Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Biryanis are a favorite in my home. And Hyderabadi chicken biryani is one of my absolute favorites hands down. Biryanis are a lot of hard work, but this is so so worth the effort.

I wanted my first recipe on this blog to be a classic Indian recipe and hence sharing this lovely gem from my collection.

Biryanis are a combination of long grained rice layered with meat cooked in spices, and potatoes. It is natural to get intimidated with the laundry list of spices that go into cooking the meat. However what I did to get over it, was organize the list of ingredients into manageable chunks, and then it didn't look so scary anymore. That's the reason I have organized the list of ingredients into three marinades. In fact it has helped me memorize the recipe too. Now when I cook this biryani, I don't need to look at the recipe. :-)

Potatoes are optional and many recipes do not include it, but since everyone at home is so fond of it, I end up adding it to all my biryanis. So you can completely skip the potatoes if you don't like them. Also at times we may not have shahijeera, star anise and black cardamoms readily available in the kitchen. It's ok to skip them too.

Recipe credit: Sudha J

Ingredients for rice:

1. Basmati Rice – 500 gms
2. Oil – 1 tbsp.
3. 6 peppercorns
4. ½ tsp shahijeera
5. Salt to taste

Chicken – 500gms

Potatoes - 2 medium

4 large onions (sliced, deep fired till dark brown)

 **The recipe my friend shared, requires the sliced onions to be deep fried, however I shallow fry the onions, and this has not altered the taste of the biryani in any way. 

Marinade 1:

1. 2 black cardamoms
2. 3 small cardamoms
3. ½ tsp shahijeera
4. ½ tsp jeera/cumin seeds
5. 3 cloves
6. 3 bay leaves
7. 2 star anise
8. 1inch cinnamon stick

Coarsely grind the above.

Marinade 2:

1. ¼ cup mint leaves
2. ¼ cup coriander leaves
3. 2 green chilies (adjust according to spice tolerance)
4. 3 cloves of garlic or 1 tbsp of paste
5. 1/2 inch piece ginger or 1 tbsp of paste

Grind to a fine paste using little water.

Marinade 3:

1. 200 ml yoghurt
2. 1 tsp chili powder
3. ½ tsp turmeric powder
4. ½ tbsp coriander powder
5. Juice of half a lemon or one lime.

Garnish:

A few sprigs of coriander and mint leaves chopped finely
Food color (Red, yellow, green) – dissolve color as required in milk
1/4 of the fried onions.

Cooking method for rice:

1. Wash and soak the rice for half hour before you cook it.
2. In a pan big enough to cook the rice, add water so that ¾ of the pan is full. Put this on the stove.
3. Bring the water to a boil and add the rice.
4. Into this water add, salt, a tablespoon of oil. Adding spices is optional, if you'd like you may add ½ tsp shahijeera, 2 bay leaves and 6 peppercorns. 
5. Cook till the rice is ¾ cooked, and drain the excess water using a colander. Keep aside.

Cooking method for chicken:

1. Use a pan big enough that will accommodate the biryani i.e. the marinated chicken potatoes and rice, with some room for you to comfortably serve it.
2. In this pan add the washed and drained chicken, potatoes, marinade 1, marinade 2, marinade 3, salt, two tablespoons of oil and ¾ of the fried onions.
3. Mix all the ingredients well and let it rest for one hour at least. Marinate longer for better results.
4. When you're ready to cook the biryani, layer the cooked rice on top of the marinated uncooked chicken.
5. Put your garnish on top of the rice. I also add a tablespoon of ghee or clarified butter on top of the rice. This is purely optional.
6. Seal the pan with foil, and put it on the stove.
7. Now cook the biryani on high flame for ten minutes, next cook on medium flame for ten minutes and finally on low flame for the last ten minutes.
8. After you put off the stove, let the biryani rest for at least half hour before serving.
9. Serve with raita.

Note:

• Please use your discretion while using the stove settings, if your high flame is very high or low flame is very high, adjust accordingly so that the chicken does not get burnt. The point to remember is, the chicken needs to come to a boil in the first few minutes and then the flame can be lowered to ensure it is cooked till done. So use the cooking time accordingly.
• One of the reasons the biryani is easier to cook, is cause it eliminates the whole process of cooking the chicken separately, layering and cooking on dum. It also works well since you are not using too many utensils so the cleaning process after cooking is much simpler too.