The word biryani is derived from the Persian word beryan, which means roasted and fried. It is usually the mix of rice, few spices and meat or vegetables. Biryani was brought to India by Persian travellers and merchants. This dish is not only popular in India, but also in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Srilanka and Mauritius. In every house, the making style and spices used are different. Biryani can be made with prawns, chicken, mutton, vegetables and even fish. I learnt this biryani from my Mom, which I am sharing with you. I am making this biryani with more spicy than my Mom. If you see, I like to add more masalas in my biryani. I do not like it to be blunt and non spicy. I have made a lot of varieties in biryani and now I will like to share it with you.
There are 2 types of biryani one is kacchi biryani(dum biryani) and other is pakki biryani.
Kacchi biryani is prepared with raw meat, meat is marinated and cooked on a slow flame with rice on top. In pakki biryani, meat is pre-cooked first, then rice is layered on top and cooked.
When you are making biryani, you should always keep in mind that you are adding spices for both curry and the rice, so it should be in proportion.
I feel dum biryani is easy but have to be very careful during dum, as there is no need to stir or cook the meat and then add the rice. We can have dum biryani with chicken 65 as a side dish, raitha, brinjal curry or any chicken curry. This biryani is of pakki biryani style, which we often make it. You can add your own spices also. It depends on you whether you want to cook it with ghee or oil. You can mix and match with the spices according to your taste.
Ingredients
- Chicken (medium size pieces) – 1 kg
- Salt – as per requirement.
- Colour – a pinch
- Mint – 1 cup
- Coriander leaves – 1/2 cup
- Chilli powder – 1 tbsp
- Curd (thick) – 1 cup
- Salt – as required
- Ginger and garlic paste – 3 tbsp
- Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
- Oil or ghee – 1/2 cup
- Wholespices:
- Cloves – 6, Cinamon sticks 3 (1 inch size)
- Green cardamoms – 6, bay leaf – 3, starnice – 3.
- Onion(sliced)(medium size) – 5
- Tomatoes(chopped) – 4
- Green chillies – 10 slit
- Ginger and garlic paste – 3 tbsp
- Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
- Biryani masala – 2 tsp (home made)(optional)
- Mint leaves (chopped roughly) – 1 cup
- Coriander leaves(chopped roughly) – 1 cup
- Rice – 3 cups
- Whole spices: cloves2,green cardamom2 and black cumin seeds 1tsp(optional)
- water as required
Marinade
Gravy
Rice
Method
- Marinate the chicken with curd, chilli powder, salt, turmeric powder and ginger and garlic paste for about 4 hours or overnight.
- Now take a big utensil, add oil, let it get warm, add all whole spices and stir for 30 seconds. Add onions and fry by closing the lid, till it is soft and brown in colour. It will take about 10 – 12 minutes. After frying the onions well, take some, about 1/4th cup fried onions and keep it aside (for layering or garnishing).
- Add ginger and garlic paste, stir quickly for 30 seconds, then add mint, coriander leaves and stir well for 2 minutes. Then add tomatoes, turmeric powder and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Stir well so that it does not stick to the pan. Roast until the tomatoes and other ingredients get cooked well.
- Add marinated chicken and left over marinade also, green chillies, mix well and close the lid and cook until it becomes like a curry. Stir carefully making sure you do not break the chicken pieces. You can check in between and stir it. Add salt as per taste.
- When the chicken is cooked and you get to a gravy, simmer it further for about 10 minutes and now you can see oil forming on it. It should not be too thin or too thick. The gravy should be adequate for the rice, while mixing.
- In the meantime, you can cook the rice 3/4th with required amount of water and salt. Keep it aside. When you press the rice with your finger it will be still hard not soft and the grain will be long than its usual size during cooking. At that time, drain the rice and keep it aside. If you want you can add a few wholespices in it also (like cloves, green cardamom, black cuminseeds).
- Cook the rice when you simmer the gravy or can be made in advance and kept aside.
- Now the layering is done. Take some gravy with the chicken pieces and keep aside.
- First some gravy with chicken pieces is layered in the vessel, layer some rice on top, then again put gravy which you kept aside, then again rice and so on. Sprinkle some colour, biryani masala, mint leaves, coriander leaves and onion. Spread evenly and close the lid tightly and simmer it for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked. Switch the heat off and let it rest with lid closed.
- While giving dum or simmering you can keep a flat tava below the vessel and simmer it to avoid the burning of rice.
- After sometime open and take the biryani out with a wider spoon, mix slowly from one side only. Mix it from downwards and then from sides, so that the gravy and rice is mixed well. As soon as you open the lid you can see that the full flavour and aroma comes from the biryani.
- Serve with raitha (curd mixture).
Notes
- You can reduce the chillies if you do not eat spicy food or your chillies are very hot.
- Rice should only be 3/4th cooked, the grain might have become longer than its usual size, but when pressed with fingers you should feel that is not fully cooked. While cooking the rice you can add few drops of oil or vinegar also. While draining, wash it under cold water to keep the rice grain separate.
- Biryani masala – you can buy ready made or just powder 1 star nice, green cardamom 2, cloves 3 and dagad phool(optional) 3 tsp. View my Biryani masala recipe.
- The gravy quantity should be such that it should be enough for the rice when you mix it.
- While making gravy, no need to add water. When marinated chicken is added, it leaves water to form a gravy consistency.
- If you want to reduce the oil, then reduce it. Its your wish. But the onion has to be roasted in oil or ghee well.
- Carefully add salt for the gravy and rice. Divide the salt quantity and put. It will be easy for you.
- Whenever I grind 300 gms ginger and 300 gms garlic paste, I have grounded with whole spice.
- Mix colour with 2 tbsp of water or with milk and put on rice. Saffron can be used instead of colour. You can even just sprinkle the colour on biryani.
- Always use twice the amount of chicken and for given rice quantity for biryani. For example, use 1 kg chicken for 500 gms rice.
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