Chicken Biryani Perfect Cooking Recipe

Chicken biryani

 Chicken biryani is the king of foods in Pakistan, India and some other countries like Saudi Arabia and Dubai. In fact where Pakistanis and Indians make a certain  population, biryani becomes a necessary part of their dinning table. Biryani is the national dish of Pakistan. You can even find it in other countries like UK and US in pakistani cafes. In Pakistan and India a treat without biryani is hardly expected. In this recipe i will explian the  exact method of how Chicken biryani for 4-5 people is made.

Collect the ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken cut into 12-14 pieces.
• 1/2 kg basmati rice (a special type of rice mostly used for biryani).

• 250 grams or generally 1 cup of sliced onions.
• 3-4 table spoons of chopped garlic.
• 3-4 table spoons of chopped ginger.
• 1 packet garam masala.
• 4-5 table spoons of red chillies.
• 1-2 table spoons of coriander powder.
• 2 table spoons of turmeric powder.
• 3-4 cups of  tomato (chopped).
• 5 table spoons of cooking oil+ 2 cups of yogurt.
• 1-1/2 gm of saffron dissolved in 2 cups of milk.

It's time to prepare marinade.

 Put the following ingredients into a dish, mix them well and leave it for almost 50-70 minutes. This time is optimum time, more or less time may not alter the results.

• Chicken pieces
• 2 table spoon of garlic.
• 2 table spoon of ginger
• 1-1/2 table spoon of garam masala powder
• 1 table spoon of turmeric powder.
• 1 cup of yogurt.
• salt(to taste)

After the given period overs, now it's time to cook the chicken.                                                             

 Take oil in a thick bottomed pan, put the remaining garam masala packet and heat it to crackle. Put sliced onions and cooke until the onions get light brown. Now put all the remaining ingredients, the already prepared marinade (mixture of chicken pieces and other ingridients in the previous steps) and tommatoes (excluding rice), balance the salt up to taste.

 Boiling of rice
Boiling of rice is considered as the most sensitive part of the whole process. A little extra or insufficient boiling may drastically alter the results. Take water  9 to 10 times the volume of rice, put 5-6 table spoons of  salt, a bay leaf and half of the garam masala packet. Heat until it boils. Put in the rice and boil for 8-10 minutes depending upon the intensity of fire. Also put a spoonful of caraway seeds if available( shahee zeera) While boiling keep on checking the rice so that they may not be over boiled.

When to stop boiling? 

 Generally as we mentioned that you need to boil for 10-12 mints.But this is not always the proper method. While boiling carefully pick out some rice using your spoon and check if you can easily break a grain of rice into three(3) pieces. If the grain is broken into three parts easily, this is the exact time to stop boiling. Now separate water and leave the rice aside.

 -----Layering of chicken and rice for "Dum"( a slow and steady heating of the sealed pan)-------

 Take a thick bottomed pan(non sticky), grease the bottom of the pan with some melted ghee(oil). Now put a  layer of rice.

 Followed by a layer of chicken.

Then a layer of rice. Make three to four layers finishing with the final layer of rice. Sprinkle the remaining mixture in your chicken dish over the rice.Seal the vessel with an aluminium foil if not available you can use a newspaper or a clean cloth.Leave it on a pretty low flame for 10-12 minutes.  Your Yummy chicken biryani is ready!

  Who is missing biryani outside Pakistan and India? By the way i am one them. I am in turkey for last 2 years and can just dream for a dish of my favourite biryani. Hope to go to Pakistan this summer!

Ads code here