Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani
Ummm... That's something I am crazy about. I would like to thank the person who invented it :-). Whenever we go out on weekend, we do have chicken biryani for sure in our meal. Sometimes when the week has been little under the weather, a good biryani on weekend yummily compensates for it:-)
There have been few times when I have cooked Biryani at home, but I could not get the restaurant kind of taste which would satisfy my palate. I worked hard on it and now I have got a tried and tested ( tasted :-)) method to make a delicious Hyderabadi chicken dum biryani.
Writing down the recipe here :
1) Soak 1&1/2 cup Basamati rice in water for atleast 20 and upto 30 minutes.
2) In a big pan, bring water double the amount of rice get to boil.
3) Now to bring fragrance in our biryani, let's prepare a small bag of spices.. Aka bouquet garni. In a small muslin cloth, put these spices. 3 black cardamom, 6 green cardamom, 10 black pepper corns, 6 cloves, 2 bay leaves, 2 cinnamon sticks. Now tie knots and make a bag. Let the knots be tight, so that the bag does not open up while cooking. Now transfer this bag into the boiling water. Add 1 tsp shahi jeera into the water. Add some salt too? Once water is boiling hot, add the soaked rice. Add soaked rice and let it cook 3/4th. Don't let it cook completely. As soon as it is cooked, switch off the flame. Let water be there in the rice. We will transfer the rice along with water when we cook our Biryani.
4) Meanwhile let's marinate the chicken. We will need one 'with bone chicken' cut into medium sized pieces. Bones.. That's where the taste lies :-)..
Place the big chicken pieces in a large pan (it should have a good lid) in which you will cook the biryani. Add 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste,1 tbsp red chilli powder, salt to taste, a cup of yogurt, 1 tsp garam masala powder, 1 tsp green cardamom powder, 1 cup thinly sliced fried onions, 4 tbsp melted ghee, some coriander leaves, some mint leaves,,2-3 whole green chillies. Mix well. Add 1 tsp turmeric powder and juice from one lemon. Mix everything well. Let it rest for 1/2 hour.
5)Now that the chicken is marinated and the rice is 3/4 cooked, let's start with cooking our biryani.
In the same container wherein the chicken lies marinated, layer some ( not all) rice (along with little water) over it evenly. This little water would add required moisture to our Biryani. Now sprinkle some fresh coriander (2 tbsp), mint leaves(6-7), fried onions(3-4 tbsp) and garam masala powder(1/4 tsp) and green cardamom powder (1 tsp) evenly over the rice.
Layer the remaining rice over it. As we did earlier, spinkle some coriander(1 tbsp), mint leaves (6-7) , fried onions (3-4 tbsp), garam masala powder (1/4 tsp), cardamom powder ( 1/4 tsp) and generous amount of ghee (5 tbsp) evenly all over it.
Also sprinkle some saffron (7-8 strands) ( which has been soaked in milk earlier). That adds a beautiful color and flavor to the Biryani.
6) Now we will be cooking our biryani in an authentic way. Now all across the edges of the pan, we will apply a string of dough. For this you need to quickly knead a dough like you would for chapati, from any flour( maida or wheat). Roll it into a long thick strip and apply it all over the edges of the pan. Now cover the lid. So now the vessel is completely locked. It helps the biryani stay moist and get cooked evenly with the inner heat. You can see the picture for reference.
7) Let the Biryani cook for 20 minutes on flame. You will see some steam coming out of the pan by this time. Now remove the dough from the lid. Let it cook on dum for 5-8 minutes which means put this vessel on any other pan on heat and let it cook. This way the biryani is not directly in touch with the flame. If you don't have any other pan, let it cook the same way on low flame.
8) Switch off the flame. You eill have both your rice and chicken cooked by this time. Open the lid when you are ready to serve.
Yummy hyderabadi biryani is ready. With Biryani you should have a'raitax' for sure. :-) Any kind of raita be it a vegetable raita or fruit raita is fine.
I made a khatta meetha vegetable raita. Take some ( around 1 cup) curd (I prefer thick yogurt). Add around 1/2 cup grated cucumber, 1/2 cup finely chopped tomatoes, 1/4 cup finley chopped onions, 1/4 cup finely chopped coriander leaves, 1/4 cup finely chopped mint leaves, some black salt, some normal salt, 1/4 tsp red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder, little sugar based on your taste preference. Add some chat masala on top.Mix everything well. Quick raita is ready.
Enjoy the hyderabi chicken biryani from your own kitchen. I am sure you and your family would love it like they would from a biryani center.
Enjoy cooking. :-)
Cheers,
Shweta
No comments:
Post a Comment