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Hmm you'll say...yet another food blog! And I'll beg to differ, although I must say my recipes are not hi-funda, and sometimes the pictures do not do justice to them (I'm working on that) but you'll find them extremely easy to cook, hassle free and down right delicious.
So if you are a newbie in the kitchen department or has not ventured into the kitchen for some strange reason (like me)...then you have come to the right place.

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On My Table Runner

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Click to enlarge image

There are many ways to prepare Biryani, one is the pacci akhni (which means cooked meat) and the other kacchi akhni (which means uncooked meat). I personally find the 'pacci akhni' to be a better bet, since I'm sure the meat is well done and also coz you can spice it up a bit more while its still cooking, according to your individual taste ;)


This is the most easiest and the most tastiest method my Mom taught me. And I must say I have perfected it quite well. Here are the ingredients...

Ingredients:
2 lb boneless chicken
7 cups rice
10 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric
3 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbs ginger garlic paste
Ground garam masala:
(1 tsp black cumin seeds, 8 cardamoms, 1 cinnamon stick, 4 bay leaves, 3 cloves and 6 black pepper)
8 curry leaves
3 average onions
2 cups yoghurt
Lemon juice and cilantro for garnishing
saffron soaked in 1/2 cup milk


Method:
Fry onions until they are golden brown, freeze the onion for an hour or so, this makes them more crisper (thank you mom).


Marinate chicken with yoghurt, salt, red chilli powder, ginger garlic paste and turmeric. Heat oil and add the marinated chicken saute it for some time and add some water. Cook until chicken is tender. Let the water dry and until the oil seperates from it.

Meanwhile boil rice, add salt and ground garam masala along with the curry leaves and cook until the rice is half done.

Drain any excess water using a collander or strainer. Preheat oven on 350 degrees.

Put one half of the rice in the baking pan and top it off with the marinated chicken, garnish with lemon juice, crushed fried onions and cilantro. Add the milk soaked saffron. Finally add the other half of the rice and any leftover garnish.

Bake for 1/2 hour on 350 degrees or until its starts to smell breathtaking. Serve hot with raita, tomato chutney or mirchi ka salan.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi
this is naveed.i tried your butter chicken yesterday. it turned out very good.
today i am trying biryani. please let me know when to add the crushed onion. also did you actually mean "whole" instead of "ground" garam masala to be added while boiling rice.freezing onion is a great idea. Thanks

Lubna said...

Hi Naveed,
I don't remember making butter chicken at all.
I'm sorry I forgot to mention the crushed onions, they are to be added on top of the marinated chicken along with lemon juice, cilantro and saffron (soaked in milk). Also its ground garam masala.
Yeah freezing onions, make them crisper and easy to crush...that's a fabulous tip from my Mom!
Let me know how it turns out,
Lubna.

Anonymous said...

my biryani turned out pretty good. next time i would like to try boiling rice with ground garam masala. telling you the truth sounds strange specially with curry leaves. but i am going to trust you on that.
thanks for a very prompt response. thanks

Pallavi said...

Hi Lubna,

Nice blog. I am a hyderabadi too. Though not there right at this very minute. When I saw your blog, I wondered if any of your "hyderabadi" dishes were similar to mine and I have to tell u most of them are .. esp. Chicken Biryani and Kheema .. :) I am so excited to see that. I have not posted the Kheema recipe yet. But I will soon. I will be try somethings from ur collection and tell u how it goes. I have linked to u on my blog. can you link to mine here if you dont mind ?

http://pallavi-foodblog.blogspot.com

Good work with the pictures..

Pallavi

Lubna said...

Hey Naveed, I'm sorry I mentioned curry leaves in garam masala, they should simply be added to the boiling rice.

Lubna said...

Hi Pallavi,
Glad to meet another Hydro. Thanks for the kind words for my blog...although I'm still working on my photo skills.
Yeah I'll add a link to your blog soon. Let me know if you try any recipes from my blog.

YReach said...

I am a big fan of Hyderabadi biryani! The lovely recipe on the website, helped me in making that dish for a family dinner. I got lot of compliments for my excellent cooking skills. But the credit goes to you!

Shruthi
http://www.yreach.com/

aisha said...

Salaam, I've been to Hyderabad to study.. N now I miss its great food!! I know its crazy but wanted to ask if its possible to make Haleem(Ramazan sp) at home? N if so can u post a recipe