Bhune Murgh ki Biryani {roasted chicken biryani}
The Bhune Murgh ki Biryani is a one pot comfort meal, rich, flavourful and homely. The flavours tease the palette and the chicken is beautifully spiced. It turned out to be deliciously good, and quite a keeper from the biryani cookbook. Be light on the spices if you are cooking for the first time, or like mild food. {Minimally adapted from 'A Culinary Journey for the Love of Biryani'}
Ingredients
Rice
- 1 kg basmati rice
- 8-10 green cardamoms powdered
- 2 tbsp salt as per taste
Bhuna Chicken
- 1 kg chicken breast diced in bite sized piece
- 50 g ginger grated
- 6-8 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tsp carom seeds {ajwain}
- 5-7 onions ground to a paste
- 50 g cashewnuts ground to a paste
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds {khus khus} ground to a paste
- 5-6 tbsp garam masala
- 3-4 tbsp Kashmiri red chili powder
For frying onions
- 4 tbsp clarified butter {ghee}
- 3-4 large onions sliced
For layering dum
- 5-6 strands saffron soaked in1/2 cup warm milk
- 2 tbsp clarified butter {ghee}
- Fried onion slices
Notes
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Clarified butter {desi ghee} for cooking}
- Spice content might be adjusted as per taste {I did use a lot less}
Instructions
Rice
- Wash and soak rice for an hour. Meanwhile, boil some water in a vessel and add salt and green cardamom to it. {I used whole cardamoms}. Once the rice is 3/4th cooked, drain it and keep aside.
Fried onions
- Heat ghee in a deep wok and fry the sliced onions until golden brown. Drain and reserve. Use remaining ghee for cooking chicken, adding more if required. {This is what I did. The instructions are missing from the recipe}
Bhuna Chicken
- Heat ghee in a deep kadhai/wok and add grated ginger, garlic, whole red peppers and carom seeds. As the garlic gets brown, add the onion paste and fry. Mix in the cashews and khus khus paste and continue to fry. Sprinkle garam masala powder and Kashmiri red pepper powder and mix it well. Cook until the fat starts showing at the surface, adding water occasionally as required.
- Add the chicken pieces and let them cook over high flame till the chicken is cooked. Stir as needed. {I cooked over high heat for 5 minutes, then covered and simmered for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until done}.
Layer the dum {slow cooking}
- Once the chicken is cooked, add the rice to cover the chicken masala. Sprinkle the saffron and milk mixture on it along with some ghee and fried onions. Cover the lid and cook on 'dum' for 15 minutes. Serve hot.
Notes
- I layered the chicken masala and rice for final 'dum' {slow cooking} in a heavy bottom metal 'lagan' / pot, dotted it with ghee, sprinkled over the soaked saffron and milk, topped it with fried onions, and sealed the mouth with heavy duty aluminium foil. Baked it at 150C for an hour.
- I reserved some fried onions for garnishing, and served the biryani with a garlic raita/spiced garlic yogurt.