Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Chicken Masala Preparation:

1. In a biryani pot, mix all the ingredients for marination and set aside for ½ an hour.

Rice Preparation & Layering:

1. Soak rice for about 20 minutes.
2. Soak saffron in warm milk and set aside.
3. Tie up all the spices in a cheese cloth.
4. In a large pot, pour enough water to cook the rice; Add shahi jeera, spice bag prepared in step #3, salt, ghee and the soaked rice; Set to boil.
5. When the rice is ¾ done(refer notes), layer half of the rice over the marinated chicken(make sure that you had evenly placed the chicken in the pot before layering the rice). Reserve ½ cup of rice stock.
6. Sprinkle ¼ cup fried onion, ¼ teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon green cardamom powder, 2 Tablespoon of chopped Mint & Coriander leaves over the rice.
7. Then layer the rest of the rice on top of it.
8. Then sprinkle ¼ cup fried onion, ¼ teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon green cardamom powder, 2 Tablespoon of chopped Mint & Coriander leaves, saffron milk and the reserved rice stock. Finally, pour 4 tablespoon of melted ghee on top.

Dum Preparation:

1. Seal the pot using dough.
2. Put the biryani pot on the stove, cook for about 15 minutes over medium flame.
3. Once the steam comes out from the dough seal (about 15 minutes), the biryani should have been almost done.
4. Then lower the flame and cook for 5 more minutes. (Refer Notes)
5. Remove from fire, open the dum, just mix the rice and chicken from the bottom of the pan using a long spoon.

Notes:

• If you are using small chicken pieces, go with same procedure listed above.
• If you are using medium-large chicken pieces( I personally like to have large chicken pieces in Biryani :D ), I would like to suggest to half fry the chicken before marination. Because when I prepared it for the first time, the chicken was not cooked well.
• For this,
  • Marinate the chicken pieces with ¼ Teaspoon Turmeric powder, ½ Teaspoon Red chilli powder and ½ teaspoon salt for 5-10 minutes.
  • Then fry till 50% done. Keep in paper towel and allow to cool.
  • Then proceed with the marination process listed above.
  • In this method, the steam comes out within 10 minutes (or so) from the dough seal. Then reduce the flame and cook for 2-3 minutes on low flame.
• The right consistency of the rice matters for a good biriyani. So don't overcook the rice.
• How to check the right consistency of the rice?
  • Just take out a grain of rice from the boiling water, and press it in between your thumb and forefinger. If the grain breaks into 3 parts, that's the right consistency.
• How to make Fried Onion? ( makes about 2 ½ cup of fried onion(approx:) )
  • Take 4 medium-large sized onion and cut it into very thin slices. Divide the sliced onions into 2 batches.
  • In a large frying pan, heat required amount of oil for deep frying.
  • Fry each batch with a pinch of salt till the onions are golden brown and crisp.
  • Transfer to a paper towel to remove excess oil.
• Refer original recipe video.