HYDERABADI DUM BIRYANI

Here's the much awaited and most requested recipe! My Hyderabadi Dum Biryani! We all love biryani for its lovely aroma and taste. The taste and flavour of a good biryani comes from the use of spice, marination and also by the method of cooking. The traditional and popular way of cooking a biryani is called - dum method. This certainly gives it the excellent aroma. 

The original recipe (Taken from Times of India) calls for mutton but I have been doing this only with chicken with a little variation. All the mentioned ingredients should be added to get the authentic flavour and taste. It tastes great with any raitha.

INGREDIENTS

Chicken - 1/2 kg

Indian Basmati rice - 3 cups

Bay leaves - 2

Green cardamoms - 6

Black peppercorns - 23

Cinnamon sticks - 3

Onions (sliced) - 5

Caraway seeds/Shahi jeera - 1/2 tsp

Cloves - 9

Ginger paste - 2 tbsp
Garlic paste - 2 tbsp

Red chili powder - 1 tbsp

Yoghurt - one cup

Fresh coriander leaves (torn) - 1 cup

Fresh mint leaves (torn) - 1 cup

Black cardamoms - 2 

Saffron (kesar) mix in 1/4 cup lukewarm milk

Ghee

Chopped coriander for garnish.

METHOD
Spice powder

Grind 1/2 tsp caraway seeds/shahi jeera, one cinnamon stick, 15 black peppercorns, 9 cloves and 1 green cardamoms to a fine powder and set aside.

Marination

Take chicken pieces in a bowl. Add ginger paste, garlic paste, salt, and mix. Add the spice powder, red chili powder, sliced and  fried onions (crushed), yoghurt, and coriander leaves, half of the mint leaves and one tbsp oil and mix.  

Let it marinate for about two hours or longer in the refrigerator. I usually marinate it overnight. 

Rice

Heat five to six cups of water in a deep pan. Add drained rice, salt, bay leaves, 5 green cardamoms about 8 black peppercorns, one cinnamon stick and cook until 3/4th done. Drain and set aside.  

Gravy

Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep-fry half the onion slices until golden brown. Drain and place on an absorbent paper. Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a pan, add one cinnamon stick and black cardamoms and saute till fragrant. Add the remaining sliced onion and sauté until light golden. Add marinated chicken, stir and cook on high heat for 3-4 minutes. Cover, reduce heat and cook until almost done.

Preparing the dum

Heat about a tbsp of ghee in a thick-bottomed pan. Spread half the rice in a layer and chicken over the rice. Sprinkle remaining torn mint leaves. Spread the remaining rice.  Sprinkle saffron milk. Cover and cook under dum (very low flame) until done. Garnish the biryani with fried onion.