My homemade Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani is bursting with flavour. It's one of my favourite dishes that I learned when I trained in the Taj Hotel in India.
Everyday we would prepare two huge pots for dinner service. Working in the kitchen, my mouth would always be watering from the exotic aroma of the biryani. The biryani I make is the Hyderabadi dum biryani and I have a special Le Crueset French pot which I use it to make the biryani.
About Biryani:
In a very simple terminology, Biryani is a dish made up of rice and meat / fish / Vegetables where they all are cooked together in one pot. Sometimes the rice and meat / fish / veggies are cooked separately to a certain extent and then mixed in one pot to finish off together. Sometimes the rice is added as raw at a certain time of cooking or the rice could be cooked and then mixed to finish off the cooking.
Biryani is derived from the Farsi word 'Birian'. Based on the name, and cooking style (Dum), one can conclude that the dish originated in Persia and/or Arabia. It could have come from Persia via Afghanistan to North India. It could have also been brought by the Arab traders via the Arabian sea to Calicut which is the southern part of India. They all have different styles. Even within India, Biryani made in the Northern states would be very different to the Biryani made in the Southern states.
But in my opinion one Biryani tops the list. It is Hyderabadi Dum Biryani from the city of Hyderabad. In this style the meat is marinated overnight and then layered with half cooked rice, coriander leaves, mint leaves, fried onions and saffron milk. The pot is then sealed with dough and cooked over a slow fire for hours. The result... The flavour from the meat gets infused with the rice and the whole dish gets infused with the flavours of coriander, mint and saffron.The flavours are so intense that the moment the lid is opened, the whole house gets filled with the delicious aroma of biryani. In Hyderabad there are specialty biryani restaurants where you can smell the aroma even from the streets.
And here is a secret to great tasting biryani; it always tastes better a day or two after it is cooked. Perfect to freeze and reheat because it gives the biryani time to meld its flavours.
Contains: Milk and Milk Products
Cooking Instructions: Defrost overnight in fridge and microwave for 5 minutes on high or until heated through, mixing in-between to ensure even heating.
Ingredients: Chicken Thigh fillets, Yoghurt, Cumin Powder, Coriander Powder, Cinnamon stick, Mace, Cardamom, Bay Leaf, Cloves, Black peppercorn, Onion, Coriander Leaves, Mint leaves, Saffron strands, Vegetable Oil, Ghee
