Chicken Biriyani. It’s said to have derived from the Persians or Turks. No one seems to know exactly but it was brought to India somewhere around the 1300’s to 1600’s. There are many varieties of biriyani and each region has a different type and a certain way they make it. Chicken Biriyani (among a few other items) is typically my go-to Indian dish for company. It’s a filling dish with rice and meat but a bit easier on the palette than some other Indian foods that need to grow on you. The taste changes with the type of meat you decide to use (you can also make it vegetarian) but mutton is probably our family favorite. This is similar to what I grew up with so this is what I would call, Kerala style.
For those of you who are familiar with cooking biriyani, this is not Dum Biriyani. I don’t trust to cook the rice and meat to perfection together so I opt to have both cooked separately first. I know there are simpler recipes but I’ve loved this one that I’ve adapted from an old one long time ago that I’m not ready to give it up. This is not a difficult dish but it is time consuming so make sure you have a lazy morning or afternoon to give it a shot!
Ingredients for Rice:
3 cups basmati rice
2 tb butter
4 sticks of cinnamon
8-10 cloves
8-10 green cardamom pods
3 tsp salt
Ingredients for Chicken Curry:
1 full skinless chicken with bones (cut into 2 inch pieces)
4-6 tb vegetable oil
Heaping 1/2 tsp red chili powder
Heaping 1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
1″ piece ginger (minced)
8-10 pods of garlic (minced)
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint (leaves only)
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 tb yogurt
3 large thinly sliced yellow onions (you can opt for red onions as well)
3 tomatoes (chopped)
2-3 chopped green chilies (Serrano peppers are fine. 2 will have a kick. Add 3 or more if you want to increase the heat level.)
Salt as needed
Ingredients for Chicken Marinade:
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp salt
Ingredients for Topping:
1/4 cup Raisins (optional)
1/4 cup Cashew nuts (optional)
1 boiled and peeled egg (optional)
1 thinly sliced red or yellow onion
2-3 tb melted butter
(Optional: Saffron, red coloring)
Steps:
Rice
- Wash the rice 3-4x and drain until the water isn’t as cloudy.
- Soak rice in water. Fill the water to where it’s an inch above the rice. Keep this aside. This can sit for 30 minutes to an hour or so.
- Drain rice.
- Heat butter in a large pot, add the cinnamon, cloves and cardamom pods and saute for a bit.
- When the butter becomes aromatic, add the drained rice and stir for 2-3 minutes.
- Add water (1 3/4 cups for each cup of rice) & 3 tsp salt.
- Turn the stove to high and cover with a lid.
- When the water is not visible on the top of the rice, open lid and stir.
- Turn off the stove. Move the rice away from the heat source and keep it closed. It will cook through as it sits.
Chicken
- Mix the marinade ingredients into the cut up chicken and let it sit for an hour.
- Heat oil in a large pot.
- Add the garlic, ginger and green chilies and saute for a minute.
- Add onions and saute until golden brown.
- Add chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric, black pepper, garam masala and salt.
- Saute all the spices for 1-2 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and saute until the pieces break down a bit.
- Add yogurt and mix.
- Add the marinated chicken pieces and mix it thoroughly.
- To the chicken, add a cup of water, mint leaves and cilantro.
- Cover and cook for 30 minutes. You’ll want to check in between to make sure there’s still water and it’s not sticking to the bottom of your pan.
- Check for salt once it’s cooked through.
- Transfer the cooked chicken to a separate plate.
- Simmer the sauce until it becomes a thick gravy.
Rice meets chicken
- Heat oven to 375℉
- Butter a large baking dish.
- Layer the dish starting with a few spoonfuls of the gravy at the bottom.
- Add 1/2 of the rice.
- Top the rice with more gravy.
- Add all the chicken pieces and spread it out.
- Add the rest of the rice.
- Top with the rest of the gravy evenly.
- Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. (Since everything is cooked already, this process is just to let the flavors mingle. This step is optional).
Toppings
- Fry cashews and raisins in some butter.
- Fry onions in butter or oil (or a mix of both) until dark brown.
- Top the biriyani with the cashews, raisins, onions and some fresh cilantro.
- Add the boiled egg right in the middle!
- Drizzle the butter on top.
TIPS:
- You can usually purchase full skinless cut up chicken at some Asian stores.
- Marinade the chicken the previous day.
- Start cooking the dark meat 10-15 minutes before you add the chicken breast so the breast pieces don’t overcook.
- Mix the rice with the gravy before layering with the chicken so each rice is seasoned! You can do this after baking as well. This step sets Kerala style biriyani apart from some of the others.
- Toppings are optional but I highly recommend the fried onions & butter. We are not into raisins in our family and we have nut allergies so we have to omit the cashews but some people find the combination of the fruit and nuts a must in biriyanis.
- All the prepping of slicing the onions, mincing garlic, etc can be done ahead of time.
- If you are not used to eating Indian food, biting into cloves and cardamom can catch you by surprise. They’re a burst of heat but also very overwhelming. We take it out and put it to the side of our plate as we encounter them. For company, I typically spoon out the whole spices as I layer the rice. Another option is to take them out of the butter before you add the rice. I’ve done it both ways and either one is fine but I prefer to take them out later to ensure the rice is more flavorful.
- Biriyani is best served with raita (yogurt salad), pappad (pappadum) and an Indian pickle.
OTHER SUGGESTIONS:
- Frying the chicken before adding it to the pot of onions and spices is a common step in biriyani. It keeps the pieces from breaking apart. However, I omit this to cut down on the oil and prep time. If you do fry the chicken, be sure it’s not for long or else the chicken will be too dry.
- Saffron/food coloring can be added to biriyani for the traditional look but this will still turn out great without it.
