Chicken Dum Biryani

I saw this recipe on a cooking show on television and liked it. I also tried the recipe and it turned out pretty good. I am saving it on my blog for future use.

Ingredients
Chicken - Half a chicken - skinless and cut into bite size pieces with bone in
Onions - 3 medium size onions
Oil - couple of tbsps
Salt to taste
Curd or yogurt - 1 cup
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 small piece
Garlic - 3 cloves
Cinnamon - Couple of sticks of cinnamon
Dried Cloves - 6-8 cloves
Cardammom - 6 - 8 whole
Bay Leaves - 2 dried leaves
Cumin - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 cup
Saffron - pinch of dried saffron
Kneaded Wheat Flour - used to seal the pot for dum
Rice - 1 and half cup Basmati rice
Black Peppper - 8-10
Corriander Leaves - a bunch
Green Chillies - 1 or 2

Preparation
There are multiple things that need to be done in parallel so lets start with the basics.

Cut the onions into thin slices and fry it in a pan with a little bit of oil. The idea is to brown the onions. While the onions are browning, lets prepare the marinade.

In a mortar add a piece of cinnamon, cumin seeds, 3-4 whole cardammom, 2 -3 cloves and powder it. In a mixing bowl wash the chicken and drain off the water. Add the curd, ginger, garlic, (minced or paste of ginger and garlic) turmeric powder, chilli powder and the powder from the mortar. Add the bay leaves and salt to it and mix well. Ensure that all the pieces of chicken are covered with the marinade. Cover the bowl and keep it aside.

Once the onions are browned enough, take about half of the browned onions on a chopping board and chop it into small pieces. Add this to the chicken marinade and mix it well.

Wash and soak the rice for about 10 minutes or so. Make sure it is not kept for a long time else the rice will start breaking. Take a cooking pot filled with water and put it on the stove to boil. Add the black pepper seeds, a stick of cinnamon , 3-4 cloves, 3-4 whole cardammom and salt to the water and let it boil. After the water boils, add the soaked rice and let it cook. Once the rice is cooked, drain off the water and keep it aside.

In a small bowl heat up the milk and add the pinch of saffron to the warm milk. The color from the saffron will slowly turn the milk yellow. Keep this aside as we will need this a later point in time.

Now that we have the basic things done, its time to put them together for our biryani.

Take a pot with a lid and pour some oil in it. Heat the pot and add the chicken and the marinade to it. Let the chicken cook in the pot for about 10 minutes or so. Add the remaining browned onions to the chicken. Now to this, add the chopped corriander leaves followed by the cooked rice. Pour the milk with saffron on top of the rice. This will help color the rice. Cut a lemon and add its juice to the rice. Finally add the cut chillies on the top. If you want you can also add some more garnishments like fried cashews and raisins.

Cover the pot with the lid and start sealing the pot with the kneaded wheat flour. Leave the pot on a low flame for about 30 minutes or 45 minutes. This part is called the dum. Since we have sealed the pot, the flavor is trapped within the pot and the biryani retains the flavors. You would see some steam escaping and that is fine.

After the biryani has cooked for 30-45 minutes switch off the flames and let it cool down. Cut open the seal with a knife and open the pot. As you open the seal,  the aroma of the biryani hits you and you realize that you are in for a treat!

Enjoy the biryani as is or with raita.