Chicken Biryani
What you need
2 lbs meat - I like to use boneless, skinless chicken thigh 🍗
2 medium onions 🧅
ginger-garlic paste
fresh ginger and garlic is A-OK 👌
1 tomato 🍅
greek yogurt or sour cream, or dahi (Indian yogurt)
mint leaves, for garnish 🍃
fresh ginger, for garnish
1/2 cup of milk 🥛
spices:
(1) turmeric
(2) garam masala,
(3) red chili powder,
(4) biryani masala,
(5) kasoori methi — leaves, not powder,
(6) saffron
What to do
IN PREP
Chop up the chicken thigh into large, bite-size pieces. In a bowl, mix the chopped meat with 2 tbsp greek yogurt (or dahi), 1 tsp turmeric, 2 tsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp garam masala
Thinly slice both onions.
Freeze the tomato.
COOKING TIME
- { Live cookalong link here. } -
Add about 1/4 cup of vegetable/canola oil to a hot Dutch oven. Once it starts shimmering, add half of the sliced onions and slowly fry to a dark, caramelized state on medium-high heat. This should take about 10 minutes. (As half the onion is frying, prep the following steps.)
Keep ready the other half of the sliced onions, 2 tbsp of ginger-garlic paste. Take your tomato 🍅 out of the freezer and let it slightly thaw.
At this point, the first batch of onions 🧅 should be well-browned. Pull out of the oil using a slotted spoon and set aside. (These won’t get used until Step 16.)
(Add more oil, if you need.) Put the remaining onion 🧅 in the pot. Let it cook for 5 minutes, then make a well in the middle of the onions in the pot.
Add the prepped ginger-garlic paste into the well of onions, and let it cook for several minutes.
[On the side] —> As that is cooking, peel the semi-frozen tomato 🍅 by cutting a cross-hatch on the base of the tomato, and peeling the skin off. Once the skin has been removed, chop the tomato into smaller pieces.
Add the tomato to the Dutch oven, a generous splash of oil, and 1 tsp of salt 🧂. After a few minutes, add spice mix of 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tbsp garam masala, 2 heaping tbsp biryani masala, and 1 tsp red chili 🌶 powder.
Maintain at medium heat, and let it simmer. When it starts bubbling, add 2 tbsp sour cream (or greek yogurt) slowly and mix thoroughly and promptly. This will cook into a dark masala (spice mixture).
If it starts sticking to the pot, add water in 1/4 cup increments and mix.
Continue simmering on low heat.[On the side] —> Put a pinch of saffron strands in about 1/2 cup of milk 🥛. Stir and set aside.
Start a new pot on the stove, filled with ~6 cups of water 💦 . Wait until it’s at a rolling boil.Back to the masala on the stove, add the marinated chicken into the masala and mix well. Increase to medium heat and let the chicken cook through.
[On the side] —> Preheat the oven to 350 F.
At this point, the water should be boiling. Add 2.5 cups of rinsed basmati rice to the boiling water, and set a timer for 9 minutes.
[On the side] —> While the rice is cooking, prep ingredients for the final step of layering and baking.
Thinly slice about 1” of fresh ginger
Chop fresh mint
After 9 min, drain rice in a colander and set aside until the chicken masala is cooked. The timing should line up fairly well.
Prepare a baking dish for the biryani. Feel free to do this in the Dutch oven itself to minimize dirty dishes.
Spread your chicken masala first, on the bottom. Add the half-cooked white rice as a layer on top of the masala.
On top of the white rice, evenly top with chopped mint leaves, fried onions (from Step 1), and sliced ginger. Sprinkle kasoori methi and some garam masala* lightly on top. Mix and pour the saffron milk all over the biryani.
Cover with a lid (or foil), and bake for 30 minutes.
Serve and eat with raita or sliced cucumber to complement the spice.
