Banne Nawab Chicken Biryani

I always fall short of adjectives when I have to describe a delicious Chicken Biryani.  It is a royal treat to give your kith and kin :) who will sing your praises for days to come! I am a big fan of this dish and these days enjoy making it every now and then. As we all know there are various kinds of Biryani preparations. So this particular one is using Banne Nawab Biryani masala packet. Makes life easy and the taste of the biryani is just like you eat in the restaurants, even better as it is home made. You will need few ingredients and undivided attention to Biryani preparation as the key is to make the rice cook right before you put it on dum.

'Birian' basically means “fried before cooking" in Farsi. Actually, it is not a traditional Indian dish but was brought to India by travelers and merchants from Iran and Western Asia. Hence, biryani dishes can be found all over South-East Asia, in Arabia and even in the Middle Eastern countries. Not to mention there are a variety of cooking techniques and ingredients that are used to make biryani. The most typical ingredients are ghee, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, bay leaf, garlic, ginger, onions, mint, cilantro, and saffron. For a non-vegetarian biryani, apart from the spices, meat such as lamb, goat, chicken, or shrimps may be used. Vegetarian biryani is made of various vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, beans etc. Biryani is usually served with a raita on the side and spicy thin curry called rassa in many regions of India. It can be garnished with slices of boiled egg, fried onions or dried fruits.

Once you get a hang of it, there is no looking back :) Makes an excellent entree when you have guests at home, make them feel royal by feeding them this shahi Nawabi Biryani.

This post is special as it marks my 100th recipe on the blog :)

Let us take a look at the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 750gm chicken (1lb chicken thighs/legs)
• 2 1/2 cups rice
• 1 Banne Nawab Chicken Biryani Packet
• 1 cup mint chopped
• 1 and 1/2 cup cilantro chopped
• 1-2 green chilli
• 1 cup thick yogurt
• 1 tbsp milk
• pinch saffron (pinch yellow food color optional)
• 3 cups onion sliced
• 3-4 tbsp ghee
• 1/2 cup oil
• 3 tbsp oil

Preparation:

• Clean and cut Chicken into big pieces. Marinate with Banne nawab masala mixture along with yogurt, 3 tbsp oil, mint, cilantro.
• Warm milk and add saffron, can add a pinch of yellow color and pour it in the marinade.
• Heat 1/2 cup oil in a pan and saute the onions till they are dark brown. Place it on a paper towel to let the extra oil drain out. Keep a couple tbsp of fried onion aside and add the rest fried onions to the marinade. Mix well.
• Let it marinate for good 2-3 hours, more the better.
• In the meantime, wash and rinse the rice. In a big cooking pot, add around 7-8 cups of water and bring it to a boil. 
• Add rice and add contents of the other packet from Banne Nawab masala box which consists of whole masala (bay leaf, cloves, pepper etc) to the boiling water. Be careful, we don't want any spills and burns.
• Cook the rice exactly for 5-6 minutes and drain out all the water.  Rice is 75-80% cooked at this point. 
• In a big non-stick pan add marinated chicken and cook for 10 minutes. Now pour the drained rice over the chicken, add remaining fried onions on top. Make deep holes in the rice in between and pour ghee evenly. 
• Cover the lid tightly (with a foil or add dough on the edges). Place the Biryani pan on a frying tava. Sim the gas and cook for good 30 minutes. This is basically the "dum" process in biryani making.
• Switch off the gas and open the lid, you can smell that rich aroma. Slowly with a light hand mix the biryani and serve hot with curry, raita, onions, sol kadi.

njoY!! happy cookinG!!

You may also like Bhatkal style Biryani, Vegetable Rice Pulao, Vangi (Baingan) Rice.
Shown in the pics is a summer drink Sol kadi