HYDERABADI CHICKEN BIRYANI | AUTHENTIC HYDERABADI CHICKEN DUM BIRYANI

Biryani is one of the most popular dishes in Hyderabad, India. I learnt biryani preparation recently when we shifted to hyderabad due to my husbands transfer

 Finally last weekend, I decided to make a delicious lunch for us.

There are two ways to prepare Hyderabadi Biryani. One is, precooked meat method and the other is raw meat method. In both the methods, meat and half cooked rice are arranged in layers, and cooked until the rice and the meat are fully cooked. For Chicken Biryani, I use the precooked method .

 To make Hyderabadi Biryani, the meat and the rice are cooked in an air tight pot on very low flame, so that the rice is cooked in the flavors of meat and gets the aroma of the meat. The meat gets the direct heat from the flame and the rice is cooked with steam generated by the air tight method of cooking, also known as Dum method. It is a lengthy process but the taste is worth going thru the elaborate process.

Ingredients:

MARINADE

400 gms Chicken cut up into 2” pieces/ 4-5 chicken drumsticks

½ cup Yogurt

1 1/2 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste

2 – 3 tsp Chili Powder

2 tsp Coriander Powder

12 small Chilies split into two

1 cup chopped Mint Leaves

1 cup chopped Cilantro

½ tsp Turmeric

Juice of 1 lime

Salt to taste

GARAM  MASALA POWDER

10 Pepper Corns(kalimiri)

10 Cloves(lavang)

½ tsp Cardamom Seeds(elaichi)

½ tsp Sahajeera or Black Cumin

1” Cinnamon Stick(dalchini)

1 Large Onion sliced

1 cup Oil

½ tsp of saffron strands

½ cup milk
1 tspn cashew & almond

RICE PREPARATION

3 cups Basmati Rice soaked for 30 minutes

6 Cardamoms

3 Cloves

2 Bay Leaves

1 Bay Flower or Biryani Flower

1 tsp Sahajeera

½ tsp Ginger Garlic Paste

1 tbsp of Oil

First Full of Salt

  

METHOD:

1.Clean the chicken and cut it into 2” pieces. Wash the chicken and squeeze all the water from it. This is very important that you squeeze all the water away from the pieces or put it a colander to let water drain away.
2. Grind all the ingredients listed under biryani masala to a fine powder.You can even use readymade biryani masala.
3. Mix all the ingredients of the marinade and marinate for at least 1 hour or overnight in the fridge.
4. In pan heat oil and fry the onions & cashew almonds until light golden brown.& keep aside. Soak saffron in hot milk.
6. In a big pot bring water t
5.In the same oil add the marinated chicken mixture & cook covered with lid till the chicken is almost cooked.o a boil, add all the spices for boiling rice and mix well.
7. Add rice and continue to cook until you get a one good boil, i.e rice should roll over with boiling water.  Drain the rice and keep aside. 

8.Now its time to arrange chicken and rice in layers, one layer of chicken and two layers of rice. In a heavy bottom sauce pan, pour ½ the oil at the bottom, arrange the chicken pieces and sprinkle some oil on top of the chicken.
9. Arrange ½ the boiled rice on the chicken pieces, sprinkle some oil, ½ the fried onions and ½ the saffron milk,1/2 fried cashew almonds.
10.Repeat the above step for the last layer, I.e, arrange the last layer of rice. Spread the rest of the rice, sprinkle all the oil, fried onions,fried cashew almonds and the saffron milk.
11. Now, we need to seal the the container and make it air tight so that the steam doesn’t escape when we cook. In India, flour dough or a big cloth is used to seal the container and the cover together.
12.Put a heavy object (motor pesto or heavy pan or skillet) on the top of the container, so that the steam doesn’t escape easily. Cook for 10 min on high flame.
 Remove the saucepan from fire and place a iron tawa (griddle) over low flame. Place back the sauce pan on the iron tawa and cook on low flame and cook biryani for 15-20 mts. Turn off heat and do not remove lid for 10 min.
13. Mix the rice ,garnish with chopped coriander and serve it hot with raita or mirchi ka salan.

TIPS

1. Usually saffron is used for the biryani, which gives a beautiful color. Substitute saffron with red/orange food colour.

2. The dough is made by mixing 1 cup flour with water (I used wheat flour). I keep the pan on a tava to give it two layers of thickness..
3. I add 1 and 1/2 cup water for 1 cup rice while cooking rice instead of adding more water and draining it as done traditioanlly. Adding less water and cooking till water is absorbed, avoids overcooking of rice and also, since water is not drained out, all the spices/ghee used remains with the rice.