Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani - Restaurant Style

Chicken biryani is one of my most favorite dish which I like to cook always even though it is a bit lengthy process. I tried many recipes which I had got from the search engines but I didn’t like any. I tried learning the techniques to make perfect restaurant style biryani and finally I can say that I can cook the delicious perfect biryani. Now I follow only this recipe while making biryani at home. Hope you guys too like this recipe.

Prep time           Cook time          Total time

30 min                1 hour                 1 hr 30 min

Author: Home Chefs Cooking

Recipe type: Main Course

Cuisine: Hyderabadi

Serves: 4 Servings

Ingredients:

Chicken 500 gm

For Marinating :

Ginger garlic paste 2 tsp

Cinnamon stick 1 inch 1

Green cardamom 2

Mace/Javithri ½ blade

Green chilli 3 to 4

Yogurt 1 cup

Coriander leaves finely chopped 1 cup

Mint leaves finely chopped ½ cup

Kashmiri red chilli powder 1.5 tsp

Turmeric powder ½ tsp

Garam masala powder 1.5 tsp

Fried onions ½ cup

Lemon juice 1 tsp

Vegetable oil 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

To cook the rice :

Basumati rice 500 gm

Cloves 3

Green cardamom

Brown Cardamom 1

Fennel seeds 1 tsp

Bay leaf 1

Cinnamon Stick 2

Salt to taste

Other Ingredients:

Saffron strands few

Milk 2 tbsp

Rose water 1 tsp

Kewra water 1 tbsp

Ghee 2 tbsp

Fried Onions ½ cup

Coriander leaves for garnishing

  

Instructions:

1. Cut chicken into large size pieces and wash well. Add salt and rest for 10 minutes.

2.Slice onions into thin strips and brown them either by deep frying or shallow frying. 

3.Use half portion of the fried onions for marinating the chicken and remaining half can be used at the time of spreading the layers of rice.

4.Now add all the ingredients listed under “for marinating” one by one and mix well. Refrigerate overnight for the better results or at least for 4 hours.

5.Wash and soak good quality basumati rice for at least 20 minutes. In a big vessel fill water till ¾ th portion of the vessel.

6.Add salt to the water until you get salty water taste. I have added 4 tsp of salt here. Add the other mentioned spices one by one.

7.You will get good aroma of the spices when water start boiling. Add basumati rice when you can see rolling bubbles.

8.Meanwhile transfer the marinated chicken to a biriyani pot or any vessel in which you are going to dum the biriyani. I have used pressure cooker here. 

9.Nicely spread the chicken at the bottom of the vessel.

10.Occasionally keep stirring the rice gently as basumati rice are delicate comparing to other normal rice and the rice gets cooked very fast.

11.At this stage you need a big strainer to collect the rice and spread above the marinated chicken. When rice cooks 70% with the help of strainer take a portion of rice, drain the water for few seconds and spread above the marinated chicken.

12.Spread the rice along with dry spices till marinated chicken cannot be seen. Immediately sprinkle ghee, rose water , saffron strands dipped in milk, kewra water, fried onions and coriander leaves one by one.

13.Spread second layer of the rice and repeat the same procedure above. Close the vessel with a lid.

14.If you are using pressure cooker for dum remove the whistle and if you are using any other vessel then you need a dough prepared from wheat flour to cover the lid properly.

15.Preheat the heavy iron tava in advance for 5 minutes. At the same time keep the vessel in a direct flame to cook the chicken for 5 minutes. The flame should be very high.

16.After 5 minutes simmer the iron tava and place the dum vessel above the iron tava immediately. Allow the biriyani to get dum for 35 minutes.

17.After 35 minutes do not open the lid let it sit for another 15 minutes.

18.Serve hot chicken dum biriyani along with raitha, onion salan, mirchi ka salan or any other chicken gravy.

Note :

1. For biryani large size pieces of chicken are used and i have cut chicken into small pieces here as I do not like big pieces.
2. You can use food color instead of saffron strands.
3. Use high quality basumati rice.
4. Do not over cook the rice. It will ruin your whole biryani. It took nearly 4 minutes for me to get cook 70%.
5. As far as the list of ingredients goes, please try to use all the ingredients. Each spice, contributes to the overall flavor.