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. 

State Bhavan Canteen Review - Tamil Nadu Bhawan

We first visited Tamil Nadu Bhawan canteen on a friend's recommendation especially to try their masala dosa and Biryani. After that, we went there a few times and enjoyed our visits there, till our most recent one a couple of days earlier.

 

We went to Tamil Nadu Bhawan for the first time with my parents who were visiting us. My parents had liked the food there. We had the South Indian thali, chicken biryani, mutton biryani, vada sambhar, chicken 65, mutton fry and not to miss their Coffee! We loved each of these items and in fact got some biryani packed to take home as well. Later, we revisited the place a couple of times with friends and each time our experience was really good. We introduced it to some of our friends and they too appreciated the food there.

 

A couple of days ago, we went to Tamil Nadu Bhawan again for lunch and the firsts things we ate there was a masala dosa with piping hot rasam. The rasam was garlicky and spicy and just apt for the rainy weather outside and the masala dosa and chutney was also awesome. I did not mention the sambhar because it wasn't good, seemed more like dal with veges in it. We then ordered Chicken 65, Parotta kurma curry, Sambhar Rice and Mutton Fry. The Chicken 65 was good but none of the others really made the mark. The Sambhar Rice came with a papadam and although it was not the best tasting sambhar, it could have been decent if it was hot. The Parotta was good but the kurma curry was actually vegetable stew that is usually served with appams. The mutton was not sauteed and fried like it is usually done and it was cooked to the point that the meat had fallen apart.

Overall, our meal did not meet our expectaion.

On asking the waiter he said that the cook had changed about 10 days ago and the new one was only getting into the groove.

 

So, if you plan on visiting the Tamil Nadu Bhawan it may be a good idea to wait for a few days till the cook gets his act together!

 

Some pictures I took on our earlier visit.

 Masala Dosa served with Sambhar and Chutney

 Mutton Biryani served with korma and onion raita

Vada Sambhar served with chutney



Chicken Biryani with Shan Biryani Masala

After ages, I made biryani at home. Actually, its long since I cooked, after all mom's there to take care of everything. Biryani has always been my weakness. It can be biryani time anytime for me. I am partial to chicken biryani and go if for it if the restaurant is remotely known for its biryani. In Bombay, I enjoy biryani from - Lucky, Blossoms-Hotel Sun City & Jaffer Bhai Delhi Darbar to name a few.  And for the days I can't get my fix I make it at home and this is one such recipe:

For preparing meat:
Chicken 500gms, cut in medium sized pieces
Onion 4, medium to large sized, chopped/sliced
Garlic 10 cloves, medium sized, juliennes
Ginger 4 inch piece, juliennes
Shan Memoni Mutton Biryani Masala powder
Yogurt (dahi) 2 tbsp
Green chillies 2, big sized, slit
Tomato 1, medium sized, chopped
Potato 4, small sized, peeled to be used whole
Butter/ Ghee 3 tbsp
Little salt
For preparing the rice:
Basmati Rice 2 cups, soaked in water for 15 minutes
Cloves (lavang) 2
Cinnamon (dalchini) 1 inch piece
Green Cardamom (elaichi) 2
Black Cardamom (kaali elaichi) 1
Little salt
For assembling:
Coriander Leaves 1 cup, rough chopped
Mint Leaves, about 15 to 20 leaves, rough chopped
Onions sliced, fried in ghee or oil 1/2 cup
Butter/ Ghee 2 tbsp

Rice:

Take 4 cups water in a saucepan add the whole spices (khada masala) cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms and salt put it to boil. When the water boils lower the heat and add the soaked rice, cook for 5 minutes stirring in between. Check the rice, it should have a bite, about three-fourth cooked. Take it off the heat and drain off the excess water using a colander. At this time, you can remove the whole spices. In case you want to avoid removing it individually, you can make a bouquet garni and drop into the water when boiling.

Meat:

Mix the chicken and the ginger and garlic in a bowl and keep aside. In a heavy bottomed deep vessel (I use my big pressure cooker), add the ghee, once hot, add the chopped onions and saute it. When the onions are nearly brown add the meat mixed with the ginger and garlic. Saute it for a few minutes then add the yogurt and the Shan biryani masala powder. Saute for a few minutes and add potatoes, mix well and cover and let cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Check for salt, you may need to add very little salt since the masala powder has salt in it. Add the tomatoes and green chillies and cover and cook it done.

Now for the assembling for dum, you can do this on the stove or in the oven. I did it on the stove and to lessen the work used the cooker again. In case you are using the oven butter the insides of a deep glass baking dish and follow the steps below.

I took the chicken preparation out into a bowl. Add 1 tbsp spoon ghee in the empty cooker and let it spread the bottom of the vessel. Now to layer the chicken mix and rice.

Add half the prepared chicken mix to cover the bottom of the vessel. Layer half the rice on top of the chicken. Now top the rice with half of - the coriander leaves, mint leaves and fried onions. Repeat the layers - Layer the balance of the chicken and top it with the balance of the rice layer, Top these layers with the rest of the coriander and mint leaves and the fried onions. Sprinkle them to cover the rice. Sprinkle the remaining ghee on the top and the sides. Now cover and keep on very low heat for 15 to 20 minutes. If using the oven, cover the dish with foil, pierce the foil with fork a couple of times and put into a warm oven. When serving try to scoop out with the layers intact, its yummy with all the different tastes.

You can use oil instead of butter or ghee. Personally I love ghee and salivate when the aroma wafts through the entire home.