Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Kerala Muslim Style Chicken Biriyani

It was a lazy sunday morning when both of us got the starnge craving for good Biriyani!! But instead of going to Paradise(a famous outlet in Secunderabad for Biriyani's) we decided to make it at home. Everyone says that being in Hyderabad why do you have to cook biriyani?? Whenever you feel like eating one, hop on to the nearest joint and you can get a decent one!! But very ironically the so much hyped Hyderabadi Biriyani didnot please neither my hubby's nor my taste buds!! After trying out from the best places here, my search for Biriyanis in this city's restuarants ended!! Thus I started my endeavor with lots of hope to recreate the taste of the Chicken Biriyani from my own homeland, Kerala!! The taste of the sumptuous Chicken Biriyani of Sagar Hotel in Calicut (which I had a decade ago) or the modest Kaikka's Biriyani from Mattanchery made me search the internet for the most authentic recipe.. In such a search I stuck against Mishmash's recipe!!
http://kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com/2007/09/chicken-biryani-indian-rice-flavored.html

It was this recipe on Shn's blog which enticed me to try it out no matter how much ever hard work I had to put in!! With almost half the quantity of rice and chicken it took me long 3 hours in the kitchen!! Was wondering how much time Shn took :D. Anyways, Shn, thanks a ton for sharing this recipe..

With certain minor changes in the procedure and ingredients I recreated the taste which I have been lingering to have!!

I started with the cooking of rice using the traditional stove top method and for the first time I got the most perfectly cooked basmati rice. The chicken kurma had the perfect color it should have had, I guess!! And the very instance I tasted the kurma, I became so sure that the Biriyani is going to be a hit!!

I did the closing ceremony by using the dum method as Shn had mentioned that it is a better way of making biriyani. For which, I greased a large vessel with lots of ghee (do not use steel vessel – the biriyani might get burnt). Randomly placed some chicken pieces along with gravy in the bottom of the dish; then spread some cooked rice, and sprinkled some ground aromatic masala mix; some fried cashew, raisins, fried onions and finely chopped coriander leaves, some ghee and some beaten curd.(Adding ghee and curd made it moist.) Repeated this layering process until the chicken kurma and rice got over. The layering should end with rice which should be topped with fried nuts, raisins, fried onions and finely chopped coriander leaves.
Then sealad the lid with the atta dough and cooked over low heat for 20-30 minutes. Once the gas was turned off I let it remain unopened for around 1 hour.

But the tragedy was that, by the time I was done with the Biriyani my hubby got all impatient and hungry that we pounced on to it and I forgot to take the end products picture. The picture which I have uploaded was the left over which I reheated and had the next day!! Hope to upload a pic next time I make it.. For then, Eat loads and enjoy!!

6 comments:

Mishmash ! said...

Divz,

I am soo happy to see this here :)This is the second time I seeing a biryani pic today and i am craving for some...yours look too good...!

yeah....for me it takes almost the same time ....it's process oriented and time consuming..so i do some chopping and making of masala the previous day to reduce the cooking time...

anyway, very happy to know that you enjoyed this...will tell liz too...will share ur link with her :)

Sagari said...

delecious biryani divz , love it

Sagari said...

divz , can I have your email id plz

Divz said...

Shn - thanks a lot shn for your appreciation and also for the wonderful recipe.
hmmm...even i thought, whenever I make it next I would wrap up a lot of work the previous day itself which would def make it a lot easier.

Sagari - Thanks for visiting my blog. You should def try this recipe. wud for sure love it. My id is divz.kris@gmail.com

shabna from calicut said...

please try to include the recipe and the changes you made.sometimes I may be able to help you.
shabna

Shabs.. said...

Your biriyani looks yummy!!!Thses days im always having biriyani:)...