Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

August is a month of festivity and celebrations for all of us.First it was Rakhi pornima, then Janamshtami, and then soon will be Eid this weekend concluding Ramadan, rigorous fasting period.And today it’s our Independence Day. I really don’t know what independence means to all of you. Independence from slavery or colonial influence or perhaps any other such means or shouting out slogans, updating FB profile, Tweeting messages or wishing each other “Happy Independence”.
 I have never ever understood the hoopla that surrounded this celebration, one day we are so excited and wear our Indian pride on our sleeves and the very next day we start nagging about everything going wrong in the country. Who to blame and who should take responsibility. Freedom comes with responsibility. But we are always shy of sharing our responsibility. For a change let’s start sharing our responsibility, from a very basic level.
 We are free but yet not free, there is may be many more miles to cover. Anyways if I keep on saying more, you all will be saying here are the words of this NRI- “non-reliable-Indian”. But just look around and you will see such drastic paradigm, high rise building, BMW on one side and slum and poverty on other side. This perhaps says we have become free and independent from a foreign rule but yet we are not free.

While I am typing this post my daughter came to me and showed above flag which she colored and sketched, and asked me do you know the meaning of "three colors" on the flag. I counter asked her if she knows it. This is what she told me – "orange for courage, white for peace, green for prosperity and the wheel is for the development of the nation." And a clean sparkling glitter in her eyes. Our nation’s future rest in these innocent hands. I think when I said start from a basic level, I meant that, giving them good education (that doesn’t mean scoring good marks in exams- education and scoring marks are two different things, lets just leave it for some other day) and make them conscious of their surrounding and making them responsible citizen so that they can share the responsibility of running a nation on grounds of equality, compassion and truthfulness.

Now to the recipe
Hyderbadi biryani has been on my mind since long; perhaps somebody even did a recipe request by mail or was it in a comment section. I completely forgot about it, last weekend we did made this. And since I do not belong to Hyderabad region I can not claim it to be authentic or traditional. I sneaked peaked into my pantry and looked for shyah jeera or royal cumin – actually it’s cumin with very distinct aroma not to be confused with "caraway". I didn’t had so, got little upset. The only missing ingredient was this I guess. And since we Bengalis are so fond of our panch phoron, I added this to the home-made Biryani powder. Now puritans of Hyderabadi cuisine, I know it’s not the ingredients that go into making Biryani, but since this is a customized version, I would like to use that liberty and today its Independence Day also.
I love this home-made dry masala powder, so much so that I have started using it in a normal Bengali torkari – like Aloo Phulkopir Torkari

Probably a biryani is done in two ways- one way is “Kachi gosht Biryani”  ...Where the meat is not cooked prior of layering and is marinated with spices overnight and then the next day it is cooked with basmati rice.
Then there is this method below the precook method and then put on dum cooking ,- more to do with the fact, I forgot to marinate “kachi gosht”- raw meat, as the chicken drumsticks where resting in deep fridge. I thawed it on morning and almost proceeded to make biryani.However I did have 2 hr for marination time. At least 2 hr of marination did some good to chicken drumsticks.

Here is how we made Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani – Customized Version
Recipe requirements( Measurements are approx)
3 cups of high quality basmati rice (I use Kohinoor X-long Basmati Rice)
7-8 chicken drumsticks
2 cloves
Little cinnamon
1-2 cardamoms
5 tbs of coriander seeds
3 tbs of cumin seeds
2 tbs of panch phoron
1 twig mint leaves or about 8-9 leaves
6-7 dry red pepper the small ones
8-10 whole black pepper
½ inch cinnamon stick
3 cloves
4-5 cardamoms
Pinch of nutmeg
1 strand of mace
1 large lemon and the juice from it
2 tbs of yogurt
1 tsp of salt
1 large and 1 medium size white onion/purple onion whatever is available
5-7 garlic
½ inch ginger root
4 tbs of cooking oil/sada tel
1 cup finely chopped mint leaves
½ cup finely chopped coriander leaves
Two generous pinch of saffron soaked in half cup of milk
1 large onion for deep frying
2 tsp of cooking oil
 Method
Bring a pot with above listed garam masala ( gota moshla) and ample water to boil, now add in the basmati rice and cook till it’s ¾ done or better half done. Strain the starch. Our rice is partially cooked in this yakhni water- aromatic water. Keep it uncovered so that the moisture can escape.2 tsp of lemon juice should be added to further reduce the cooking. And also 1 tbs of ghee.
For the chicken
Clean and pat the chicken dry with kitchen towel.
Now prick with fork or the pointing end of knife all over the chicken drumsticks.
Now marinate the chicken with the juice extracted from 1 large lemon, and 2 tbs of yogurt+1 tsp of red pepper powder+ 1 tsp of salt. Keep this marinated for overnight. If you forgot to marinate them overnight then at least 2 hr of marination works best.
Meanwhile the chicken is marinating, prepare the dry masala that will be added to cooking the biryani.

