Saw this Lucknowi style Biryani recipe on NDTV Good Times & immediately thought of trying my hand at it. Firstly my sincere apologies that i could not click any pics as i wasn't sure how it would turn out.... But amazingly it came out really yum!!!!! So, thought of sharing this with you darlings!!!
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Ingredients:
½ kg basmati rice
1 kg chicken
2 onions - sliced long
½ tsp saffron
1 cup milk
juice of 1 lemon
fresh green coriander - chopped
2 green chillies - chopped (optional)
1 tbsp oil
Ingredients for the marinade:
2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 ½ cup curd
1 tsp red chilli powder
salt to taste
Spices for chicken:
4 cloves
1” cinnamon
1 bay leaf
2 green cardamoms
1 black cardamom
½ tsp cumin seeds
Whole spices for rice:
2 cloves
½ “cinnamon
2 green cardamoms
salt - to taste
For the Dum:
Dough made of wheat atta & water
METHOD:
Marinate the chicken with curd, turmeric, salt, chilly powder and ginger-garlic paste. Coarsely grind all the spices for the chicken & add to the marinade. Leave the chicken to marinate for an hour minimum or overnight.
Heat two tbsp of oil in a pan. Sauté the onions, till they turn golden brown. Keep aside.
Put the rice into the cooking vessel & add the requisite amount of water. Add the whole spices and the salt. Cover and let it cook till the water is absorbed.
Add the saffron to warm/tepid milk & stir till the milk takes on the colour of saffron. Keep aside.
Crumple half the burnt onions & add it to the marinated chicken. Put back in fridge for half an hour.
TO LAYER THE BIRYANI:
In a handi put 1 tbsp oil & heat. Add the chicken & cook on high heat till chicken takes on a light brown colour & is half cooked & add the lemon juice.
Lower the flame; flatten the chicken to form a layer. Put chopped coriander & green chillies (optional) on top.
Put all the rice on top of this layer, add the remaining fried onions & smoothen out. Pour in the saffron milk over the rice.
Cover the vessel & make long snake off the dough by rolling in on the counter & use it to seal the top of the cooking vessel. (Note: if you don't want to use atta you can tie the vessel tightly with a cloth instead)
Let the biryani cook on a very slow fire till the seal is hard & the rice looks fully cooked.
Serve hot.
Love Akki!
