Kerala Chicken Biriyani
Ingredients
Chicken
piece – 1 kg / Basmati
rice – 4 cups / Hot
water – 7 cups / Ghee
– 3 tablespoons / Onion
– 4 numbers / Garlic
-1” piece / Green
chilli – 4 numbers / Tomato
– 2 numbers / Curd
– ½ cup / Cashew
nuts – 15 / Raisins
– 15 numbers / Chilli
powder – ½ tablespoon / Cardamom
powder – 3 tablespoons / Turmeric
powder – a pinch / Garam
masala – ½ tablespoon / Cinnamon
– 3 pieces / Clove
– 10 numbers / Cardamom
– 5 numbers / Pepper
– 10 numbers / Coriander
leaves /Pudina
leaves / Pineapple
chopped – ½ cup / Coconut
oil – 3 tablespoons / Salt
Cooking method
Wash
rice, soak in water for 30 minutes, drain and keep aside. Grind ginger, garlic,
and chilies into a paste in a mixie. Add curd and salt to this paste. Marinate
chicken pieces with this paste and keep it for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Fry
separately cashew nuts, raisins, and onion turn by turn using ghee in a hot pan
and keep those aside. (While frying onion, add 1 tablespoon sugar, for the
onion to remain crisp). Heat 3 tablespoons of coconut oil in a cooking vessel.
Add remaining sliced onion and salt and saute until golden brown. Reduce flame,
add chilli, coriander, turmeric, and garam masala powder. Stir it for two
minutes. Add sliced tomato and saute it for a few minutes. To this add
marinated chicken and stir occasionally for five minutes. Add 1 cup of water
and cook it covered. Reduce the flame to a medium level when it starts boiling.
Heat
1 tablespoon ghee in another pan, and add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and
pepper. Stir well. Add rice into it and stir for 2 minutes. Pour 7 cups of hot
water and salt. Cook it covered till the water is absorbed completely. Take
care not to overcook.
Spread
evenly one tablespoon of ghee in a vessel. Layer it with rice and cooked
chicken. Arrange 5 layers. The top layer
should be rice. Garnish each layer with fried onion, cashews, raisins,
pineapple, chopped coriander, and pudina leaves. Pour 1 tablespoon ghee on top
of the biriyani. Cover the vessel with a tight-fitting lid. Keep this vessel on
a flat tawa on a low flame for around 15 minutes. Alternately, an oven can also
be used to heat at a low temperature spreading on a tray.