Perfect Biryani!

We all have an aunt who makes world class besan laddoos. There is no comparison to mom's puranpoli or mother-in-law's fish fry. Dad's amateur daal-rice is my most fav comfort food. And how Mr. Husband is famous for his mouth watering tandoori chicken! I always wanted to have my signature dish. I cook everything, from daily roti sabji to lobster. But never heard something like "No one can make as awesome blah blah as Priyanka does!" It made the cook in me really sad for years! *melodrama*

Mr. Husband craves for my khichadi rice and aloo-paratha and pizza. But I didn't want to be associated with such not-so-fancy recipes. Finally, after months of trial and error, I've found 'the one' ! Presenting Priyanka's version of 'Dum Biryani'!!

When it comes to biryani, Mr. husband and I never kid! We never compromise with taste, flavours or "meat to rice" ratio. We like the perfect blend of Pakistani/peshavari style and Hyderabady style. After finalizing the recipe, I made it thrice with chicken and it was perfect!!

Some rules:

- No ingredient is optional!! You cannot say that you completed the jigsaw puzzle with one missing piece. :)

- There is no substitute for ghee, fried onions and white basmati rice. (don't even look at low fat, low carb stuff)

- Meat and rice should be equal in quantity. (again, not optional. you want taste? make it fully loaded)


Thanks to my mother-in-law, I have huge aluminum cooking pot - made just for Biryani. If you don't have a huge pot, factorize the recipe accordingly.

Prep:

Rice: Wash and Soak 3 cups of basmati rice in warm water.

chicken : Clean, wash, cut 2 lbs of chicken. Pat it dry. Marinate it with 1 cup yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, lemon juice, garam masala, coriander-cumin powder, turmeric powder

Now we need to let the rice soak and let the chicken marinate for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile do the chopping business. By the end of 20 minutes, you should have:

- 2 cups of shopped white onion

- 2 cups of chopped tomatoes

- 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander
- 1 inch ginger julienned

- 1/2 cup mint leaves chopped

- 2 green chilies chopped

Take 2 spoonfuls of whole garam masala (cloves, paper corns, cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon etc) in a cheesecloth and tie it to make a small packet. I used the metal tea infuser which came with my steel tea pot.

Soak pinch of saffron in 2 spoon milk.

Cooking:

Rice:

- Keep 6-8 cups of water for boiling in large pot.

- Add salt, a tablespoon of oil and 2-3 bay leaves to it.

- Add the garam masala packet and soaked (and drained) rice.

- Let the rice cook. Give a gentle stir in between.

Chicken:

- In biryani pot, take 1/2 cup cooking oil.
- Sauté 1/2 spoon of whole garam masala, then chopped onions, chilies and finally tomatoes. 
- Once they leave oil, add spoon full of chili powder, chili powder, garam masala, coriander-cumin powder, turmeric powder each. This step depends on how much heat you can take! :)
- Now add the marinated chicken with the yogurt sauce. Cover and let the chicken cook for 15-20 mins (or 3/4th done)
- Stir in-between. Don't let it burn.

Biryani:

- Now the main part. Rice should be 3/4 cooked by now. Give a good stir to the chicken, and add drained-cooked rice on top of the chicken.

- Cover the chicken completely with rice.

- Then put a layer of chopped fresh coriander, ginger slices, chopped mint leaves and generous amount of fried onion.

- Add 2 tea spoons of ghee at four different places in the pot. Also add saffron milk.

- Cover the biryani and let it cook for another 25-30 mins on medium flame.

 

Dum:

- The traditional dum is done by sealing the biryani pot with roti dough. If you have the dough handy, you can certainly do that. But it gets kinda messy at the end.

- My version involves covering the pot with cold water socked hand towel as seen in the picture, and putting weight on it. I used my empty pressure cooker as a weight. Worked like a charm!!

 

After 25-30 minutes (or after the house is filled with biryani aroma and you cannot control yourself anymore) turn the flame off and let the biryani sit for another 20 mins. You can work on your self control mechanism here. Much more helpful than meditation!!

Once you get used to the recipe, you’ll save time by doing things simultaneously. Though it takes little longer time than usual dinner, and involves many small little steps, trust me, it’s all worth it! The end result, perfect biryani!!

Love,

Priyanka