CHICKEN BIRIYANI

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.