A Kerala cook book is incomplete without chicken biriyani recipe. In India you can find many varieties like hyderabadi biryani, Thalashery biriyani, kashmiri biriyani, Sindhi biriyani, karachi beef biriyani etc etc. Originally, it is a Persian dish, Indians adopted during the time of Mughal rulers. Making a Biriyani can be a controversial issue when it comes to the ingredients that goes in. A large no of spices along with pineapple, rose water, cashews, raisins, saffron .. etc etc are used. Today I am preparing the simplest among the many recipes I have seen, with a biriyani masala that you get from stores.
Preparation time- 60 mins
Ingredients
Basmati Rice- 3 cups
Onion - 3 nos Large sliced
Chicken- 500 gms
Tomato-2 nos sliced
Biriryani masala- 3 tbsp heaped
Coriander leaves- 1/2 cup chopped
Green chilly- 2 nos
Garlic- 6-8 cloves
Ginger- 1 inch
Salt to taste
Ghee/Oil- 1/2 cup
Shallots- 5-6 nos
Water - 8 Cups or as required
Cashew & Raisins- 1/2 cup
Methods
Coarsely grind ginger, garlic and green chilly.
Heat oil/ ghee in a pan. Fry Raisins and cashew in ghee until cashews are golden brown. (I haven't used cashew in today`s recipe) Mix half of the sliced onions with salt and deep fry.
Once the onions turn dark brown in colour, remove from flame and keep aside.
I used around 4 tbsp of the same ghee for further cooking. Add coarsely ground ginger-garlic-chilly paste into the oil and saute for a minute or two.
Add sliced shallots and chopped coriander leaves. Saute till the shallots changes color. Now add the remaining sliced onions & salt and saute till they turn golden brown.
Add chicken pieces to this and slightly fry the pieces. Usually medium to large size chicken pieces are used in biriyani.
Add biriryani masala, 1/2 cup water and tomato slices. Pressure cook till 1 whistle or cook the chicken in medium flame in a covered vessel.
Boil basmathi rice in a seperate vessel with excess of water( 7 to 7.5 cups) and salt. Drain the excess water once the rice is cooked and run cold water over the drained rice to avoid sticking. I used turmeric powder to get yellow colored rice.
Once the chicken is cooked ,check for salt and add if required. Also consistency we are looking for is a thick semi gravy chicken curry. Once the curry is prepared. Add in a handful of fried onions. This is not mandatory.
Use a thick bottom vessel. Now we have to layer rice and chicken. First a layer of rice, Then chicken pieces on top of it along with fried onion, cashew and raisins. Continue this for the entire rice and chicken. You can either microwave this for 5-6 mins or keep in low flame for 10 mins on the burner.
Remove from flame and gently mix rice and chicken using a fork or a small spatula. Serve it hot with raitha and pickle.
PS:-
- I used a standard 250 ml measuring cup.
- To reduce cooking time, you can keep the onions in microwave for about 3-4 mins in high power.
- Instead of fresh ginger and garlic you can use 1 heaped tbsp of ginger garlic paste.
- Biriyani masala powder recipe from a site I found online, incase you want to make your own biriyani masala.