Chicken Dum Biryani

I always thought Biryani was a very complicated dish and pretty much tried to avoid it as much as I could. But, I found this recipe on sanjeev kapoor’s khazana and when I tried it, I realized that it was so easy and it tasted yummy too. Don’t be scared of the long list of ingredients. Once you start the marination, you will realize that it’s pretty easy.

Ingredients: (serves 6)

Chicken cut into 1 inch pieces

Saffron 7 /8 strands and little warm milk to dip the strands in

Shahi jeera 1 teaspoon

Bay leaf 1 /2

Cloves 5 /6

Green cardamoms 5

Peppercorns 6 /7

Onions sliced 2

Ginger paste fresh 1 teaspoon

Garlic paste 1 teaspoon

Fresh mint leaves 1 cup

Salt as per taste

Lemon juice 2 tablespoons

Yogurt 1 cup

Coriander leaves hopped finely

Ghee 2 tablespoons

Cardamom powder 2 tsp

Shahi biryani masala 1 ½ tablespoons

For creating the dum- wheat flour dough

Method:

Take the chicken pieces in a bowl and add ginger garlic paste (preferably fresh), salt and mix. Add shahi biryani masala, red chili powder, yogurt, cilantro leaves chopped and mint leaves chopped and cinnamon powder with cardamom powder. Add about 1 tbp ghee and mix everything. Let this marinate for about 3 hours in the refrigerator.

In a separate pan, wash the basmati rice and drain out all the water. Keep it aside. Once you start cooking, heat about 5 cups of water in a deep pan. Add the washed and drained rice, salt, bay leaves, one cinnamon stick, peppercorns and shahi jeera in the water. Cook till about half way done. Drain this rice and keep aside.

In a thick-bottomed pan, spread the chicken on a bed of cooking spray. (I did not use oil) Then spread the rice in a layer. Again spread some chicken pieces and then layer it with the remaining rice. Sprinkle saffron milk. Cover the pot with wheat flour dough and then place the lid firmly on top.

After about 10-15 minutes, you will notice some steam coming out o the pot. This means that the dum is working and the biryani is cooked. Now lower the flame and let it cook for about 10 more minutes.

Before serving, make sure the chicken is well-cooked. It will continue to cook under the dum effect even after the gas flame is off.