Hara masala murg biryani is flavoured with herbs and spices. I prefer making my biryani spicy and I add more masala according to my taste. Hara masala murg biryani (green masala chicken biryani) is different from other kinds of biryani as the chicken is marinated with a green paste made with mint leaves, coriander leaves and green chillies. The method I followed for this recipe is pakki biryani (meat is pre-cooked, rice is layered on top and cooked).
There are so many variations in biryani. This time I thought of making biryani with a change in the marinade. The green chillies I used are not very hot, so I have added more but you can reduce according to your liking. I did not take the pictures of the end result as we were very hungry and could not wait to take the pictures before eating.
Ingredients
- Chicken – 1 kg For marinade (paste)
- Green chillies – 5
- Mint leaves – 1 cup or handful
- Coriander leaves – 3/4 cup or handful
- Ginger and garlic paste (home made) – 3 tbsp
- Salt – as required Gravy
- Oil or ghee – 3/4 cup
- Bay leaves – 3
- Cloves – 7
- Cinnamon stick – 3 (1 inch size)
- Green cardamom – 5
- Onion (sliced) – 5
- Green chillies (slit) – 5
- Tomatoes (medium) – 3
- Curd – 1 1/2 cup
- Turmeric powder – 2 tsp
- Chilli powder – 1 tbsp
- Ginger and garlic paste – 2 tbsp
- Coriander powder (freshly ground) – 2 tbsp
- Mint leaves – 1/2 cup
- Coriander leaves – 1/2 cup For rice
- Rice – 3 cups or 600 gms
- Water – as required
- Salt – as required Layering
- Mint – 1/4 cup
- Coriander leaves – 1/4 cup
- Mace and nutmeg powder (optional) – 2 pinches
- Biryani masala (home made, optional) – 1 tsp
- Lemon juice – 1 to 2 lemons
Method
- Slice the onions.
- Chop the tomatoes roughly.
- Chop the coriander leaves roughly including the stem.
- Slice or slit the green chillies.
- Keep these aside.
- I do not chop mint leaves. Making the green paste
- Mix chicken, green paste and salt in a wide bowl.
- Refrigerate for 4 hours to overnight. Cooking chicken gravy
- Take a big utensil add oil, when it gets hot add bay leaf and the all whole spices, then add onions and fry till it is soft and brown, it will take 15- 20min, can close the lid and cook it.
- When the onions are cooked well, take 1/4th cup onions and keep it aside.
- Add ginger and garlic paste, stir quickly for 30 seconds, then add few mint, coriander leaves, keep the remaining and stir well for 2 minutes.
- Add marinated chicken and left over marinade also, mix well and cook for 3 to 4min, roast it with the onions.
- Add curd, mix it, then add the turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder and the chopped tomatoes, mix well. Close the lid and cook until it becomes like a curry, it will take 20 to 25min. Stir carefully making sure you do not break the chicken pieces. You can check in between and stir it. Add salt as per taste. You can see that gravy colour is not reddish in colour but pale green colour.
- When the chicken is cooked, add the remaining mint, green chillies, coriander leaves and salt, mix well, cook for 5min and, 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. Cooking rice
- 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. Mixing gravy and rice (layering/dum stage)
- First when the gravy is ready and the rice, you should see whether the gravy is adequate for the half cooked rice or not.
- If the gravy is more, cook for sometime by keeping the lid open, so that the liquid can be reduced, keep stirring, otherwise the rice can become very soft and smashed type also.
- If the gravy is very little then, it will not be adequate to mix the rice.
- Now put the rice on the gravy, mix from one side only so that the other will be plain as seen in the picture. spread it, and layers it with remaining fried onion on top of the rice. Sprinkle some colour, biryani masala, jaifal and javithri powder, mint leaves, coriander leaves and lemon juice. or 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 for sometime 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 wide 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 it with any raitha you like.
Grind the mint leaves, coriander leaves, salt and green chillies to a paste and mix it with ginger and garlic paste. Keep it ready. Marinate
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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