Chicken Biriyani ala FAD Mom

I am a great fan of Chicken Biriyani and whenever I see Indian stalls selling them, I'd be in the queue for sure. I've looked through many recipes and found them to be really exhausting complicated to make but I know a good Chicken Biriyani is worth the efforts of their many steps and spices.





At the local grocers, I found a pack of Dry Biriyani powder for Chicken Biriyani. It will be my first attempt in making the dish. There are two ways of cooking them. One is cooking the chicken and rice separately then assembling them. The other is to cook them in a big pot and placing marinated chicken, cook in slow, slow fire.. As I have no experience making this dish, I shall try cooking the chicken first, then cook the rice separately. I would love to have it done proper with assembling like in 'Dum' Biriyani but I figured, I better make sure it tastes good first.

Here is my own version of Chicken Biriyani.

Marinade for Chicken
800gm Chicken Thighs (wash and clean)
10gm Garlic (ground or chopped finely)
10gm Ginger (ground or chopped finely)
20gm Red Onion (ground or chopped finely)
5gm Salt
5gm Pepper

Marinade the chicken with the ingredients above. Place it in the chiller for about one to two hours.


Ingredients
10gm Garlic (chopped)
10gm Ginger (chopped)
20gm Red Onion (chopped)
Cooking Oil

Mix together in a paste
Candlenuts (grounded)
Almond (grounded)

100mls water
80gm Biriyani Powder add one and half cups of water
Handful of Coriander (chopped)
1 no medium Tomatoes (chopped)
60mls Ketchup
200ml Yoghurt

Garnish
More Coriander
Fried Shallots
Coarsely chopped butter-fried Cashew Nuts


Heat oil in a large skillet or wok. Saute the chicken pieces with the oil and make sure it is sealed to prevent the juices from coming out. Push the chicken to the side of the wok/skillet. Add the garlic, ginger and onions and fry it briefly. The onions should be soft but not charred. Add the candlenut and almond mix to the chicken and fry it for a while. Make sure you stir it so that it doesn't stick to the wok.

Add 100mls water and let the candlenut/almond mixture cook for 2 minutes. Add the Biriyani paste (powder mixed with water) to it. Add chopped tomatoes, coriander and ketchup. After about 5 minutes, add the yoghurt, mix it well. Cook it further to allow the chicken to become more tender. Adjust the taste like adding salt or sugar but so far, I didn't have to because the natural sweetness from onions and tangy flavour from tomatoes and ketchup is just right.

Serve in a casserole dish and garnish with more coriander, fried shallots and lots of cashew nuts.

Biriyani Rice
Buying a good grade of Basmati Rice is equally important. I buy only a small packet of 2kg pack and cook them when I make curries.

The real way is to cook in a pot of boiling water with some salt. Salt is very important when cooking the rice as without it, the rice will be bland. When the rice is 3/4 cooked, you have to drain it and assemble and alternate it in the pot with the chicken below, some raisins, green cardamons and other spices. And it is also topped with saffron liquid and some oil.

My version of Biriyani Rice is actually Basmati rice cooked in a rice cooker, and coloured with some saffron liquid when the rice is absorbed. then when it is ready, fluff and sprinkle with some raisins. You can add some spices too but my children won't eat rice flavoured with those spices so I left them out.







If you want to see how a real biriyani is done, here is a video.
This is a video presented by 'Show Me The Curry'. They have done a wonderful job in showing how a Biriyani Chicken Dum is made. It is really very useful for those who finds recipe books and text a little daunting, so this video will give you more confidence in your Briyani recipes in future. If you are game to try their wonderful recipe, here is where you can get it.