Chicken Briyani

Making briyani for a sunday lunch had been a tradition in our home for quite a long time, so that i could achieve perfection. Here is one simple recipe to make an awesome briyani. There are several methods to make briyani, this method is know as kachi briyani. Its quite simple to make and you cant really go wrong with this recipe.

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1 kg with bone
Basmati rice- 4-5 cups
oil - 6 tbsp
ghee -2 tbsp
spice - bay leaves, star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, other spices. Garam masala powder is optional.
ginger garlic paste - 3 tbsp
curd - 1 cup
coriander leaves- 1 bunch
mint leaves - bunch
Fried onions - 250 g
kala jeera - 1tbsp
black whole pepper - 1tbsp
green chilies - 4 numbers
red chili powder - 2 tbsp (if you like it spicy you could add more)
Coriander powder - 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
Lemon juice - 4-5 tbsp
Salt - as required


Methods:

Marinate cleaned chicken with ginger garlic paste, chopped coriander leaves, chopped mint leaves, black pepper, chopped green chilies, chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, curd, oil, ghee, fried onions, salt, whole spices, salt. Mix well and if possible marinate it over night in the refrigerator.

Soak the washed basmati rice for 30 mins. In a large vessel add salt, lemon juice, jeera, oil and enough water to cook the rice. The water should taste salty in order to half enough salt for the rice. Add the rice and cook let it get cooked. Take half of the rice when its 60% done and drain it. The other half of the rice should be drained when it is 75% done.

to cook the basmati rice

In a heavy bottom vessel, i use a pan shaped pressure cooker and it works perfectly well. Grease the pan and add the marinated chicken to the bottom of the vessel. Now make a layer with the 60% cooked rice. Top it with some chopped mint, coriander leaves, fried onions. Now add a layer of 75% done rice and top it with chopped mint, coriander, and fried onions. 

Add set to cook, bottom layer is chicken and topped with two layers of rice.

Cover the cooker but with out the weight valve. Cook in high flame for 10 mins and followed by medium heat for 15 mins. Now your house must be filled with the yummy smell of this awesome briyani.

You need to mix the briyani with the chicken at the bottom layer when you serve.

Beef briyani

Briyani is one of the most famous Indian delicacy. Normally its a long process to cook them. This blog post is talks about one of the many ways of cooking briyani. This recipe is from a friend in Vaniyampadi (in tamil nandu) region. As i dont get good tender lamb I make briyani with beef but you can replace beef with mutton in this recipe.

Ingredients (for 1 kg meat)

Beef - 1 kg tender meat of 1-1.5 inch cubes.
Basmathi rice - 1 kg
onion - 500g sliced
tomato - 400 g chopped
coriander leaves - as required
mint -1bunch
chilli powder - 4 tbsp (can be adjusted to taste)
green chillies - 5
ginger garlic paste - 8 tbsp
lime juice - 1 large lemon
salt
oil - 4-5 tbsp
ghee - 3 tbsp
spicies - 1 bay leaves, 2 1inch long cinnamon, 2-3 cardamom, 2 star anise, 3-4 Cloves - more is optional

1. Add 3-4 tbsp oil to the pressure cooker, add the spices and onions and fry the onions till light brown. 
2. Add green chilies and fry for about 2 mins. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for about 2 mins till the prominent smell fills the room. 
3. Add curd, meat, read chili powder, salt and pressure cook for about 8 whistles. (You can have less number of whistle or more depending on the tenderness of the meat.) 
4. Cooking rice: Soak rice for 30 mins when you start cutting the onions so that the rice can be cooked when the meat is being pressure cooked. Boil water in a large vessel with jeera, 1tsp oil, salt (the water should taste a little more salty than normal) and lemon juice. Add the rice when the water comes to boil.When the rice starts to dance on the top, check the consistency of it. Rice has to be little more than half cooked (when pressed with 2 finger it should get crushed). Now drain the water and keep the DRY rice aside. 
5. Now back to the meat. Open the pressure cooker after it cooks down. You have to see oil separating out and the meat well cooked. Add chopped tomatoes, mint leaves, coriander leaves and cook for about 15 mins till the tomatoes are cooked and mashed.
6. Now mix the gravy with the semi-cooked rice in a large thick bottom vessel. Add ghee and more fresh coriander leaves and mix well. 
7. Now use a wet cloth to over the pot to make it air tight and then add a cover the vessel with a tight lid. Or make a paste out of all purpose flour and put it on the rim of the vessel and seal it with the tight lid. 
8. Cook this on high flame for 5 mins (you will see water drops on the inside of the lid - if u have a transparent lid) and medium flame for about 35 mins. 

Here are the pictures in sequence except cooking of the basmathi rice.

Yummy briyani is ready to be served. Enjoy this with raitha