Chicken Biriyani

This is one dish I have never ventured out to make , purely for the whole hype surrounding a biriyani. This is a dish that can never be labelled as another should something go wrong and there is no way to salvage the damage. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised when a colleague recently made this on several occasions and each time it turned out to be better than before. So here it is folks…enjoy the chicken biriyani. I wish she had pictures of her own cooking but since there is none, I will have to rely on google images for this one too.

Ingredients:

Chicken                                                : 500 gm.
Basmati Rice                                      : 1 kg. (Soaked for 30 mins.) Onion                                                   : 4 big (thin sliced) & 2 raw grated
Garam Masala- full pieces          : Laung, elaichi, tez patta, jaifal, javitri ( full)
Ginger Garlic Paste                         : 2&1/2 teaspoon (Or as per taste)
Lal Mirch Powder                             : As per taste
Dhaniya Powder (Bhuna)             : 1 teaspoon
Refined Oil
Artificial colour for rice (Zard rang)

Preparation time: Approximately one hour

Process:

•  Heat oil in a pan and add 4 big thin sliced onion + sauté till golden brown
• Take out 80% onion after frying and leave 20% in oil.
• Grate this 80% onion with 7-8 choti elaichi, 7-8 laung, 2-3 badi elaichi and little amounts of jaifal & javitri
• In the 20% onion in oil add tez patta, 7-8 laung, 4-5 choti elichi and add chicken
• Fry chicken for a little bit then add ginger garlic paste and salt + sauté
• Now, add lal mirch powder & bhuna dhaniya powder in 2 raw grated onions and add to chicken + sauté further
• Add some water and put it on low flame for sometime for softening chicken
• Now add the fried onion paste in chicken + sauté till properly cooked (It should have very thick gravy)

For the rice:

• Boil water with tez patta, choti elaichi, laung and salt
• When water is boiling, add rice to it
• Let it boil for sometime and when rice is half cooked, drain water
• Then take a vessel, put some oil on the base and start putting layers of rice and cooked chicken one by one
• When layering is done, take two tablespoons of milk, add color to it and pour at different locations on the layered rice and chicken
• Now, cover the vessel and seal it with either atta or put a heavy weight on it
• Put on low flame for 5-7 minutes

Voila, the biriyani is ready.

Please remember the following:

• The chicken should be properly mixed with all the masala till the raw smell of the masalas is gone
• Use very little amounts of jaifal and javitri so that its does not overpower the other flavours

Recipe Courtesy Samreen Ghauri

Picture Courtesy: http://www.easyrecipes.in