This is not the authentic Hyderabadi, but just my interpretation. It was on my to-do list for a long time now. Finally last Sunday, when I wanted to get out of my busy office work and relax a bit, I decided to make a delicious lunch for us. I decided to make something elaborate, so that by the time it was done, I would have had a nice break from computers and laptops :).
I am dedicating this post to my dad. My parents are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary on 30th of this month. Today while talking to them, dad mentioned chicken. He loves chicken dishes, but it is rarely prepared at home as they can’t finish it all themselves, also, we don’t get chicken in small quantities at my native. You have to buy a whole chicken. When my bro or I visit, aayi makes her signature chicken gravy – which is like out of this world. So here is this recipe for dad, I will cook this for him, during my next visit to them (I at least ‘wish’ to cook, it is another story that I don’t enter kitchen when aayi is around).
Now, coming back to this recipe. I followed an elaborate method. I made it dum style, with the dough and all. It is cooked on a very low flame. The final result was just amazing. It was one of the best chicken biryanis I cooked so far.
Ingredients: 1 cup sliced onion (fried in oil till crisp) 1/2 lb chicken
Chicken marination: 3 tbl spn chopped coriander leaves 2 tbl spn chopped mint leaves 1/2 tea spn ginger paste 1/2 tea spn garlic paste 3 green chillies 1/2 tea spn red chilli powder 4 cloves powdered 1″ cinnamon powderd 1/2 tea spn cumin powder 1/2 tea spn coriander powder 1/2 cup thick yogurt Salt
Method: Add all the marinade ingredients and 1/4 cup fried onion to chicken pieces and leave it aside for about 1hr (in refrigerator).
For rice: 1 and 1/2 cups basmati rice 1/4 cup onion 2 and 1/2 cups water (a little less than required to cook rice completely) 2 cloves 1″ cinnamon 2 cardamom 2 bay leaves 1/2 tea spn ginger paste 1/2 tea spn garlic paste 1/2 tea spn green chilli paste 1/4 tea spn turmeric Ghee Salt
Method: Heat ghee and add cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaves, ginger-garlic paste, green chilli paste, turmeric, onion and fry for a few minutes. Now add the rice and fry for 2-3 minutes. Then add salt water and let it cook.
Putting everything together Heat ghee in a thick bottomed pan and add marinated chicken. Fry for about 2mins. If chicken leaves some water, that is fine. Spread half the quantity of rice, followed by 1/2 the quantity of fried onion. You can add 1/4 cup water just to make sure the rice is completely cooked. Spread remaining rice and then onion. Cover the lid and seal the edges with dough. Cook on a medium low flame for about 30-45mins.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time: 1 and 1/2 hrs
PS: – I add very less chicken as we don’t eat a lot of chicken. You can possibly increase the amount to 1 lb(0.45kg). – Usually saffron is used for the biryani, which gives a beautiful color. I didn’t have it on hand, so I used turmeric for the yellow color. If using saffron, soak it in little warm milk and add it to rice while layering rice and onions. – The dough is made by mixing 1 cup flour with water (I used wheat flour). I keep the pan on a tava to give it two layers of thickness. I have an old worn out tava which is used for just this. – I add 1 and 1/2 cup water for 1 cup rice while cooking rice instead of adding more water and draining it as done traditioanlly. Adding less water and cooking till water is absorbed, avoids overcooking of rice and also, since water is not drained out, all the spices/ghee used remains with the rice.
Pictorial:
This is a combination of two versions of cabbage vada – Aayi’s version and Dangar . I have grown up eating aayi’s cabbage vada and it is one of my all time sides. I created this version few days ago, with slight modifications. Though they are little harder than Aayi’s version, they taste great.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup finely chopped cabbage 3 tbl spn chopped coriander leaves 4 red chillies 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract 1/2 tea spn coriander seeds Oil A pinch asafoetida 1/4 cup toor dal 1 tbl spn rice Salt
Method: Soak dal and rice in water for about 30mins. Heat oil, add asafoetida, coriander seeds. Grind them along with dal , rice, tamarind, chillies and salt. Add very little water if required (The paste should be of thick chutney consistency). Mix the paste with cabbage and coriander leaves. Heat tava and spread some oil. Make small balls from the mixture, slightly flatten them. Shallow fry on a medium flame till they are done. Serve hot.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 30mins
