Hyderabad Chicken Biryani:

Ingredients:

2 Chicken leg quarters ( approx. 1kg)

1 Big Red Onion (thinly sliced lengthwise)

1 Tomato (chopped lengthwise)

4 Green chillies 

2 inch Ginger piece

6 Garlic pieces

½ cup Chopped Mint & Cilantro

1 tsp Garam masala

2 tbs Coriander powder

2 tbs Red chilli powder

1 ½ Cups Yogurt

3 Cups Basmati rice

2 Cloves , 1 staranise

2 Cinnamon sticks

2 Bay leaves

1 cardamom

Salt

3 cups of Water

3 tbs Oil

1tsp Ghee

Preparation:

             Remove skins in the leg quarters , wash it and make deep cuts on the chicken. If not using leg quarters, make big pieces of the chicken and keep ready to marinate.

Marinate:

        In a bowl add the yogurt, salt, grounded paste (green chillies,ginger,garlic),lemon juice ,garam masala , coriander powder and the cleaned chicken pieces. Toss it well to get the chicken coated evenly and refrigerate for about 3 hours.

Rice:

 Soak rice for 20 mins and drain the water completely.

 In a pan add 1 tsp of ghee,1 cinnamon,1 clove, and a bay leaf and fry the rice for 3 mins.U can see the shining in the rice. Switch off the flame.

In a rice cooker, add 3 cups of water,fried rice and add half salt for rice and cook the rice ( 30 mins) and keep it aside.

Chicken:

In a pan add 2 tsp oil and fry the onions to dark brown color(like deep fried) and keep aside.

In a heavy bottomed pan add the remaining oil and all spices,now add the marinated chicken ,chopped mint and cilantro leaves and cook the chicken covered for 10 mins in medium-low  flame.Now add the tomatoes chopped and cook for 5 mins more(until the chicken is half done).Leave the chicken with at least a cup of (liquid) gravy and switchoff. 

                                                  

**No need to add any extra water. The water from the chicken and marinate is enough. **

Dum process:

           The real taste of the biryani lies in this process. There are different ways to make dum.

We usually do dum in a large pan covered with a heavy lid and pasting all sides with dough.

In a heavy bottomed non stick pan, brush the sides and bottom of the pan with oil and place a layer of rice first,then the chicken pieces with gravy and sprinkle some fried onions and then again rice,chicken & gravy ,onion.The top & bottom layer should be the rice.Sprinkle some cilantro & mint leaves and close the lid.

To close the lid, make chapathi dough and apply on all sides.Set the flame to low and leave it for 35 mins. Within that time the chapathi dough will also get cooked on the sides.

                                   

Scrap it out carefully and open the lids to enjoy a nice flavored Hyderabad biryani…..

                                      

Serve biryani with raita and boiled eggs.

** This is my Husband’s recipe , I’m not specialized in this biryani… Soon to meet u with my special (ofcourse my Mother’s) Dindigul Thalapakattu Biryani  **

Enjoy Weekend with Biryani !! And dont forget to post ur comments after trying it.