If someone asks me what is your most favorite food in non-veg, I'll always reply a perfect aromatic chicken biryani. Its a beautiful food with nice aromatic spices, spicy ofcourse, soft and wonderful chicken and magnificent basamati rice. Its a dish full of joy and no one can stop eating major portion of it if its made perfectly. After numerous failures and somewhat successful tries I was finely able to prepare a perfect aromatic chicken biryani that I always crave for :) Here is joy same perils for you all.
Ingredients for biryani masala (dry):
Using fresh masalas everytime can definitely produce good results, I used shan chicken biryani mix masala, but I found it very similar to what I prefer.
1 tsp shah jira
1 black cardamom (badi ilaichi)
2 green cardamoms (ilaichi)
2 inch cinnamon stick (dalchini)
8-10 black pepper seeds (kali mirch ke dane)
2-4 cloves (laung)
1 bayleaf (tejpatta)
2 star annise
1 mace
1 tsp coriander seed powder
1 tbps red chilly powder
1 tsp salt
Grind them to fine powder and keep in airtight container for a while. We are going to use it as marination.
Fried onions:
Take a medium size onion and cut in julienne style (vertical thin strips) and separate every strip, sprinkle some all purpose flour on them. Meanwhile heat up oil and fry onions untill they start changing color, immediately take them out once u see color change, or else they might get burned. This shall make crisp fried onions. Make 2 portions, reserve one for rice and add other in chicken marinade. Keep oil as is and use same oil for rest of biryani for additional flavor.
Ingredients for chicken:
500 gms chicken with bones.
1 tsp ginger paste/garlic powder
1 tsp garlic paste
Biryani masala 2 tbsp (We have already prepared it or use any store bought masala mix)
1 tbsp mint powder or crushed mint leaves
2 tbsp fried onion
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil (any vegetable oil)
Mix all above ingredients with chicken and make sure all chicken pieces are nicely coated with marinade. Keep it covered overnight for best results.
Rice preparation:
2 cup rice (long grained) soak for no more than half hour.
1 bayleaf
1 star anise
1 mace
4-5 black pepper seeds
2 cloves
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp salt
Take a sizable pot and add about 4 cups of water in it, then add all above spices and let it simmer for a while. Once it simmers add in soaked rice and cook until its half done. We need a sieve here to take out rice and put in layers for biryani. Read putting it together for final procedure.
Saffron milk:
Take half a cup milk, and heat it up but don't boil it. Add in saffron strands (8-10) and keep it aside, stir occasionally so color is properly mixed. If you don't have saffron strands, then u can use artificial flavor,
and use saffron color. I used strands plus some color for extra rich color.
Put it all together:
Now its time to put everything together.
- Add 1 tbsp oil in thick bottom pan (I used pressure cooker), and keep it on high heat, add in marinated chicken along with its juices and saute for 2-3 minutes each side.
- Add half a cup of water and saute for another 2-3 minutes each side till very little water is left.
- Lower the flame and start straining rice from water and put down layers on chicken till all rice along with spices has been layered.
- Sprinkle fried onions and roughly chopped coriander leafs on top
- Add roasted almonds, cashews (optional) on top
- Pour saffron milk in center or drizzle over rice
- Put lid on and seal it. Pressure cooker comes very handy here, make sure you keep whistle on.
- Cook biryani for about 30 minutes on low flame (putting biryani pot on tava helps prevent burning of biryani)
- After 30 minutes open up lid and sprinkle/drizzle either kevda water or simply saffron flavored water (I added 5 ml saffron flavor in 2 tbsp water ) and put lid on. Serve after 5 minutes.
Delicious and aromatic biryani is ready to serve :) Enjoy and let me know how it turns out for you.
Ingredients for biryani masala (dry):
Using fresh masalas everytime can definitely produce good results, I used shan chicken biryani mix masala, but I found it very similar to what I prefer.
1 tsp shah jira
1 black cardamom (badi ilaichi)
2 green cardamoms (ilaichi)
2 inch cinnamon stick (dalchini)
8-10 black pepper seeds (kali mirch ke dane)
2-4 cloves (laung)
1 bayleaf (tejpatta)
2 star annise
1 mace
1 tsp coriander seed powder
1 tbps red chilly powder
1 tsp salt
Grind them to fine powder and keep in airtight container for a while. We are going to use it as marination.
Fried onions:
Fried onions
Ingredients for chicken:
500 gms chicken with bones.
1 tsp ginger paste/garlic powder
1 tsp garlic paste
Biryani masala 2 tbsp (We have already prepared it or use any store bought masala mix)
1 tbsp mint powder or crushed mint leaves
2 tbsp fried onion
1 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil (any vegetable oil)
Marinated chicken
Mix all above ingredients with chicken and make sure all chicken pieces are nicely coated with marinade. Keep it covered overnight for best results.
Rice preparation:
2 cup rice (long grained) soak for no more than half hour.
1 bayleaf
1 star anise
1 mace
4-5 black pepper seeds
2 cloves
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp salt
Take a sizable pot and add about 4 cups of water in it, then add all above spices and let it simmer for a while. Once it simmers add in soaked rice and cook until its half done. We need a sieve here to take out rice and put in layers for biryani. Read putting it together for final procedure.
Saffron milk:
Take half a cup milk, and heat it up but don't boil it. Add in saffron strands (8-10) and keep it aside, stir occasionally so color is properly mixed. If you don't have saffron strands, then u can use artificial flavor,
and use saffron color. I used strands plus some color for extra rich color.
Saffron milk
Put it all together:
Now its time to put everything together.
All layers in place
- Add half a cup of water and saute for another 2-3 minutes each side till very little water is left.
- Lower the flame and start straining rice from water and put down layers on chicken till all rice along with spices has been layered.
- Sprinkle fried onions and roughly chopped coriander leafs on top
- Add roasted almonds, cashews (optional) on top
- Pour saffron milk in center or drizzle over rice
- Put lid on and seal it. Pressure cooker comes very handy here, make sure you keep whistle on.
- Cook biryani for about 30 minutes on low flame (putting biryani pot on tava helps prevent burning of biryani)
- After 30 minutes open up lid and sprinkle/drizzle either kevda water or simply saffron flavored water (I added 5 ml saffron flavor in 2 tbsp water ) and put lid on. Serve after 5 minutes.
Delicious and aromatic biryani is ready to serve :) Enjoy and let me know how it turns out for you.
Chicken Biryani ready to satisfy you
