Boneless Spicy Chicken Biryani

This post is a special post, as it has been written on request by my friend Jeffrey who blogs at http://www.currykitchen.com.au/. He has quite an interesting blog here and is also into cooking classes and catering services for Indian food.

So the post is about biryani, I have only one more biryani recipe on my blog, besides this till now.

Biryani is a favourite with many people and there are so many versions of biryani across the length and breadth of India, it is amazing! As a person who loves to cook and belonging to a particular community I am always asked about my biryani and it comes as a request, so very often.

But, strangely this is a dish I have not made very often and to be frank it was a dish I was always scared to attempt. Scared yes, as I would always wonder how to manage the rice in a manner that it is cooked rigtht and not mushy. Another reason is that both my mother and my mother in law make fabulous biryani, both very different from each other, so the people at home would always say, let the experts make it, consequently there was never a chance to try my hands at this dish.

Now very consciously I am trying out biryani so I get a hang of this dish as it is very often a demand from my guests. The biryani I am posting today is something similar to what we used to have in a hotel in Bangalore, which closed down many years back. After making it and serving it to one of my friend’s she commented that the taste is very similar to that of a famous biryani restaurant in Bangalore – Meghana. I wouldn’t be able to comment, as I have never eaten there.

In the restaurant where I had this, they had served the chicken on top of the rice, but I have made it as a layered biryani, as that is our preference.

Now for the recipe. This is a little spicy recipe; you can tone down the recipe as per your preference…

Ingredients

½ kilogram of boneless chicken chunks (bite-sized pieces)

Marinade

One tablespoon of spicy red chilli poweder,

2 tablespoons of red chilli sauce,

One tablespoon of powdered garam masala,

One tablespoon of ginger paste,

One tablespoon of garlic paste,

Half a teaspoon of turmeric,

One raw egg,

Two tablespoon of corn flour,

Salt to taste

Other Ingredients

Two large onions (finely chopped),

Four chopped green chillies,

Two large ground tomatoes,

One tablespoon red chilli powder,

Half a teaspoon of turmeric,

One tablespoon of powdered garam masala,

Half tablespoon of ginger paste,

Half tablespoon of garlic paste,

Half of cup of chopped coriander leaves,

Half of cup of mint leaves

Oil as required,

Salt to taste

For the Rice

Five cups of good quality basmati rice,

Two bay leaves,

Two one-inch pieces of cinnamon,

Three green cardamom pods,

One black cardamom,

Three to four cloves,

Half of cup of chopped coriander leaves,

Half of cup of mint leaves

1/4 Cup curd,

Four to five slit green chillies,

Few drops of biryani colour,

1-2 tablespoon of milk,

Ghee as required,

Salt to taste

Method

Marinating the Chicken

Wash and drain the chicken cubes.

Add all the ingredients mentioned under marinade into a big bowl and mix well. Add the chicken chunks, mix well and let it marinate for about an hour.

Preparing the Rice

Wash and soak the rice for about 15-20 minutes.

Heat about 3 tablespoons of ghee in a pan and add all the whole spices. Once they splutter, add the chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves and chopped green chillies. Fry this for about a minute and then add the rice and salt. Saute the rice carefully for about a minute. Now add 7 cups of warm water and cook till all the water is absorbed by the rice. Fluff up the rice with a fork. You can also remove it from the pan and spread it on a big plate.

Preparing the Chicken

Heat about a cup of oil. Once the oil is hot, add the marinated chicken in batches and fry till browned. Remove and reserve. Fry all the chicken in this manner.

In the remaining oil add the ginger and garlic paste, once it is well fried add the chopped onions, chillies, mint leaves and coriander leaves. Fry till the onions start turning light brown, now add the ground tomatoes and all the listed dry powdered spices. Fry well till oil starts separating.

Add the fried chicken pieces to this and mix well. Check and adjust seasoning, if required. The chicken is ready.

Layering the Biryani

In a large biryani pot (I prefer to use a shallow vessel to layer the biryani) add about a tablespoon of ghee. Layer half the rice on the bottom of the pot. Layer all the chicken above the rice layer. Top the chicken with a layer of the remaining rice.

Mix the biryani colour with the milk and drizzle it over the rice. Also drizzle some ghee on the top. Cover the biryani with a tight-fitting lid. Place it on low heat and cook it till the lid also feels hot to touch. Open and serve hot.

You can serve it with onion slices and lemon wedges or a onion-tomato raita.

Notes: For a vegetarian version of this, you can substitute chicken with mushrooms or paneer.