Biryani
is a very famous dish all over the world. It is purely a Mughal dish. Biryani
was first created by Mughals to serve food for the army. "This is a delicious
Pakistani/Indian rice dish which is often reserved for very special occasions
such as weddings, parties, or holidays such as Ramadan. It has a lengthy
preparation, but the work is definitely worth it. For biryani, always use long
grain rice. Basmati rice with its thin, fine grains is the ideal variety to
use. Ghee is butter that has been slowly melted so that the milk solids and
golden liquid have been separated and can be used in place of vegetable oil to
yield a more authentic taste."
Ingredients:
Chicken
- 1 kg
Yogurt
- 31/2 cups
Onions
- 6 large
Ginger
Garlic Paste - 4 tbsp
Saffron
Threads - a pinch
Lemon
Juice - 2 tbsp
Rice
- 1 kg
Garam
Masala - 2 tbsp
Tandoori
Chicken Masala - 1 tbsp
Green
Cardamoms - 6
Black
Cardamoms - 2
Cloves
- 6
Cinnamon
(Dalchini) - 3"
Fresh
Mint Leaves - a cupful
Fresh
Coriander Leaves - 1/2 a cup
Bay
Leaves - 4/5 to spread on the bottom of pan
Red
Color - 1/2 tsp
Method:
Grind
the cloves, cinnamon and cardamoms into fine powder and keep aside.
Heat
around 3 tbsp oil in a pressure cooker and add all the finely sliced onions.
Fry until they turn light brown. Then remove 1/3 rd quantity and keep aside.
Marinate
chicken with yogurt, ginger garlic paste, salt, red color, garam masala 1 tbsp,
tandoori chicken masala, lime juice and also 1/3rd fried onions kept aside.
Now,
add the marinated chicken to the remaining onions in the pressure cooker and
cook while mixing often. Add mint leaves and coriander leaves.
After
checking for salt and masalas, pressure cook chicken until tender. Take care
not to add too much water before pressure cooking as the curds will leave water.
If necessary, add very little. Soak saffron threads in lime juice.
Meanwhile,
keep around 12 cups of water ( 1 kg = 4 cups rice That means, 8 cups water + 4
cups water extra as we will be straining it away) for boiling in a heavy and
flat-bottomed container.
To
the boiling water, add salt, some mint leaves, coriander leaves and 2 small
cardamoms. When water starts boiling, add rice and let it cook until 3/4ths
done.
Now, strain the rice and in the same
container, spread bay leaves in the center. (This gives the taste of bay leaves
to the rice, and also avoids the rice from burning and sticking to the bottom.
Also sprinkle some oil on the bottom of container.
Now,
spread a layer of rice. Over the rice, sprinkle 2 generous pinches of garam
masala and a tsp of oil/ghee. Then add a layer of chicken.
Then add a layer of rice as above, along with
the masala. Repeat until there are 4 layers. Now cover the container with a wet
cotton cloth and add the lid over it. Put on flame, for 5 mins on high and then
simmer. To add more weight and give the rice better steam, you may place the
hot strained water in a container over the rice lid. IN around 20 minutes,
biryani is ready to be served with raita. For raita, take yogurt, salt, add
finely cut onions, green chillies, coriander leaves and tomato and whip briskly
until the flavours intermingle.
Wow mouthwatering and very tasty looking recipe. I will definitely try this at home. Have you tried Pakistani Cooking Recipes I love all Pakistani Recipes and mostly the fish fry recipe.
ReplyDeleteI love Chicken Biryani. Thanks for sharing recipe.
ReplyDelete