Hyderabad Chicken Biryani - Delectable Dum Biryani

Hyderabad Chicken Biryani - Dum Biryani

When I was in US, I used to watch the Vah Reh Vah food channel. I became a fan of the vahrehvah chef Sanjay Thumma. I felt it as a beautiful sight to see men cooking food with a great passion. I have seen men enjoying eating. But it is a different show to see a man cooking with such a big interest especially an Indian. Vahrehvah chef enjoys cooking as.. S.P Balsubramanium enjoys singing.. Kunnakudi Vaithyanathan enjoys playing violin.. RJ Balaji enjoyes talking..

This is one such recipe from him. Hyderabad chicken biryani is a simple recipe with many ingredients especially spices. Prime work is to get the ingredients to the work area.

The black cumin in this recipe gives the biryani a unique flavour which you might not have experienced. It is a slightly strong spice. So add little if you are a first time user.

Ingredients:

For rice:

• Basmathi rice - 1 kg
• Whole spices - few - kala jeera (black cumin), cinnamon, cloves 
• Oil - 1 tablespoon
• Salt

For marination:

• Chicken - 1 kg
• Green chillies - 3 chopped
• Mint (chopped)
• Ginger - garlic paste - 1 tablespoon
• Pepper coarsely ground - 1/2 teaspoon
• Black cumin (kala jeera) - 1/2 teaspoon
• Jeera powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
• Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt as required
• Yogurt - 3/4 to 1 cup
• Oil - 3 tablespoons
• Fried onion* - 1/2 cup (today i used sautéd onion till well brown instead of fried onions)
• Bay leaves - 2
• Cinnamon - 3 (1 inch)
• Black cardamom - 1
• Green cardamom - 3
• Cloves - 3
• Mace - 1/2 (optional)
• lemon - 1

Final touch:

• Saffron water or food colour water
• Mint chopped
• Coriander chopped
• Fried onion - 1/2 cup

Procedure:

Marinating the chicken:

• Add all the ingredients mentioned in the list for marination in a vessel for marination. Mix well. 
• Leave it for marination for at least 1 and half hours.
• After 1 and half hours, transfer this marinated chicken to a thick bottom vessel which is already greased with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil.
• Spread this evenly to the bottom of the vessel. (Once the rice is ready, you should be able to immediately transfer the rice to this container).
• In the mean time get ready with the rice.

For cooking rice:

• Wash the basmathi rice and soak it for 30 minutes.
• Take sufficient water (double the water - if 1 cup rice used then take 2 to 2 and half cups water) in a broad vessel.
• Add the few whole spices mentioned under the list of ingredients for the rice preparation.
• Keep it on stove and bring it to a boil.
• Add salt, so that the water is slightly salty. Salting the rice is very important as this stage is this what creates a flavourful biryani.
• Wait till the rice is 60% cooked.
• Now be ready to drain the rice and transfer it to the marinated chicken.

Assembling biryani:

• Now take that heavy bottom vessel (I use a pressure cooker) with the marinated chicken spread at the bottom.
• Add the 60% cooked rice on top of this chicken marinate and spread it well.
• Now, top it up with chopped mint, coriander leaves, fried onion, saffron water (or food colour dissolved in a 2 tablespoons of water and poured here-and-there on the rice).
• Now close it tightly with a lid so that no steam escapes. (you can either spread a thin kitchen towel and then cover it with lid to leave it leave the lid tight or use a chapathi dough to seal the edges of the lid or keep a heavy weight on the lid)
• The heat should be high for the first 5 minutes, then medium heat for the next 15 minutes and then low heat for the last 10 minutes.
• Open after 30 minutes and stir it gently.
• The awesome aroma of the whole spices especially the black cumin is very unique that it will invite everyone to the dining table.

*Fried onions: 

Cut the onions finely lengthwise and deep fry them till they turn nice and brown (I mean really brown). Remove it from oil and transfer it on kitchen tissue. This fried onions can be used for many varieties of dum biryanies.

Today's biryani I sautéd onion till well-brown and used it instead of fried onion. But the fried onions make the biryani special.

Just to inform you where to start the recipe, here is a order of steps to be followed:

1. First wash and marinate the chicken.
2. After 1 hr, wash and soak the rice.
3. After 30 minutes, keep the water for boiling for rice.
4. When the water boils add the rice. The rice keeps cooking. 
5. Now transfer the chicken marinade to the thick bottom vessel and keep it ready.
6. Once the rice is cooked 60%, drain the rice and transfer to the marinated chicken.
7. This goes to the stove.

This Hyderabad biryani is again an unique and different biryani that you would not have experienced much around.

When you try it for the first time.. go easy with spices as you have to add more types of spices.. you might end up making a mistake of adding more quantity of spices.

Take and keep the spices first on a plate first, then you will have some idea about the total quantity of spices you are going to add to the biryani. 

How much ever I give the measurements of spices, your eyes should be convinced first because you might have different requirement for spices. 

The flavourful aromatic colourful Hyderabad Chicken Biryani is ready to be served with raitha or simple potato chips.

Happy cooking !!