Chicken Biryani At Home
Chicken Biryani is a classic Indian dish that features aromatic Basmati rice cooked with tender chicken and a blend of spices. The dish typically involves marinating chicken pieces in a mixture of spices, then layering it with partially cooked rice and slowly cooking it together.
Chicken Biryani is known for its rich and complex flavors, with each bite offering a delightful combination of spices and tender meat. It’s a popular dish in many regions of India and is often served at special occasions and gatherings.
Chicken Biryani Recipe
Ingredients
Marinate Chicken
- 1 Kg boneless chicken thigh or bone-in chicken pieces cut into medium to large pieces
- 2 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp lemon juice
Golden Fried Onions
- 2 medium onions halved and finely sliced (Note 1)
- 3/4 cup oil for frying.
Cooked Basmati Rice
- 3 cups uncooked basmati rice
- 2 tbsp oil or melted butter or ghee
- 6 cloves
- 4 green cardamom
- 4 1/2 cups water
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 bay leaf
Cooked Chicken
- 3 tbsp oil
- 2 small pieces of cinnamon stick
- 6 cloves
- 4 cardamom
- 2 Star anise
- 2 pieces of nutmeg flower
- 2 bay leaf
- 2 onion, sliced
- 2 green chilies cut lengthwise Adjust to your spiciness
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp garam marsala
- 1 tbsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
- 2 tomatoes cut into small pieces
- 3/4 cup hot water
- 1 ½ tbsp ginger garlic paste
For Garnish
- Fried Onions
- Chopped mint leaves
- fried Cashew Nuts and raisin
- 3 tbsp Warm milk in a small pan or microwave
- 1/2 tsp saffron threads (optional)
Instructions
Marinate Chicken:
- Clean and cut chicken into medium to large pieces. Place in a bowl.
- Add ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, coriander powder, chili powder, garam masala, salt, and lemon juice. Mix well.
- Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
Soak Basmati Rice:
- Rinse basmati rice thoroughly.
- Soak rice for 25-30 minutes, then drain well.
Fried Onion:
- Slice onions thinly.
- Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
- Fry onions until golden brown. Remove and set aside on paper towels.
For Garnish:
- In the same oil, fry cashews until light brown, then add raisins and fry briefly. Set aside.
- Optionally, fry mint leaves until crispy or use fresh mint leaves.
- Prepare saffron milk by warming milk and adding saffron. Set aside.
For Cooking Chicken:
- Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat.
- Add whole spices and roast for 30-40 seconds.
- Add green chilies, sliced onions, ginger garlic paste, and salt. Cook until onions are light brown.
- Reduce heat to low and stir in powdered spices and fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and hot water. Cook until tomatoes are soft over medium heat.
- Add marinated chicken and bay leaves. Increase the heat to medium-high and stir for 3-4 minutes or until the chicken color changes to white.
- Reduce heat to medium. Cover and cook chicken for 10 minutes.
- Uncover and add 1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves, leaving some fried onions for garnish. Stir well and cook covered for another 10 minutes.
- Check if the chicken is cooked by piercing with a knife or fork. It should be just cooked, not overdone. The gravy should be thick, covering the base of the pan and just about the same level as the chicken pieces. If the gravy is not thick enough, cook further without the lid to evaporate excess water.
For Cooking Basmati Rice:
- Bring water to a boil with cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, lemon juice, bay leaves, salt, and oil.
- Stir in soaked rice, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 8-10 minutes until 75% cooked, then turn off heat and let it rest.
Final Assembly (Dum Biryani):
- Sprinkle mint leaves over the cooked chicken.
- Layer rice over the chicken without pressing down.
- Scatter fried onions, cashews, raisins, and mint leaves on top.
- Drizzle ghee or melted butter over the rice.
- Cover and cook on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, then let it rest for 30 minutes.
To Serve:
- Gently mix white and yellow rice from the top with chicken.
- Serve with remaining fried onions and coriander leaves, along with raita and cucumber salad on the side.
Notes
- The onion should be sliced evenly for even cooking.
- Optionally you can sprinkle saffron soaked milk that gives color and nice flavor.
- 1 Kg whole chicken can cut into about 14-16 pieces and it serves about 6-8 people
- To cook Basmati rice, use a ratio of 1 cup rice to 1.5 cups water. Maintaining the correct ratio prevents stickiness and ensures fluffy, well-cooked rice.
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The biryani is usually served with raita, cucumber salad, papads, pickles etc that tastes great with the meal. Biryani is usually a special weekend meal in many households, elegant to serve on dinner parties and also for special celebrations.
Biryani is one of the most finest royal delicacies introduced to Indians by the Mughals. Unlike many curry dishes, Biryani is a mix of either meat or vegetable with rice rather than just a curry dish alone. Biryani is an elegant dish that is filled with layers of spiced meat or vegetable, fluffy rice, fragrant spices, and crispy onions. The Biryani is typically low on the heat scale and has a lot more flavors than chili hot.
Fried onions are one of the key ingredients for biryani and it is important to get it right. Golden-fried onions give a delicate sweetness to the biryani.
Onions are sliced thin using a sharp knife or mandolin slicer and then browned on medium heat in oil. Heat the oil in a pan over high heat till the oil reaches about 350 degrees F, then add onions. Reduce heat to medium-low, stirring frequently for even cooking, till onions turn into golden brown. It could take 10-12 minutes. When the onion is golden brown and crisp drain the onion using a slotted spoon, then transfer them to a paper towel and spread it out. Let it cool and it will become crispier as it cools down. It is important to get that deep golden brown color without getting burnt. Burnt onions may add a bitter taste to the biryani.
Making fried onions may slightly time-consuming and you may substitute them with retail purchased fried onions. You can get the fried onion/shallots from supermarkets, Indian and Asian grocery stores these days.
Many people say Hyderabadi biryani is one of the most famous biryani. Hyderabad is known for its style of biryani, which traditionally involves layering raw meat
and gravy that cooks the rice as it steams in a tightly sealed pot.
It is really a personal choice. If you’re making the biryani for kids or guests then the boneless chicken thigh is better so they don’t have to bite on the bones. However, the meat’s bone adds flavor to the rice as it is slowly cooked.
Garam masala is a spice mix of warm spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, anise seeds etc used in a lots of Indian dishes.
You can find them in most supermarkets or online. You can make garam masala at home with spices you may already have in your kitchen.
Ginger Garlic Paste is simply a 50/50 blend of pureed garlic and pureed ginger. I usually make homemade ginger garlic paste since it can be used for many recipes. You can find the steps here to make ginger garlic paste.
Biryani masala is just a variation of garam masala. The difference between the two is in the proportion of spices used in each. Both garam masala and biryani masala do no have much chili heat in them but they are so fragrant and flavourful.
You can serve biryani in different ways, one way is to use a spatula to get some of every layer both the rice and curry buried deep under the rice as one scoop. The other option is to serve it so you get nice patches of white rice and the curry stained rice, then chicken on the side.
Warm 5-6 tbsp milk in a small saucepan over medium heat or in the microwave just until it steams. Remove from heat and add 1/2 tsp saffron threads, crumbling it with your fingertips as you drop it into the milk. Set aside.
Saffron is optional for biryani and is not totally necessary. Saffron gives a nice yellow touch as well as a unique flavor to the final dish. Drizzle the saffron milk over the rice for garnish. If you skip it you can substitute it with 1/4 tsp of turmeric mixed in water or milk.
Indian Spices
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