Biryani Chicken Recipe - Fall Recipe for Kat

[aquinasprime]

I traded a recipe for chocolate cake for this really yummy recipe for an Indian dish called Biryani Chicken during my third year of medical school. There is a large population of Indian residents and knowing my husband's (then fiance's) love of Indian food I asked one of the residents for some of her recipies. All she wanted were some recipes for American desserts. This recipe makes a ton (we have served 4 adults for dinner and then ate the leftovers for lunch for days). Because this is a recipe passed on orally there aren't really precise amounts or instructions. The last instruction was originally "cook until the smell fills your apartment". This recipe reminds me of fall because of that instruction. In fall, I start to close the windows and the smell of what we're cooking really fills the house.



Ingredients:

Yogurt Marinade:
4 cups plain yogurt
2 tsp. ginger garlic paste
1 tsp. lemon juice
Salt
1/2 tsp. garam masala powder

Green Mixture:
Mint
Coriander leaves
Green chili peppers (as many as you want - to taste)

all of the above Chopped fine

2 lg onion
3 Cloves
4 Peppercorn
1/2 can Tomato paste
green chili peppers - chopped (to taste)
1 or 2 cinnamon stick
6-7 pieces green cardamom
Sindi biryani masala (can buy as pre-made mix in many Indian and non-Indian stores - my local Wegmans sells it).
Basmati Rice
1 lemon for juicing

Cut up chicken into bite size pieces. Put in yogurt mixture. Marinade for ≥4 hrs, preferrably overnight.

Cooking:

Cut two large onions into small pieces and brown them in oil. Place the following on top of the oil: 3 cloves, 4 peppercorns, 1 or 2 large cinnamon sticks, 6 or 7 pieces of green cardamom. Add green chilis and 1/2 can tomato paste. Add 2 tsp. sindi biryani masala. Put chicken and marinade into pan. Cook until curry almost dry. Cook 3 cups basmati rice until 2/3 of the way cooked. Drain water completely. In another pot, layer: some of the rice, some of the chicken, green mixture, a bit of lemon juice; repeat until all ingredients used. Cook on low heat until smell fills vicinity.

Comments

[rainbow]

Oh my goodness, I can just about smell that.

What size chicken do you usually use with that amount of seasoning? Does it matter if it's a broiler or roaster?

[aquinasprime]

We usually just use about 4 chicken breasts cut up into pieces. I've never actually tried it with all the parts of a chicken.

[rainbow]

Thanks! Would that be ~2 lbs or so?

[aquinasprime]

Give or take.

[hugh_mannity]

That's quite a different recipe from the one I use. I tend to cheat and use the packaged spice mixes, rather than blend my own (because I'm lazy). Shan is a reliable brand, their Bombay Biryani mix is quite spicy, they also do a couple of others that aren't quite so fiery.

Biryani is also good with lamb, beef, shrimp or just veggies (carrots, potato, cauliflower, onion, okra, eggplant, tomato, spinach, peas). One of these days I'll try it with venison, just because. I wouldn't use pork in a biryani, though there are some curries that you can use pork in.

I'm fortunate in that I have a source of organic lamb as well as a meat CSA starting soon, so I can get good meat for it.

[fjbryan]

Am going to the grocery store for supplies this very minute.