Indian Spices Part 2

This will be the continuation of the food recipe for Hydrabadi Chicken Biryani. Although I do have a blog about Indian spices so I interconnected this one too so that some of you may be familiarize with other spices that we use here in India to make a great dish.


Indian Spices for Chicken Biryani Recipe


Since I owe my readers about the ingredients that hubby included when he cooked Hydrabadi Chicken Biryani, here is now the list:

Ingredients:

Cumin powder- 1 tbsp.
Coriander powder- 2 tbsp.
Turmeric powder- ½ tbsp.
Red chili powder- 1 tbsp.
Jeera or cumin (white)- 1 teaspoon
Cloves- 3 to 4 pieces
Bay leaves- 2 pieces
Black cardamom- 2 pieces
Green cardamom- 2 to 3 pieces
Javetri or maze- 2 pieces
Cinnamon stick- 2 sticks
Black peppercorns- 5-6 pieces
Fried onions- 3 to 4 medium size
Ginger-garlic paste- 1 tbsp.
Fresh green chilies – 2 pieces
Mint leaves
Coriander leaves
Lemon – 1 big size
Plain yogurt 500ml
Chicken ½ kilo
Salt to taste


Method for Cooking/ Preparing Hydrabadi Chicken Biryani:

Step 1: Clean the chicken well before marinating. Mix all the ingredients above except for lemon. Keep it marinated for 1 hour or more.

Step 2: Soak the basmati rice for 30 minutes. After this, you can now cook the rice by boiling water with salt and oil. Once the water boils, put the soaked basmati rice and cook it only 50% done (half cook).

Step 3: Once your marinated chicken is done for marinating, put it is a deep pan and cook it till the chicken meat is tender, do not over cook. Once the water in the chicken is gone, that is that time you can now put on top the half cooked basmati rice and cook it till the rice is properly cooked. Layer it with another fried onions, coriander leaves, mint leaves and sliced lemons. Put the cover and make sure it is tightly sealed to blend the flavors in the chicken and basmati rice.

Step 4: Serve while hot, best to combine with raita.

If you want to read the previous post I have for Indian spices click here: Spices of India
Here is the link for the post for part one of Hydrabadi Chicken Biryani: Yummy Hydrabadi Chicken Biryani


Hope you do like the recipes, just write me here or leave a comment if you do have any queries. Thank you and hope to keep you posted for more exciting recipes and foods.

Hydrabadi Chicken Biryani

When hubby takes his off, I am sure that I can relax a bit in the kitchen for I know that he will be eager to prepare something. I was not wrong, he did prepare chicken biryani but not the same biryani he prepared in the past post that I have which you can compare if you would check my blog about it..Chicken Biryani

Delicious Hydrabadi Chicken Biryani



I must say practice really makes perfect, and this time his biryani is really tasty and delicious, the basmati rice was perfect and not over cooked or sticky. The chicken that was marinated with spices really seeps deep and I can say that this is truly Hydrabadi Chicken Biryani especial and one of the best recipes my hubby cooked.

The preparation was not the same as the first one since all the spices he gathered first before mixing them with chicken while the basmati rice was soaked for 30 minutes before cooking it in water which is to be half done.

Second layer of basmati rice, topped with mint leaves, lemon and coriander leaves


I will be posting here the spices needed for marinating your chicken so just stay tuned for the link that I will share on my other post. Now going back to chicken biryani story, you can use different chicken parts here with bones. You also need to buy plain yogurt because you will mix it together with other spices for marinating your chicken.

You would also need a deeper pan where you can place your chicken and top the half-cooked basmati rice on top of it. Be sure that the lid is tightly sealed or else you can use a cheese cloth and cover the lid so that the steam would really infuse the rice and chicken together.

You can marinate your chicken for an hour but if you’re not in a hurry to cook, the longer your chicken is marinated the better. But don’t over soak your basmati rice. It should only be done for 30 minutes and cook it in water which you can put a bit of oil and salt and it has to be 50% done, not fully cooked rice since you need to top this half cooked rice into your chicken.

Basmati rice has longer grains and a very aromatic smell


Once you’re done marinating your chicken, you need to put it in a pan and let the water from the chicken juice out while it is in medium heat. When you can smell the aroma of your chicken, just check the water but don’t let the chicken ran out dry at the bottom of the pan because this means your chicken is already done and you should have already added the half cooked basmati rice on top.

Biryani should be in layer so meaning the second topping of rice will have to include some ingredients like mint leaves, coriander leaves, lemon slices and fried onions then layer it again with rice. See to it that the flame is in slow heat so that you won’t over cook the chicken and the rice. Tightly sealed lids will make sure that your cooking your rice better and the moisture of it will make the rice softer but not sticky.

I really enjoyed the whole day of eating Hydrabadi Chicken Biryani. We just did not include any food colorings into it. But if you want some color, you can try to include saffron into it. Hope you did enjoy this wonderful dish which is truly authentic Indian cuisine.

Chicken Biryani

I was not the one who prepared this dish, it was hubby. I personally like biryani but it was really difficult to cook (according to me) because it takes a lot of effort especially calculating the rice. If the chicken was perfect in the way you cook it but if your rice does not cooperate, well that will not be a good biryani.


Hubby just used chicken tandoori for this biryani



Chicken biryani needs basmati rice in order to make a very authentic Indian Biryani. I don’t have any issues if you can cook chicken biryani using ordinary rice, but the thing is, biryani rice will never be sticky but porous or loose. In making this dish, your rice should be soaked in water for about half an hour to keep the grains softer before placing it on top of your cooked chicken pieces.

Spices are grand when it comes to biryani and you can only get most of its ingredients from an Indian food store. I don’t know if there is a ready mixed powder for biryani to make the cooking much more easier, but I guess most Indians here will never agree to the idea of short cutting a procedure for making biryani.

There are different types of biryani to cook like meat biryanis (non-vegetable) and the vegetable biryanis. But no matter how every state prepares it, the taste would simply be hot and really spicy. But what happened to hubby’s rendition of chicken biryani, well it turned out so hot and the rice got sticky even if it was basmati rice, meaning it has too much water during the process of cooking.

Hubby also prepared Raita for this Chicken Biryani Combination



This was really one dish that you need to practice cooking in order to get the right consistency of the rice since you will put the soaked rice on top of your cooked chicken till it get cooked.
Biryani can’t be complete without raita. This is like a combination of your egg and bacon meal. Chicken biryani is always paired to be eaten with raita and mango pickles.

Raita is a combination of yogurt, cucumber, salt, fresh coriander leaves, tomato or carrot if you like. It is a cooler for your tongue whenever you eat that hot biryani. I’d be posting the recipe sooner once we get back home from our short vacation, but for now, all I can do is to share with you the pictures.