Chicken Biryani - Malbar Style

Sundays are times when I get some time to relax, let my thoughts and imaginations go wild and try to innovate or making something special for myself! Its my time on a Sunday! :) Most of the Sunday's I used to be always engrossed in something or the other, and it was a very long time since I started preparing some special cuisine! When I plan for something special or simple recipes, I try to take some tips from Shireen Sequeira and this Sunday i planned why not try some Chicken dish, and I wash in moments reading through Malbar Chicken Biryani.

Let me share the outcome of it first, so then you will realize how good the recipe came out, though I had to make some simple changes of my own, since I didnt have all ingredients and dishes too :). My room mates and me ended up, not able to walk around the house with stomach's full until they could burst! We couldnt stop licking our fingers for the small minute taste fillers ;)! One of my best creation in recipe's!

So what you need for this recipe,

• 1 kg Chicken cut into big pieces (Small one's will also do)
• 400gms basmati rice (about 2 cups - I used White Rice)
• 3 large Onions Sliced ( I chopped since one my room-mate hates to see Onion)
• 1 large Tomato roughly chopped
• 1 cup curd (beaten well & free of lumps)
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 3-4 green chillies (increase it to 6 or 7 if you like your biryani to EXTREMELY spicy)
• 60gms Ginger Garlic Paste (2 Tea Spoons)
•  Salt to taste
• Ghee for frying

For Marinating Chicken

• Turmeric Powder – 1/2 tsp
• Chilly Powder – 2 level tsps (you can even use bafat powder)
• Salt – as needed

So let me get into process of creating ingredients into a recipe,

1.) Clean the Chicken well with water, and try to drain the water well, you can keep the pieces on strainer for sometime, or in a vessel, until most of the water ozzes out, which you can throw it.

2.) With the ingredients for marinating, mix it well with chicken pieces and keep it aside for 30mins.

3.) Start chopping the tomatoes, onions and chillies, and if you dont have ready-made Ginger Garlic Paste, make some!

4.) Wash the rice well, and soak it in water for 10mins.

5.) Now shallow fry a few slices of onion to sprinkle on the biryani for dressing, keep it aside on tissue paper so it soaks the oil from it.

6.) In the same oil, start frying the chicken batch wise would also do. Fry until the chicken gets the Golden Brown look.

7.) Now in another pan, heat some ghee, and fry the onions until translucent (look plain white or transparent and the pungent smell goes off). Add the Tomatoes and Chilly and mix well for a minute or two! Add the Garam Masala, Curd and Ginger Garlic Paste and mix well!

8.) Add the Chicken pieces and salt now and mix well!

9.) Add 2 Glasses of water to it and heat until it boils and you get thick gravy! (See to it that you wont dry off the gravy, coz you would need it to make layers later).

10.) In another pan, (or if you dont have many pans like me, transfer it to another vessel and use the same pan) heat some ghee (Add 2 cloves & 2 cardamoms optional), and fry the rice until it feels heavy, or slightly hard! In parallel do keep about 3 1/2 cups water to boil! Now when the rice is heavy, its the indication for you add the boiled water! Same time, also add some of the curry you just prepared, about a spoon or two and also add some salt to taste.

11.) Boil until the rice is done, dont leave it and go, coz it will burn ( I got earlier personal experience in it ). Spread the rice in a flat dish under a fan for 5mins, so the rice slowly dries off and becomes separate from each other! 

12.)  Now take a large dish ( I used my cooker), pour some gravy and chicken pieces at the bottom and spread out some rice on top of it to make a layer. Keep making layer until your done with rice and chicken curry, keep some curry to be poured in from the top, also you could sprinkle some ghee on top.

13.) Now the tricky and best part, cover the top of the vessel with aluminum foil, keep a plate over it, and place something heavy (I used a stone from my compound which I washed well and used a tissue to cover it ).

14.) Now keep a tawa on the flame, and over that this vessel of biryani on top it so the bottom content doesnt get burnt of. Keeping it on a medium flame for about 15mins and then on high flame for 5mins.

15.) Serve this hot biryani with Raitha (Curds, Cucumber and Onion mixed) and egg.

Now to make it more tasty, as the recipe from the source suggests, you could add some cashew nuts, raisins, half-lime juice, rose water for the Chicken Curry. Saffron mixed in milk and little boiled rice, to be sprinkled while making layers. And separate paste of green chillies, ginger, garlic and poppy seeds (soaked in water for 10mins), to be added for the curry.

Though no one of us had the patience to click pictures after it was prepared, so for how it will actually look you can check the source link, but I will guarantee you with taste! My room mates will also vouch you on this for the taste! We had this biryani with Chicken Fry, of which the recipe I will share sometime later. :)

Do share your experience in the comment section after you have your stomach's full and do share a thank you note for Shireen Sequeira the creator of this recipe, I just modified it for my feasibility :)