Saturday, July 14, 2007

Chicken Biryani & my first MEME

....when i was newly wed i had small sheets of paper where i had written recipes for sambar, moru curry, cabbage thoran etc, from my mom. Along with all that i also had this Chicken Biryani recipe which i made quite often during those early of marriage 'cos there were very few things that i knew then..


For this you need :

  1. chicken - 800 gms (cleaned & cut into big pieces)
  2. onion (thinly sliced) - 4 med sized
  3. oil - 4 tbsp
  4. ginger - 2 inch piece
  5. garlic - 10 cloves
  6. green chillies - 5 -6
  7. mint , coriander leaves - a handful each
  8. poppy seeds - 1/4 cup (soaked in very little quantity of warm water)

Dry masalas:

  1. coriander seeds - 2 tbsp
  2. cardamom - 3 pods
  3. cinnamon - 1 inch stick
  4. cloves - 8
  5. pepper corns - 10
  6. fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
  7. 1/2 of one nutmeg
  8. mace

For Rice:

  1. Basmati rice - 3 cups
  2. water - 6 cups
  3. ghee - 2 tbsp
  4. cardamom - 3
  5. cinnamon - 1 small stick
  6. cloves - 3-4
  7. bay leaf - 1
  8. cashewnuts - 10
  9. kishmish - 10

Method:
For rice:

  • wash rice & drain. Heat ghee & fry cashewnuts till brown & keep aside. Fry kishmish & keep aside.

  • In the same ghee throw in the whole spices .When they sizzle add drained rice & fry for some time till oil is well coated.

  • Transfer to a microproof dish add 6 cups of water & salt. Cook till the rice is done.

  • Fluff up the rice with a fork.

For chicken:

  • Heat 2 tbsp oil. Fry onions till golden brown. keep aside.

  • Powder all the dry masalas & keep aside.

  • make a paste of ginger, garlic, green chillies & a separate paste of poppy seeds with water & keep them aside.

  • Also make a paste of mint & coriander.

  • Heat remaining 2 tbsp oil. Add ginger-garlic-green chillies paste .Fry for sometime .

  • Add mint-coriander paste. Fry again.

  • Add powdered dry masalas. fry again. do not let it burn.

  • Now add chicken pieces & mix well. Also at this stage add poppy seeds paste & salt.

  • Mix well . do not add water. let the chicken cook on med flame.

  • Once cooked increase flame let the liquid evaporate though not completely. we need a thick gravy consistency.

For the biryani:

  • In a large pot layer the bottom with half of cooked rice. sprinkle some fried onions. then half of the chicken.

  • Repeat again. keep some rice to finish on top.

  • Finally add the remaining fried onions on top of rice along with fried cashews & kishmish.

  • Leave the pot closed until serving time.

  • Before serving mix the biryani slowly so that rice is not broken .



2 comments:

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Nikhilesh said...

Nice recipe

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thanks Nik
Indian recipes