Hyderabadi dum Biriyani

All this while being in Hyderabad, it was kind of an eventuality that I would end up trying this next dish. Since Bakrid was also round the corner, I finally ended up making the Hyderabadi Dum Biriyani. Though the famous dum variant over here is the mutton version, I decided to go for the chicken. This is a relatively easy dish to prepare & the only major time consumption would be for the marinating time for the chicken (I kept it for about 4 hours, however if you are quite the impatient one then 90 minutes should also do). Best tasted when served with raita, pickle & papad.

Ingredients

For marination

•  1 kg chicken
• ¼ cup yogurt
• 4 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
• Chilli paste (5 green chillies)
• 2 tbsp. chilli powder
• 1 tsp. turmeric powder
• 2 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• Salt to taste
• 1/3 cup coriander and mint leaves chopped
• Garam masala powder (8 clove,4 cardamom,1 cinnamon stick,1 tsp. fennel seeds,1 tsp. peppercorn)

For cooking basmati Rice:

• 4 cup basmati rice
• 4 cardamom pods
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. fennel seeds
• 1 tsp. peppercorns
• 6 clove
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp. oil
• Salt to taste

Other ingredients

• 2 onion large- julienned
• 1 tbsp. ghee + 1 tsp. oil
• 2 tbsp. Luke warm milk
• Few threads of saffron/kesar
• Few coriander leaves chopped

Marinate the chicken for 4 hours or 1 ½ hours.

Cook the rice with lots of water and all the ingredients until half cooked. Strain the water and set aside.

Fry the onions on the ghee and oil and set aside. Add saffron thread to the milk.

In a deep bottom wide pan, add the chicken and ¼ th of the fried onion and 1 tbsp. oil and bring to boil for about 5 minutes. Add a layer of rice and then 1 tbsp. warm milk. And few coriander leaves and then again a layer of rice and fried onions and the balance warm milk. Cover the pot/pan with a tight lid. You can seal the edges of the pot with wheat dough or you can place a silver foil and close the lid.

Place the pan on a heated tawa and cook for about 20-25 minutes. Remove from the tawa and let set for about 10 minutes.

I served it with some pappad, raita and dates pickle