Chicken Biriyani...my mom's signature recipe!

Chicken Biriyani was and is THE most special dish that's prepared at my home for any special occasions be it birthdays, anniversaries, any guests coming home, even me coming home from college for a few days used to be celebrated with a plateful or rather a vessel full of my mom's delicious Chicken Biriyani. :-)

Even after our wedding, when Manish & I went to visit my home, I knew that that's what she would prepare for us! Its her signature dish and we simply love it.

A very close friend of my mom's, Omana aunty gave her (or rather taught her) this recipe for chicken biriyani. No body who has eaten this has ever left the home without asking for its recipe. I recently made this when we visited Manish's sis and bro-in-law in Seattle and they too loved it! 

Its really easy to prepare and the taste and aroma of this dish is something I cannot really explain, you just have to taste it to know what I mean :-)

Indian Whole Spices 

 Can you believe the first time my mom ever made this chicken biriyani was for my 1st birthday and that too for a group of 50 people. So it has an emotional background too :-) Oh and she made by 1st b'day cake too from scratch with few of her colleagues help...I'm proud of my mama!!

Thank you Omana aunty and thank you mummy for this gorgeous recipe which is a keeper!

The recipe below is good to serve 4-6 people and the taste just gets better with each day! Mine is a spicier version, but you can adjust the spice level as per your taste.

Chicken Biriyani Recipe

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You'll need

For Rice

Basmati Rice - 4 cups 

Whole spices: 3 Cardamom, 2 small cinnamon sticks, 4-6 Cloves, 1 Star Anise, 1 Bay leaf, 6-8 whole Black Peppercorns, 1 small piece Nutmeg

Ghee or Butter or Oil - 3 tblsp

Water - 8 cups

Saffron - a pinch

Warm milk - 2-3 tblsp

For Chicken masala

Whole chicken , cut into 1"- 1.5" cubes, except for drumsticks and wings - 3 lb or 1.5 kg

Ginger - Garlic paste - 1 tblsp

Red chilli powder - 2 tsp

Corriander powder - 2 tblsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Garam masala - 1 or 2 tsp

Biriyani masala (optional) - 1 tsp

Fresh Corriander Leaves - 1/2 cup (almost a handful)

Fresh Mint Leaves - 1/2 cup (almost a handful)

Tomato - 1 medium

Yogurt - 3-4 tblsp

Salt - to taste

Pepper - to taste

For Garnishing 

Onion (thinly sliced into rounds) - 1 large or around 1 cup 

Cashews - 8-10

Raisins - 8-10

Oil or Ghee for frying the onions, nuts and raisins

Directions

For Cooking the Rice

1. Wash and soak the Basmati rice in water for 2-3 hours and drain it over a collander. ( I usually skip this step as I'm lazy, but it definitely softens the rice)

2. In a large vessel heat ghee/butter/oil and roast the whole spices until the spices leave a lovely aroma.

3. Add the Rice and fry for 2 minutes until the rice is coated with the ghee/butter/oil and the spices are mixed in. Add 8 cups of water, enough salt to season the rice and cook until the rice is cooked through.

4. Soak the Saffron in some warm milk and keep aside.

For the Chicken masala

1. Cook the chicken pieces along with ginger-garlic paste, salt and pepper with very little water until the chicken is semi-cooked. (I prefer to use fresh made ginger-garlic paste)

2. In a separate pan dry roast the spice powders on low heat (red chilli, corriander, turmeric and garam masala), make sure not to burn.

3. Add the spice powders to the cooked chicken and cook on medium flame until it forms a gravy and the chicken is cooked well.

4. In a mixer grinder grind the fresh corriander-mint leaves, tomato and Yogurt into a fine paste and lower the heat of the chicken and add this paste and cook until the gravy thickens slightly. Check for seasoning.

For Garnishing

1. Heat Oil/ghee in a pan and start frying the thinly sliced Onions until they look brown and carmelised.

2. Next fry the cashews and raisins and keep aside on a paper towel.

Assembling the Chicken Biriyani

1. Take some 2 cups of cooked rice aside and mix it very gently with required amount of  saffron milk. (this will provide a lovely yellow colored saffron flavored rice)

2. In a large bottomed vessel start layering by adding some of the chicken + gravy. Add some white basmati rice and little yellow basmati rice covering the chicken layer. Add some garnishing of fried onions, cashew and raisins.

3. Repeat layering by adding chicken pieces + gravy , topped with white and yellow rice, topped with garnishing until all the chicken and rice is finished. Make sure the topmost layer is rice. 

4. Finish by garnishing on top with the fried Onions, Cashews and Raisins. (I also added some chopped corriander leaves on top - its optional).

5. Close the vessel with a good fitting lid and cook on very low flame for 2-3 minutes ( What I normally do is, heat my dosa kallu (or a cast-iron pan) and place the biriyani vessel on top of it , cooking on low heat for few minutes) - If you have an Oven proof vessel, you could also cook in the oven at 200F , make sure the vessel is closed.

6. Take off the heat and let the biriyani rest for few minutes and then serve hot and enjoy!

Suggestions

If you do not have Saffron, roast 1 tsp turmeric powder in a frying pan and then mix it to 1/4 cup of water and sprinkle this water to some Rice until it becomes yellow, else sprinkle it directly into the rice while layering. (The roasting helps to reduce the raw turmeric taste and smell) -- Or else use yellow food color :-)

My most favorite combo of eating this Chicken Biriyani is with some Mixed Veg Raita (chopped cucumber, carrots, tomato, onions, green chillies and corriander leaves in seasoned Yogurt) , some fried Papad and Mango pickle...mmmmm...yummy!! 

Manish likes his in a Trivandrum version, where some chicken gravy is also served on the side. So I scooped out a little gravy after the step where I add the Yogurt-mint-corriander paste to the chicken and before the gravy thickens, which is a good side dish as well.

Try this Chicken Biriyani today and please everyone in your home, it hardly takes 30 - 40 minutes to prepare :-) Enjoy!!

-Manju