small things

small things
And there was light

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Chicken Biriyani

I would not like my blog to turn into a recipe sharing place  but at the same time I realized a foodie's blog cannot be denied of food...... thats like being unfair to my real self.......
I call myself a chickenetarian.... most of the times except for those occassional fishy moments when the bong inside my parents and specially bro wakes up suddenly and they get that craving for fish.......or one of those prawny moments in some restaurants..

One of my foodie friends (Ill call him from now onwards Y2C from the sheher of Nizams) says ..."chicken kisi bhi form me bura nahi hota, no matter how badly cooked" I couldnt agree more to it...

So giving due respect to chicks.... I share below my recipe... which is loosely based on Aditya Bal's (the handsome cook on Ndtv good times one of the few Tv channels I surf) recipe... I am not a sort of a person who would watch a cookery show but but when its by Adi bal it gives me all the more reason besides my food instincts to watch it....

Statutory Warning its not a Hyderabadi Biriyani... nor is Bong Biriyani.....I would rather call it "Rups Chicken Biriyani" and it tastes good to me... as Y2C says no chick can be bad....

Rups Chicken Biriyani

General Stuff Reqd

2.75 cups of basmati rice/ or any good rice would do too it serves my family of four well but u can put more if u want.
750g chicken boneless would be good actually justifies so much of effort... thats actually my bro gets in a round figured money...
5-6 medium sized onions - chopped (julian onion Adi says its a way of chopping)- finely but not minutely chopped as I say
juice of 1 lemon
fresh green coriander - chopped
2 green chillies - as finely chopped as possible
1 tbsp refined oil

For the marinade

2 big spoon ginger-garlic paste if u can make it fresh nothing like it the readymade ones wud do too if ur lazy.
1 normal spoon turmeric powder
2 cup curd
1 normal spoon red chilli powder we arent a chilli chilli family but if ur a big time chilli eater u should add more.

salt to taste

Spices for chicken
4-5 cloves
1” cinnamon
1-2 bay leaf
5-6 green cardamoms
1 black cardamom
½ small spoon cumin seeds or you can put cumin powder also

Spice for rice

2-3 cloves
½ “cinnamon
4 green cardamoms
salt - to taste

Dum

Dough made of atta and water
How to do it

Cook the rice 50-60% with its spices mentioned above  its easy wateva amt of rice u put just put 1.5 times of water in an open vessel.

Marinate the chicken with curd, turmeric, salt, chilly powder and ginger-garlic paste.

Grind all the spices for the chicken in a mortar and add to the marinade. Leave the chicken to marinate for two hours minimum you can keep upto 4 hours also...the longer it is the more spices get into it and it tastes good.


Heat two tbsp of refined oil in a pan. Sauté the onions, till they turn golden brown. Put 1/4th of the onions in marinate.

Layering of the Biriyani ( I believe this is the most important part)


In a handi or an appropriate biryani cooking vessel: put 1 big spoon oil and heat. Add the chicken and cook on high heat till chicken takes on a light brown colour and is half cooked.

Lower the flame; flatten the chicken to form a layer. Put chopped coriander and green chillies on top and remaining burnt onion.

Put all the rice on top of this layer and smoothen out. Add the lemon juice.

Cover the vessel and make long snake off the dough by rolling in on the counter and use it to seal the top of the cooking vessel.

Remove when the seal is hard. But you need to be careful I burnt it a little bit when i made it for the first time.

I f u dont want so much of Hanky Panky of dough u may get away with it just make sure the lid is a good tight one and avoids as much as steam escape. I dont do the dough thing most of the times, but believe me whenever its made in that sealed manner it tastes damn good.

Never make this in a pressure cooker. I fell so much for this dish that I actually bought a handi with a lid for it which I use exclusively for this.
For Raita
Just add some Jaljeera masala to curd and little water and some salt and pepper
Cucumber/ Onion can also be added......boondi is usually not there at my home you may try that also.


Next Level
Just eat it people!!! what are you waiting for???







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