Recipe- Hyderabadi Style Chicken Dum Biryani

Chicken Biryani is one of the most sought after biryani and in general I feel Biryani is something that has many admirers. There are two versions of Hyderabadi Dum biryani, Kacchi biryani in which raw marinated meat is cooked with layers of rice and Pakki Biryani in which Rice is cooked with cooked dry gravy of cooked chicken with layers of rice over dum {A technique in which food is cooked over very low heat, and the vessel in which is cooked is sealed so that the flavours and aroma are sealed inside which makes the food much more flavorful}.

Ingredients

For Marination

1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon garam masala powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
to taste salt
2 tablespoon Ghee / vegetable oil
2 red onion Sliced medium sized
ginger Grated
3 Tomatoes Chopped medium sized
½ cup yogurt whipped
to taste salt
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
2 tablespoon mint leaves
2 tablespoon coriander leaves
¼ cup milk
6 - 7 Strands saffron

Method

- First of all start by marinating chicken. Wash and pat dry the chicken and place it in a bowl.

- Add salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, coriander powder lemon juice and ginger paste into the bowl and rub the chicken with this rub.

- Cover the bowl with a cling film and let this chicken marinate for 20-30 minutes, longer is better but 30 minutes also works good here.

- Wash and soak long grained basmati rice till the water runs clear.

- Now place the casserol over heat and add 1.5 tablespoon of ghee to the casserole.

- Add Cumin seeds and whole garam masala spices , stir and cook them till they are aromatic which will take about 1 minute .

- When spices become fragrant add sliced red onion and ginger paste/grated ginger and cook till onions are light brown in color.

- Add chopped tomatoes and cook them till they are mushy which will take 5-6 minutes and add salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and mix it well.

- Add whipped yogurt and cook it for 3-4 minutes while stirring it continusouly.

- Now take out the marinated chicken pieces and add everything in the casserol and coat it well with cooked masala. cover the lid and put the heat to the minimum.

- By the time chicken is cooking you can boil water in a pan and cook rice till they are 70% cooked { You can watch this video to learn how to boil rice for Biryani } .

- Cook chicken for 10 minutes till small brown bits start to appear on the chicken.

- Now take half cooked rice and make a layer over chicken layer ( you can see it in video above ) and chicken will remain as base layer.

- Spread rice layer evenly and sprinkle chopped mint leaves and coriander leaves on the rice layer and follow it up with layer of fried onion also known as birista ( here is how to make birista )

- In the last sprinkle the saffron milk and cover it with a heavy lid. The lid of Lecreuset casserol is great for this purpose you really don't need to seal it.

- Let the biryani cook on slowest heat for 25-30 minutes and serve it how with plain yougurt or boondi raita.