Chicken biryani

Chicken biryani

Chicken biryani makes any ordinary day special. It is a part of every celebration. There are fish haters and lamb haters in our family but thank god, no chicken haters so far!!! This biryani on the dining table is the super star. You don’t need much supporting cast, many curries to go with it. If you want to make a truly awesome spread, you can fry some poppadum and make a raita. To spice it even further, serve Indian pickle too!!!

Prepping ahead makes things easy.  You can do the deep frying of onions and herbs, sautéing and marinating chicken, a day before. This makes the meat really flavourful too. Just let the fried things cool well on a tissue paper and keep in an air tight container. It will remain crisp. The marinated chicken, if made the day before, should be kept refrigerated.

Peel and slice the onion thin. Chop the coriander. Wash the herbs well. Heat the oil in a heavy bottom, large pan. Deep fry the onion to golden brown and set aside. Deep fry the leaves also. Fry till all the spluttering stops. Drain and keep with the fried onion.

Chop shallots, garlic, green chillies and ginger fine. A food processor makes this very easy. Sauté in the remaining oil till it start to darken and lightly brown. Add the spice powders and fry for 2-3 minutes in low heat. Chop the tomatoes fine. Add the tomatoes and sauté tills it merges well in the masala. If making for next day, now let the masala cool to room temperature. Mix in the chicken, salt and refrigerate. When ready to cook, add ½ cup water and bring to boil. Simmer, cover and cook till the chicken is done, about 15 minutes. If doing straightaway, add the water first, and then chicken. Add half the fried onions and chopped coriander to this mix.

Start with cooking the rice. Handling the rice after cooling is the best way to eliminate mushy, broken rice. Boil lots of water- about 3 to 4 litre- with salt, spices and the rice. The water should be salty enough or your rice will be bland. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Check for doneness of rice. It should be just cooked through but not crunchy. Drain and let cool.

Oil the dish in which you are going to layer and bake the biryani. Spread ¼ of the rice, sprinkle ¼ of the fried things, the milk and garam masala powder. Repeat twice more, to use up ¾ of the rice. Top with the chicken masala and cover with the remaining rice. Sprinkle remaining garnishes. Cover and bake for 30-40 minutes at 200°c in the oven or keep on stovetop at the lowest heat for about 20 minutes. Serve with Raita, pickles and poppadum. If you are running short of time, you can microwave the biryani instead of baking (about 10- 15 minutes).