Hyderabadi chicken biryani

This is not the authentic Hyderabadi, but just my interpretation. It was on my to-do list for a long time now.

I followed an elaborate method. I made it dum style, with the dough and all. It’s 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 powders
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
3 cups water
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 traditionally. 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.