Spicy and Masalay daar Chicken Biryani

An Authentic recipe of my Mom, being from Hyderabad Dakkan she had her unique recipes and also made changes accroding to her style.She was a GEM one could have....

I remember that big pot set on the tawa for dum each time we had guests and the home full of aroma  and we all eagerly waiting for it to be dished out...

For Biryani we should take more quantity of spices because it has to be layered with rice.

To get that masaladaar look and taste we need a good amount of yoghurt, onion and tomatoes too.

It may seem that it’s too much but you can always do changes according to your taste, this here is what I actually did. I served 8 ppl with this amount and Masha’Allah had some left over for me to gobble next day :

Chicken:
1 whole chicken cut in 16 pieces
Juice of 1 lemon
1 ½ tsp ginger/garlic paste
Rub in the lemon juice and GG paste evenly and thoroughly all over the chicken, with lemon it stays firm and does not break while stirring and also gets that yummy sour taste.

Rice:
4 cups rice (ca; 750 grams)
Boil till ¾ (2 kanni) drain, keep aside
To make the Biryani Masalay daar we need thick yummy gravy so I used a lot of the following:

Prepare for layers:

1 bunch Fine chopped coriander
½ bunch peppermint
10-14 whole cherry tomatoes
4-6 whole green chilies
6-8 boiled sliced egg
1 tsp zarda rang (yellow food color)
2-3 strands of saffron diluted in 3 tbs milk
2 tsp kewra essence

7 onions (sliced thin and fried)
1 cup oil ( it only fries well in a good amount of oil, no worries we drain it after wards : ) )
6 tomatoes (thin sliced)
10-12 plums (not the total dry but the ones for dry fruit a bit wet)
3 big black cardamoms
1tsp =half black peppercorn/clovers (together)
500 gram plain yoghurt

Spices:


I roasted all these in the frying pan:

1 ½ tsp salt

2 tsp red chili powder
1 ½ tsp white cumin (sofaid zeera)
1 ½ tsp crushed coriander
½ tsp turmeric (haldi)
1tbl grinded almonds
1tsp grinded sesame (till)
½ Indian curry powder

Let them cool down before adding them all to the yoghurt!
Mix all well into a nice paste

Method:

take a heavy bottom vessel or a broad wok
heat oil, add in the black cardamom, black pepper/cloves let fry a bit
add in the sliced onion and fry on a medium high heat, as it starts to turn pink add in the plums and stir till onion nice gold brown and plums all soft and fluffy

I do it this way as the plum give a very intensive (khatta) taste yummz : )

now add chicken just stir once or twice and add the spices mixed yoghurt, tomatoes to it
now don’t cover the lid and keep mixing and stirring, it’s a long work coz we actually cook the chicken with this process by only constantly stirring it
try not to hit the meat with ur spoon and just keep turning and twisting from sides only this way your meat will stay in blocks and firm and that’s the beauty of the biryani!
the yoghurt will leave lots of water so will the tomatoes, and it will start getting thick and it might also start getting to stick on the bottom of the pot because of almonds and till, coz they make a thick gravy ..
No worries if you have a heavy bottom pot all stays well : )
you will see that all the waters are drying up and only a thick gravy is staying behind and the oil is showing up clearly, so then its times to take it off the stove
place the pot on 3-4 wooden coasters taper so that all the oil slides up in one side
drain out that oil after an hour and keep aside

now take another broad pot spread some drained oil on the bottom

Spread one layer of rice---chicken masala---cover with eggs---tomatoes---coriander—peppermint—green chilies

I made three layers repeating the same process the top most must be with rice and only some rest gravy of the chicken!
now drill 5-6 holes in different places in the pot from above till the bottom with a back of any long wooden spoon
drizzle the saffron and with the help of the point of a butte knife just press in the zarda rang

If u mix it in water  it won’t give u this red, orange and yellow color combination which makes it s rich : ) cover the holes by patting the knife on it

drizzle the kewra essence on 3 different sides
cover the pot with a big piece of Alum-foil and place it on the stove with high heat but plz stand by and don’t leave it
in about 8-10 minutes u will see and feel  steam coming out; turn the stove to the lowest grade and don’t lift the cover coz in that steam the rice will be done Insha’Allah
give it a time of 20 minutes and then lift the cover , you will know if it’s done when the pot is full of steam and the rice has fluffed up a bit, take off the alum-foil

Your Biryani is ready …..

I don’t use fried onion in layers or the top as it turns out very soggy and at times give a bitter taste but according to your own taste you can add if you like ..