My Biryani Recipe

Hello friends, hope you are all doing well. In my blog today I will share with you all a very popular Indian recipe in India called as Chicken Briyani. This is quite a popular dish in India and no matter where you go in India you will find this dish. Each state has its own flavor and since I'm from Chennai city in Tamil Nadu I will call my dish as Chennai Briyani..! If you take a survey in India about the most popular dish I'm pretty sure that Briyani will be the favorite dish among most of the Indians. 

After reaching Tbilisi for the first year Briyani is one of the food that I missed a lot. During my first year of visit I didn't bring any kind of masalas which is very essential for a delicious briyani. The first month passed in Tbilisi and we were really missing our home food. We decided to cook chicken briyani with the ingredients available in Tbilisi. We waited for weekend to arrive and we left to Vukzali a place in Tbilisi to purchase the ingredients that are needed to prepare our briyani. Chicken was the easiest to find as it is a common food here. Then we purchased some vegetables needed. The final hunt was for the spices. We knew a little Georgian at that time and we thought that we could find out the masalas by reading the packs. But in Vukzal something bad was waiting for us. The packs were printed in Russian and we went crazy. Finally using a little common sense we were able to purchase some common spices like cloves, cardamom, coriander powder, bay leaves, chili powder etc. It would be hard for you to believe but it is true we purchased 9 kilograms of chicken approximately for 7 people. The purchase got over and we were back home. The preparation was a hard process as it was our first time but it was a real fun. I'll explain about this to you in another post.

Let's come back to the topic of briyani. As we started gaining experience in making briyani it ultimately turned out to be a weekend menu. Don't ever think its only we who do so. This is actually a kind of routine in most Indian families as they make non vegetarian items mostly during weekends as everyone in the family will be at home during weekends.

Let's now see the ingrdients that are needed to make biryani.

1. Chicken 1kilogram chopped into medium sized pieces

2. Basmati Rice 1kilogram [ Basmati rice is very important if you want your briyani to be really delicious]

3. Onions 3 or 4nos

4. Curd 500ml

5. Ginger garlic paste 2 tablespoon

6. Green chilies 2nos

7. Spices - bay leaves 2nos, cloves 4 nos, cinnamon 3 small sticks, cardamom 3nos, cumin seeds 2teaspoons.

8. Oil as needed

9. Salt to taste

10. Turmeric powder 1teaspoon

11, Chili powde 3tablespoon

12. Briyani masala [if available]

13. Tomatoes 2nos

14. Garam masala 2teaspoons

How to make briyani??

Before you start making briyani you should soak the rice in water for at least an hour. You may even add some cumin seeds to the soaked rice. After the required time period you should half boil the rice and keep it aside.

Next cut the chicken into pieces of medium size. Marinade it with turmeric powder, chilly powder, some onion pieces, a pack of curd and little salt and keep it aside. Then place a vessel on a lighted stove and add some oil. Wait till the oil gets heated and then add the spices into the hot oil. So you will add the bay leaves, cloves, cumin seeds, cinnamion sticks, cardamom and wait for a couple of seconds. Then add the finely chopped onions into it and saute it for few minutes till the onions turn golden brown in colour. If your onions doesnt gives the colour then wait till the onions turn translucent. Continue to saute for a few minutes then add the chopped green chilies to it. Saute it and wait for sometime after which you should add the ginger garlic paste. As you saute this mixture you can add the chopped tomatoes to it. Saute the tomatoes and after few minutes the tomatoes will get dehydrated loosing all its water. Add salt to taste, chili powder, briyani masala, coriander powder, garam masala and mix it well. If in case you add briyani masala then you will have to reduce the chili powder level correspondingly to prevent the briyani from being too spicy. Now add the chicken pieces into this mixture and mix it well such that the chicken pieces gets coated with the rest of the mixture. After 5 minutes add one or two glasses of water needed to cook the chicken. Leave the mixture to boil so that the chicken gets well cooked. It may take upto 15minutes for the chicken to get cooked. If in case you think that your chicken is uncooked then add some more water and allow it to get cooked. Then take the half boiled rice that you have and add little by little to the mixture and mix it well. Once its done reduce the flame of the stove close the mixture with a lid and let it cook for a few minutes. When you open the lid after a few minutes you will get a spicy delicious chicken briyani ready. 

You can serve this with a boiled egg in the center along with a curd salad. Making this curd salad is not that difficult. You will need just onions, curd, salt and green chilies for making this salad. Chop the onions and green chilies into fine small pieces. Take a mixing bowl add a box of curd, chopped onions, chilies and salt. Mix it well with your hand such that the curd gets the flavor of onions and chilies. Place few spoons of this salad near the briyani and serve it.

That is it your spicy Indian briyani and a nice combination dish is ready. It may appear easy to read but you can master this skill only with practice, so don't worry if it doesn't come out well.! Just keep trying and one day you will be the best. I'm not the best cook in town and even I'm in the same level as you trying to cook something new everytime. It is really a delicious dish and you must try it at least once in your lifetime. Thank you for bearing with me and reading it patiently. If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to mention them below. Till I publish my next article keep smiling and cheers :) :)