Chicken Biryani Recipe

 Chicken biryani is a famous Indian rice and chicken dish, I love the aroma of the rice and marinated chicken when the lid is finally raised and the biryani is presented to our guests. It is historically kept for special events such as parties, weddings, holidays.  To know more about Biryani we need to go back into the past. Mughals had a great liking for food & with the availability of a lot of Spices in India led to this fusion type preparation.In the Mughal food traditions, biryani means rice made together with lamb meat but now chicken biryani has also become one of the most popular types of biryani.Based on the name, and the cooking style the dish originated in Persia or Arabia. Along with huge number of past tales, biryani is associated with some legends as well. One has it that Timor ‘the Lame’ brought it down from Kazakhstan via Afghanistan to north India. According to another fable, Mumtaz Mahal created this dish as a wholesome meal to feed the Mughal emperor’s army. Gradually this well-liked dish has started leaving its footprint in almost all Indian cuisines, such as Awadi, Lucknavi and Bengali cuisines. The popularity of chicken biryani is still dominant in the country as well as in global cuisines.

Chicken Biryani Recipe 

Recipe type: Main

Prep time:  1 hour

Cook time:  1 hour 20 mins

Total time:  2 hours 20 mins

Serves: 8 to 10 

A wonderfully authentic Indian dish, it is full of spices and flavor. Takes a while to make but certainly will worth the effort.

Ingredients

• 2 chickens, skinned and cut up
• 6 large onions sliced paper thin
• 4 cardamom pods
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 3 cups vegetable oil
• 1½ cup yogurt
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 medium tomato chopped
• 1 bunch coriander leaves chopped
• 4 Serrano peppers chopped
• ½ teaspoon saffron
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon cumin
• 1½ teaspoon turmeric
• 1½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• **Rice Ingredients**
• 2½ cups basmati rice
• 4½ cups water
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 whole cloves
• 3 whole cardamom pods
• 4 whole black pepper corns
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon saffron crumbled into 3 tablespoons boiling water

Instructions

1. Deep fry onions, 4 cardamom pods and 3 cinnamon sticks in 3 cups vegetable oil until onions are golden brown and crisp.
2. Drain onions and use ½ of them along with next 12 ingredients (yogurt too the cayenne pepper) in a large covered pot to marinate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
3. Place pot of chicken along with the marinade on medium heat and simmer for about 40 to 50 minutes.
4. While chicken is cooking, prepare rice; place rice in a large pot with all ingredients except saffron water. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer and cover pot.
5. When most of the water is absorbed by the rice, stir in the saffron water.
6. Pour rice over simmering chicken and turn down heat to low. Cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes checking often for burning or sticking on the bottom of the pan.
7. When finished, turn the biryani mixture out onto a large platter and add the other ½ of the fry onions to the top.

Notes  You will need to marinate the Chicken for at least 8 hours or overnight to do this right but you can use a vacuum sealer to help speed things up. Just vacuum seal the yogurt marinade and the chicken in a bag and let it set for at least 1 hour or more if you have the time. 

Cooking Tips From the Chef

Use a mandolin slicer like this one to help you get the paper thin onions for this recipe.   The folding mandoline from Progressive International is ideal for making French fries or shoestring potatoes as well as thinly sliced onions, carrots,  peppers, potatoes, firm tomatoes, kiwi, apples, and more. Price: $19.50 Click here to buy from Amazon 

People always say that they love the taste of fresh ginger, but complain that it’s a pain in the butt to peel and chop! Will it’s not with this cool trick =)For uniform lemon rind shreds, this is the perfect grater. The cutters are especially sharp, which guarantees easy grating. But this also means you’ll need to exercise extra caution–no one likes grated knuckles. The totally flat grating surface makes it easy to move the fruit across the blades.  Ginger and all citrus fruits worked beautifully with this zestier, and the tiny size of individual pieces means you won’t need to do any additional chopping. Price: $9.95 Click here to buy from Amazon