After burning chicken thigh pieces the first time making chicken biriyani, I am determined to make it again till it tastes as expected.
I was not a fan of Indian food till my colleague bought boxes of chicken biriyani from Biriyaniz at Mountain View (also in Dublin and Milpitas), California. I was in tears, snot and sweat the first time I had it back in 2017, even yogurt and mango lassi could not alleviate the fire in my stomach. But I was addicted to this delicacy from southern India, and became more open-minded, eventually did fall in love with Indian food.
I am sharing my 2nd try on chicken biriyani here and my “design” for next chicken biriyani 3rd try next time. I am not giving up until I can make delicious chicken biriyani!
Recipe adapted and modified from these two resources (videos below):
- Chicken Marination: Vahchef Homestyle‘s Chicken Biriyani
- Cooking: KabitasKitchen‘s Egg Biriyani ( :p )
Takeaways and Next Experiment
- Overall, this time chicken is NOT burnt (hooray!) and very tinder
- But chicken and biriyani rice is not spicy enough, or not as well-flavored as last time. Will go back to look at previous marination, recipe
- Moister than I thought, might because added in fair amount of ghee/oil, and curd/plain yogurt
- Tomato taste is strong, should cook longer and blend in more
- Potato is not soft enough, next time need to taste texture when stir-frying potatoes. But potatoes definitely added flavor
- Next time:
- Update marination spices, more salt; taste pot mixture before adding in chicken
- Cook tomato and potatoes for longer time
- Use less ghee and oil
- Keep layering two pots to even out heat and prevent burning
- Cook on medium or low for longer time?
Recipe (portion for 4)
Step 1: Marinate Chicken Drumsticks x 4 overnight
VahChef:
- 2tsp red chili powder
- 1tsp cumin power
- 2tsp coriander powder
- 1tsp garam masala
- 2tsp ginger garlic paste (I chopped both instead)
- 4 green chilies (I used 1 big green chili)
- 1 cup curd/plain yogurt (I used 3 tablespoons)
- 0.5 cup oil
- 1 lime’s juice
- some salt (might not be enough this time)
Step 2: Prepare Ingredients (~25mins)
- cut 1 onion into small slices, fry 1/2 till brown on medium high (~20-25mins)
- (time consuming) use 1/3 fried onion to marinate chicken for 1 hour
- cut 1 tomato into slices
- 1 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp garlic paste
- (time consuming) soak basmati rice for 30mins
Step 3: Cook Potato Chunks and Marinate
KabitasKitchen Marination of potatoes:
- cut 2 potatoes into chunks; bring water to boil and cook potatoes (could have cook longer to soften potatoes further more!)
- 1/2 tsp red chili power
- 1/2 tsp tumeric powder
- 1/2 salt
- marinate for ~30mins
Step 4: Prepare spices for biriyani and for rice
While chicken & fry onion (1hr), potatoes (30mins) and rice (30mins) are marinating/soaking, prepare the whole spices for biriyani pot and for rice.
| Left – Biriyani Pot | Right – Rice |
| cloves x 3~4 | clove x 3~4 |
| cardamom x 3~4 | cardamom x 3~4 |
| cumin seeds/jeera (I used funnel seeds) | cumin seeds/jeera (I used funnel seeds) |
| bay leaves x 2 | bay leave x 1 |
| cinnamon x 1 | cinnamon x 1 |
| red chili x 2 | star anise x 1 |
Step 5: Cooking Rice
- when rice has been soaked for 30+ mins, bring hot water to boil
- add in spice for rice, add salt
- taste, if not slightly salty, add more salt
- add oil
- add in rice
- cook till rice is 70% done
Step 6: Stir Fry Potatoes
- turn the pot that just fried onions to medium high
- add in potatoes after 30mins marination
- gently stir fry till potatoes become more golden (tumeric) and more transparent, softer
- taste to see if texture is 80-90% close to preferred softness (I like super soft potatoes)
Step 7: Stir Fry Spices for Biriyani Pot
- turn temperature back to medium
- + 1/2 tbsp ghee and some oil (might be a bit too much)
- put in spices, stir fry for 30 secs ~ 1min to bring out flavor
Step 8: Stir Fry Onion & Ginger-garlic Paste
- add in the last 1/2 fresh onion, stir fry till soft
- add in 1tsp ginger paste + 1tsp garlic paste, stir fry for 1min (do NOT burn garlic)
Step 9: Stir Fry 1 Chopped Tomato
- add in the chopped tomato, stir fry for 2-3mins till tomato is “mushy” and blend in with the rest of ingredients like this:
Step 10: Add Curd
- remove pot from heat, let it cool down
- at the mean time whisk curd/plain yogurt so it’s more liquid like
- when the pot is cool down a bit, add in curd, stir till well blend
- put if back on medium flame
Step 11: Add Chicken!! Finally!
- pot on medium heat
- add in chicken, cook one side for 2-3mins, flip and cook
Step 12: Layering! 2nd last step ๐
- add in half of stir-fried potatoes with chicken
- layer the 1st half of the rice (drain from hot water), GENTLY! do NOT press the rice!
- add the rest of potatoes, another 1/3 of fried onion
- layer the 2nd half of rice on top potatoes
- add the last 1/3 of fried onion on top of rice
- sprinkle 1/2 tsp ghee
- if you have saffron water/milk, rose water, add them now!
Step 13: LAST STEP! Seal and Cook!
- the bottom of my pot is very thin and burnt my chicken last time, so I put one pot on top another to even out the heat
- use a piece of foil paper to seal the pot
- cover with lid
- medium heat: 8-10mins
- low heat: 25-30mins
Serving:
- Wait for 10mins after done
- Check if chicken is cooked through
- Can make apple raita to go with biriyani IF TOO SPICY!
- READY TO SERVE!
Resources:
