Indian Chicken Biryani (Hyderbadi Style) _ by Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi

Hey , welcome to another session of sing and cook .

And today I'm going to show you a simple , quick and easy Biryani .

The moment you hear Biryani , it's like a fright recently .

I was in Qatar and there I found a group of ladies .

The moment I said that I'm going to show you Biryani it was like a fright to them .

Why ?

Because everybody thinks that there's a big list of ingredients required and it's a very complicated procedure .

Today , I'm going to simplify that for you .

It is said that Biryani is invented by the moguls .

You know , because whenever they used to travel across the soldiers and everybody after a war required some meals which was a full meal in itself with chicken and rice and everything .

So there , the Biryani were invented by the cooks of those Mughal emperors , chicken rice cooked together probably previously , it was more mutton Biryani than the chicken Biryani .

However , when it traveled to our country , there was invention of mutton Biryani chicken Biryani , veg Biryani .

And you name the dish today a simple chicken Biryani .

What have I got here for you ?

This is water kept for a boil .

Now , in this water .

I'm going to cook this rice .

One of the most important thing for a biryani it is said is good quality rice .

And we are very fortunate in India to have great quality of Parma rice .

So I've got pam rice soaked for about 20 minutes here .

Now , what am I going to do ?

I'm going to take a piece of cheese cloth or a muslin cloth .

Air this up into a small piece .

This is a piece of muslin cloth .

Now these ingredients , the black cardamom , green cardamom gloves , pepper , bay leaf and cinnamon stick .

They all go in and I'm and I'm going to make a bag of this , twist it up , try it up so that I get only the flavor .

No , this goes into the water that I'm boiling to this .

I'm going to add Shahira caraway seeds , a teaspoon full of jira into the water Salk while the water comes to a boil .

Let me marinate the chicken also .

Now I've got chicken , one full chicken here , two pieces on the bone .

I always like chicken biryani or any biryani for that matter with chicken or mutton on bone .

Actually , because you get a nice stocked feel once the chicken is getting cooked , you get a stock created from the chicken itself .

So you need not worry about adding stock externally .

And this is why most of us here back in India , we prefer chicken biryani or mutton biryani with the meat on bone .

Now , here's the chicken biryani chicken in add the ginger garlic paste , red chili powder salt to taste yogurt .

OK ?

The green cardamom powder , brown onions and some g which is melted .

This is one of those secret ingredients of a good biryani .

In India Biyani are mostly made in Lanao or Hyderabad .

They would not make a biryani if there is no key .

That's what one of the flavors that come when you make a biryani .

It's nice .

It imparts a good aroma to a biryani .

Now , to this , I will add some freshly chopped coriander , mint leaves , two green chilies broken up and mix this whole thing up with the chicken .

The chicken here is nicely massaged with the mixture of yogurt and all the good things that I've added in it .

Now to this marinade , we also need to add a bit of turmeric , choose of one line and mix the chicken thoroughly .

Leave this chicken to rest for about half an hour so that it nicely gets marinated into all the spices that we have added .

The water here has almost come to a boil .

Now , let me add the soaked rice , keep stirring the rice so that it gets uniformly cooked .

Here .

We have to cook the rice only until 3/4 done .

Not more than that because if you cook more than that , the rice will become like , you know , a kitty , it'll mash .

So you need to be very careful about cooking the rice .

It should be just about threefold done .

It's plain and simple , isn't it ?

The chicken and the rice ?

You don't have to cook the chicken first and boil the rice separately .

It's all complicated .

I'm just simplifying the procedure for you to make a biryani plain and simple .

The rice now is 3/4 boiled .

You can feel the rice which is like almost crumbling .

Now it's 3/4 boil .

So what am I going to do ?

Now ?

I'm going to layer the rice on the chicken .

I will also allow a little bit of water to come along with the rice so that the biryani remains nice and moist to this Sprinkle , a little coriander , mint leaves brown onions , masala powder , green cardamom powder .

I am now layer the rest of the rice on top of this .

Let me strain the balanced rice in a colander .

The rice I strained in a colander out goes the small little piece of spices that I've kept in this .

This goes out , you would call it a bouquet garni yeah , and layer the rest of the rice uniformly .

And now some more flavors that will go in some brown onions adds to the sweetness of the Biryani .

Once again , saga Masala , some cardamom powder and saffron soaked in milk and finally some key all over the Biryani once again to keep it nice and moist .

So the biryani is layered nicely .

Now , I need to cook it light of flame and put my Biryani that I've layered in this vessel in this pan on top of the flame .

Now , for the Biryani , you actually need to seal the pot .

So I've got some dough .

Now , this is a simple bread dough or a flour dough line this up , make a small little thing , small little string here and put it on top of the edge of the vessel .

Now , the door that I've applied all across the edges of the pot , I need to cover the lid .

After you've covered the lid on the dough , you have sealed the pot .

Now , what does this do ?

This actually generates a lot of heat and steam inside .

It also keeps the Biryani moist .

After about 15 minutes , you would see that the time required to cook the Biryani , you would see this steam kind of coming out .

So once you notice the steam coming out of the gaps or the edges of the dough , you would note that the biryani is ready , the chicken that was raw would be cooked and the rice that is partly cooked would also be cooked .

That's the trick of a Biryani plain and simple all together .

This is the way probably the Vogels used to make after about 15 minutes here .

Now , as you see this steam is coming out , I would lower the flame and cook for another 5 to 8 minutes so that the entire Biryani , the chicken and the rice get cooked further .

This would also help me from the chicken and the rice not getting burned from down .

If you want .

At this point of time , you can also put a tawa which is like a griddle plate below this .

If you don't have a griddle plate , never mind , lower the flame and keep cooking for about 5 to 8 minutes .

The Biryani is almost not 20 minutes on the flame .

It looks like it's ready , but you need to check it .

So I have to off the flame , remove the land .

Now , after removing the dough and the lift , you need to carefully check the Biryani with a ladle which is like a spatula like this .

You need to start from the edge of the vessel and just lift it up .

The biryani is nice and moist .

The chicken looks cooked .

Yes , the chicken is cooked .

It usually gets this little burn flavor also because the biryani is directly on the flame .

The chicken gets a little brown and it's nice .

You know , it gets the roasted feel .

So my Biyani is ready biryani when you cook at home , I'm sure it envy your neighbor because the flavor of this entire biryani spreads out across to your neighbors too .

And all your people around where you live would know that today you have cooked a biryani .

It's so flavorful .

So to serve , I've got a little bowl here .

You see the nice colors of rice .

Rice is absolutely nice and separate hot piping .

Biryani is now ready .

You can garnish this with mint leaf , serve it with yogurt of your choice , which could be a mixed vegetable writer or a cucumber writer or traditionally the salad .

If you know of it , let me taste the biryani for you .

It's quite interesting because you need to check for salt .

Let me check the salt here .

The balance is perfect of salt .

The masala flavors , the moistness that is created by the also just the right kind of biryani .

I would like it just for you .