Dry Biryani Home-made-masala
Recipe requirements
5 tbs of coriander seeds
3 tbs of cumin seeds/Shyah Jeera/black cumin seeds
2 tbs of panch phoron
1 twig mint leaves or about 8-9 large leaves
6-7 dry red pepper the small ones
8-10 whole black pepper
½ inch cinnamon stick
3 cloves
4-5 cardamoms
Pinch of nutmeg
1-2  flower of mace
2 bay leaves
Start roasting them over low heat on an iron skillet. After 4-5 mints a nice aroma will hit your nose. Take it off and then let it cool a little bit.Now grind them very finely in blender or mixer.
This masala is the base masala or the biryani masala.
If you are making kache-gosht ka biryani then no need to precook the chicken but overnight marinating with yogurt+lemon juice+red pepper powder+salt+ this Biryani masala + the ginger/garlic and onion paste is essential as this tenders the marinated meat.
Otherwise like me who keeps forgetting to marinate the meat, it’s better to precook the meat a little bit before layering is done.

Now for the gravy
Recipe requirements
1 large and 1 medium size white onion/purple onion whatever is available
5-7 garlic
½ inch ginger root
4 tbs of cooking oil/sada tel
Make a smooth paste of above listed ingredients in a blender
Now heat up a big frying pan. Add in 2 tbs of cooking oil
We will first fry the chicken pieces till the entire chicken pieces gets evenly brown or the color changes.
Now add rest of 2tbs of cooking oil
Add the prepared paste, and then add in 1/2 tsp of red pepper powder and salt. Sprinkle little bit of water so that the paste doesn’t stick to the bottom.
Keep on frying the masala for 7-8 mints at medium-high flame. Now add in fried chicken pieces
And keep on frying further 10 mints. Cover it and then put the flame to low. Let it cook another 15 mints.
Meanwhile chicken is cooking at low. Fry the onion which will go with the layering
Heat up a small saucepan adds in 1 large onion sliced evenly. Keep on frying till they shrink. Now add in 1 -2 tsp of cooking oil.TIP- This way the oil required for frying onion can be reduced.
Chop mint and coriander leaves very finely.
Now bottom layer will be of rice. Then will come some pieces of chicken with gravy then mint+coriander leaves, then generous amount of saffron milk and last will be fried sliced onions.
Make another layer with similar ingredients and then cover with left-over half cooked rice.
Cover with aluminum foil. Bake this entire rice casserole for 20 mints at 175 deg C.
Turn off the oven and let it sit there for further 10 mints.
Take out and let it covered further 20 mints.
Let this biryani absorb the flavor, and at the time of serving just reheat in oven again.
Resting time is essential as it helps in more intense flavor. And it’s even more flavorful next day if you have some left-over.

Notes
The measurement of dry home-made biryani masala is approx, and I did have some left-over biryani masala which I like to add in other veggie recipes from time to time. This dry masala woks great even if you do not have other dry masala in home viz- coriander+cumin or garam masala powder. So, left-over dry biryani masala can be used in other recipes as well.
This is how I have tried to make Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani in comfy of our home. I am not claiming it to be authentic or traditional, this is how we like to make and eat. If this turn out nice for you do let me know.

And to all fellow countrymen- " Vande Matram".......

Happy Cooking Friends