Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Chicken Biryani has been my speciality for a long long time ;). My wife is a fan and so are few of my friends. This time I tried my hands at the Hyderabadi version of it and ya, as always, it was too good.

Total Time: 1 hours

Preparation Time: 30 minutes (excludes marination time)

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Marinade

• 1 Kg Chicken Breast cut up into 2” pieces
• ½ cup Yoghurt
• 1 1/2 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
• 2 – 3 tsp Chili Powder (or to taste)
• 2 tsp Coriander Powder
• 3-4 Chillies split into two
• ½ tsp Turmeric
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt to taste
• Garam Masala Powder

4 Medium Sized Onion 
1 cup Sunflower Oil
½ tsp of saffron strands
½ cup milk
4 cups Basmati Rice which has been soaked for 15-20 minutes

Spices for boiling rice

• 6 Cardamoms
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 1 tsp Jeera (Cumin Seeds)
• ½ tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
• 1 tbsp of Oil
• Salt to taste ( Mind it!! There is some salt put in the Chicken Marinade as well)

Method:

After washing the chicken it is very important that all the water has been drained away from the chicken.

Mix all the ingredients of the marinade and marinate for at least 1 hour.

Soak saffron in hot milk till rest of preparation is going on.

In a pan heat oil and fry the onions until light brown.

Cook Rice along with the spices till it is half cooked. I cooked it in Microwave for half time time I usually do.

In Biryani Rice and Chicken is cooked together. So, we arrange chicken and rice in layers. Separate both rice and chicken in two parts. 

Grease the base of a heavy bottom with oil and  arrange the chicken pieces and sprinkle some oil on top of the chicken. 

Arrange ½ the boiled rice on the chicken pieces, sprinkle some oil, ½ the fried onions and ½ the saffron milk.

Repeat the above two steps for the last 2 layers, i.e, arrange the last layer of chicken. Spread the rest of the rice, sprinkle all the oil, fried onions and the saffron milk.

Now, seal the the container and make it air tight so that the steam doesn't escape while cooking. 

You can use Aluminium sheet to do this. Take 2 sheets of aluminium foil and place it on top of the sauce pan and then cover it with the lid. 

Put a heavy object (I used a hammer which did a decent job) on the top of the container, so that the steam doesn't escape easily.

Cook Biryani for 8-10 minutes on high until stream escapes from the foil seal.  Then reduce the heat to medium and another 20 minutes. 
 Remove from heat and let it sit for 10-15 minutes before opening it.

Mix the rice and serve it hot with raita.

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