and pour on and around the layers and close with lid. Put a tawa on low heat and put the cooker without whistle on top of it and leave for 15 minutes. Take off the heat and serve after an hour or two.