‘Chicken Biryani’ is a mixed rice dish with hero ingredient being ‘chicken’. Orginated in India, It has different emotions and traditions across different regions.
Biryani originated from Mughlai cuisine in India, and unlike pilaf or pilau, (iranian based dish), it involves grounded masalas added to the mix of rice and meat and the extent of spiciness is controllable based on one’s tolerance.
A bowl full of biryani is perfect as it is and generally, it doesn’t require any side dishes. But having some sides is a good option for gatherings.
After the popularity of the dish, several variations were discovered across different parts of the country giving it some extra twist and what? More the list goes on, more time consuming it is!!
Tired of so much time consuming biryani recipes ?
Well, probably you have come to the right place to suit your cravings within your precious time limit.
The recipe for which you’re here is simple and easily made with handy ingredients from the pantry.
Bonus, sit back and relax! Because there is no more fuss with hunting for ingredients in grocery shops.
Perfect for all occasions
This dum biryani recipe is simple and perfect for your unusual cravings and quick fix.
Also, dont worry, it definitely pleases your guests, making a best part of gatherings.
What do you need to make the best chicken biryani?
Best biryani is no magic, when few of the steps are taken with utmost care and patience. Let’s explore what helps the biryani to stay best!
- Rice: ‘biryani’ being a mixed rice dish, quality of rice can make or break your ‘best’ tag. I suggest using long grain rice for this purpose. For this recipe, I used basmati rice. you can also use any long grain rice or’ jeeraga samba’ as of which is available in south Indian grocery stores.
- Water: It is essential to take care with addition of water to cook rice and chicken. Too much of water in cooking rice can make it mushy and spoils the texture of biryani. However, if you prefer your biryani to be soft you can go overboard, adding that extra water. Always, be sure to read the instructions of rice package with usage of water, as the quantity of water in cooking may vary based on how old the rice is.
- Chicken: spending that extra time for marination is worth when it comes to chicken. For great marination, clean, wash and drain all of the excess water from the chicken before start marinating.
- Marination: Marination makes the chicken soft and juicy. For this recipe try marinating atleast for a minumu of an hour.
- Biryani masala: This recipe doesn’t call in for that elaborate masala list as it is optimised for making your life easy, with chicken biryani 😉
- Onions : For the purpose of this recipe onions are fried so take care not to burn it else you will end up in a bitter taste biryani.
- Ground masala/ spices: Ground the spices to fine paste to avoid odd textures in your biryani.
- Curd: If you prefer your biryani to be tangy, add slightly sour curd. If not add a dash of lemon after cooking the chicken spice mix with flame off. This step can be done before dum.
- Salt: take care not to add too much salt.
Oops,. you made a mistake in making this chicken biryani?
Took too much care in making your best biryani, but ended up making few mistakes because of real-life problems? here are a few solutions I try and overcome with. bitter :
- Problem 1: your biryani is tasting bitter probably you burnt your onions while frying.
- Fix: try adding curd if it’s sour, and tweak it by adding a bit by bit. The amount of curd added at this stage depends on the bitterness of your biryani.
- If your curd is not sour add lemon juice before you start dum.
- Problem 2: your biryani is bland, probably because you missed or added a little salt.
- Fix: dissolve required salt in lemon juice and add it before dum.
- Problem 3: Less or more spicy
- Fix: if your biryani is less hot,add red chilly powder and dissolve into lemon juice before starting dum or else adding a dash of lemon juice before the dum would automatically fix your problem.
- Problem 4: you drained up al the juicy marination or water in chicken by overheating and evaporation.
- Fix: add some curd that is not sour, to the chicken after switching off the heat.
If your problems and solutions for making the best biryani is not listed and were different, please don’t hesitate to ask through comments.
I try my best to share my knowledge and experience with you! 🙂 so cheers!
What goes in for a Ground masala?
This Easy chicken biryani recipe is optimised with fewer ingredients that are always available in the pantry
Dum : Does it take too long?
Is that the question that was running in your mind when you read the instructions below? I hear, you!
The biggest concern for many beginners, home cooks, new moms or people like you and me is to make the end product with minimal time.
‘Dum’ for this recipe is just about 8-10 mins. does it feels good now?
oh, did you say how should I ‘Dum’ my biryani?
just jump on to the procedure with images for more clarifications.
Best to serve along
Biryani’s in mass gatherings are incomplete without great sides.
This chicken biryani goes very well with raita, any crisps and fries or you can try egg masala and raita as I did here.
Method 2 : alternate way with grounding
‘m afraid that you might end up with bitter biryani because of burnt onions that goes into grounding.
If this is the case, Try sauting one-half of the onions and fry the other half. Then, wait till it cools.
Now, add this sauteed onion with other spices that are ready to be grounded.
sounds easy? Actually, it does.
Quick Chicken Biryani
Equipment
- Pressure cooker
- non stick tawa / ceramic or any pan
Ingredients
- 3 Onions Medium
- 3-4 Green chilly
- 400 g Chicken
- 1 tbsp Mint
- 1 tbsp Coriander
- 3 tbsp Ghee
- 1 Bayleaf
- ⅓ or ½ cup Water * based on how thick your gravy is.
- lemon a dash of lemon juice
Pressure Cooking Rice
- 1½ cup Basmati Rice I used tilda
- 2¼ water varies based on the type of rice
To Marinate Chicken
- ⅓ cup Curd
- 1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
- ⅓ tsp Red Chilli powder
Biryani masala
- 2 Cardamom
- 1 inch Cinnamon
- 2 Cloves
- 1 tsp Poppy seeds
Instructions
- Chop onions and keep it ready. assemble all the other ingredients
How to marinate the chicken
- Add red chilly powder, curd, salt and ginger garlic paste to a deep bowl, give it a whisk .
- Finally, add chicken and mix well so that the chicken is well coated with the curd mix.
- Rest this mix for a minimum of 1 hour. I marinated the chicken for 2 hours.
How to pressure cook basmati rice
- take a clean pressure cooker.Add required amount of water based on the amount of rice,bring to boil.
- Now, add bayleaf, salt and rice to it.
- Close the lid and pressure cook for a whistle.
Preparing ground masala
- firstly, add ghee to a dry and hot pan. Then add chopped onions to it.
- Let it frey to a golden brown state till crisp .
- now, seperate half of the onions and save for later use with garnishing.
- Grind cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and poppy seeds together,
- now, add the the other half of onions with with grounded masala and make it to a fine paste.
Preparing cooked chicken gravy mix
- to the remaining ghee , add marinated chicken and fry for 20 minutes or almost it is cooked.
- Then, add the grounded spices and onion paste mix to this fried chicke and saute for few minute.
- later, add mint and coriandeer and saute for few more minutes
How to Dum your biryani
- Take a wide and deep bottomed vessel. Layer chicken mix with fried onions that we saved for garnishing.
- layer rice above this chicken layer . Form another layer with chicken masala and fried onions
- Finally, make the top layer as rice. and squeeze a dash of lemon.
- cover it with a lid and place a heavy objectover it,.
- Let it remain in dum for minimum of 8- 10 minutes.
- After that remove it from stove and give it a mix.
- Serve it hot with raita or fry
Notes
- Avoid adding curd while frying chicken at high heat, this might curdle it up.
