Butter Chicken and Biryani- Today’s recipe of butter chicken biryani is a classic combination of these two delicacies, and it will amaze you with the best of both worlds.
Making biryani at home may sound intimidating to many of you but trust me, the process is very much enjoyable and worth every bit of your effort. When you open the biryani pot to serve, the aroma of the freshly cooked biryani fills up your house like a royal kitchen and nothing else can be a better mood-booster than this special butter chicken biryani!
There are 3 main segments of making biryani, be it the
classic one or this butter chicken biryani.
- First is marinating the chicken. For best result, marinate the chicken a night before so that the chicken gets ample time to absorb all the flavors of spices.
- Second segment of biryani making is cooking the rice and that too perfectly. Use the best quality Basmati rice you can find as the quality of rice makes significant impact on the final outcome. The better the Basmati is, the more flavorful your biryani will be. Basmati rice is low in starch content which makes the rice fluffy and helps absorbs all the beautiful aromas deeply.
- Finally, it’s time to assemble the biryani and that’s the final segment! One very important tip after assembling is to keep the pot on a tawa or skillet and not on direct flame while letting the biryani cook on dum. Keeping on direct flame will lead to scorching the bottom of the pan which may burn the chicken.
INGREDIENTS FOR MAKING BUTTER CHICKEN BIRYANI –
Chicken Marination:
·
Chicken – 1 & ½ kg, bone-in & skinless
pieces, cut into 15 pieces approximately
·
Curd/yogurt – 500 gms, preferably hung/thick
yogurt
·
Ginger paste – 1 tbsp
·
Garlic paste – 1 tbsp
·
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
·
Kashmiri red chili powder – 3 tbsp
·
Garam masala – 1 tsp
· Salt to taste
Butter Chicken Gravy:
·
Onion – 1, large, grated
·
Ginger – 2-inch piece, grated
·
Garlic – 10-12 cloves, grated
·
Green chili – 2 (or more as per your liking)
·
Mustard oil – 6 to 8 tbsp
·
Butter – 4 tbsp
·
Green cardamom – 6
·
Cloves – 6
·
Black cardamom – 2
·
Cinnamon – 2-inch piece
·
Mace – 1 to 2 pieces
·
Star anise – 2
·
Tomatoes – 6, blanched and pureed (or ½ cup
tomato paste)
·
Sugar – 2 tsp
·
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
·
Coriander powder – 2 tsp
·
Kashmiri chili powder – 3 tsp
·
Garam masala – 1 tsp
·
Kasoori methi – 2 tsp
· Salt to taste
Biryani Rice:
·
Basmati rice – 500 gms, washed and soaked for 15
minutes
·
Bay leaf – 2
·
Whole peppercorn – 1 tsp
· Salt – 1 tsp
Other Ingredients:
·
Onion – 5, large, thinly sliced
·
Mustard oil – 2 tbsp + more for deep frying
·
Unsalted butter – 6 tbsp (about 70 gms)
·
Salted butter – 4 tbsp, cut into 8 to 10 small
cubes
·
Fresh cream – ½ cup
·
Fresh mint leaves – 1 cup
·
Fresh coriander leaves – 1 cup, chopped
·
Saffron strands – 1 pinch
·
Milk – 4 tbsp, warm lightly
·
Kesar/orange food color – ½ tsp (optional)
More Recipes on the Blog:
INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE BIRYANI –
Marinating Chicken:
1. Wash
chicken thoroughly and drain out all excess water. Take them in a large bowl
and add all ingredients listed under marinate.
2. Massage
all the marinating ingredients well into each piece to coat them thoroughly.
3. Make
sure the spices reach deep into the chicken pieces.
4. Cover
the bowl with a plastic wrap and let the chicken marinate in refrigerator for
at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.
Cooking Rice:
1. Boil
a large pot of water and add salt, bay leaves and whole peppercorn to it.
2. When
the water starts boiling, add the washed rice to it.
3. Cook
the rice until half-cooked which would take about 8 to 9 minutes on high heat.
4. Drain
the water out immediately and spread the rice in a colander to let excess water
drip off.
5. Do
not rinse the rice in cold water.
Making Brown Onion:
1. Heat
enough mustard oil in a deep-frying pan to deep fry the sliced onions.
2. It
is recommended to deep fry the onions in batches instead of adding all sliced
onions at one go.
3. If
your pan is not big enough, the onions will be steamed instead of frying
leaving you with soggy onion instead of crispy fried brown onion.
4. Once
the onion slices turn golden brown, take them out and put them on a plate.
5. Keep
in mind that onions have carry over cooking effect; so do not wait till they
turn completely brown in oil.
6. Take
them out before that and they will turn a shade darker while resting due to the
carry over cooking effect.
Cooking Chicken:
1. Heat
a deep, heavy-bottomed pot and add 2 tablespoons of mustard oil and the
unsalted butter to it.
2. Once
the butter is melted, add the whole spices to temper it – sahi jeera, green
& black cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, mace and star anise. Sauté them on
medium flame until they become fragrant, about a minute or so.
3. Next
add the grated onion and cook it for couple of minutes. Then goes in the grated
ginger, grated garlic and green chilies. Keep sautéing them on medium flame
until they turn golden brown. This would take about 8 to 10 minutes.
4. Now
add the marinated chicken along with all the marinating liquid. There may be a
lot of liquid but they will get absorbed as you cook the chicken.
5. Continue
cooking the chicken on medium high flame until the oil starts to separate. This
will take anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes on medium flame.
6. Once
the oil starts to separate, add tomato puree and sugar to balance the tartness
of tomatoes.
7. Also
add salt to taste. Stir to mix everything well and let the tomato puree cook
for 10 minutes.
8. Now
add all the powdered spices – turmeric powder, coriander powder, Kashmiri chili
powder and garam masala.
9. Splash
couple of spoons of water and fry the spices on medium high heat for 2 minutes
or until oil starts to separate again from the mixture.
10. Add
kasoori methi to the chicken and stir to mix well. Sauté for couple of minutes
more.
11. Add
about a cup of hot water to the chicken and bring it to boil. Then cover and
simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked.
Assembling Butter Chicken Biryani:
1. First
warm up the milk lightly and add the saffron strands to it to let them release
their color. Set aside.
2. Take
the pot of chicken off the heat for assembling the biryani in the same pot.
3. Using
a spatula, evenly arrange the chicken at the bottom of the pot. Now drizzle the
fresh cream on top covering the chicken. Do not stir.
4. Sprinkle
half of the crispy brown onion, half of the mint leaves and half of the chopped
coriander leaves on top. Try to sprinkle them as evenly as possible. Do not
stir.
5. Now
add the rice by evenly arranging them on top covering everything below
completely so that chicken is not visible from top.
6. Again
Sprinkle remaining fried onion, mint leaves and coriander leaves.
7. Mix
the food color, if using, in the saffron infused warm milk and whisk thoroughly
to dissolve the color completely.
8. Now
drizzle the colored milk on top distributing evenly all over the rice. The milk
will trickle down below and color the lower layers of rice too.
9. Finally,
place the salted butter cubes all over the rice. You can replace this butter
with couple of tablespoons of ghee.
10. Now
cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid, you can seal the edge of the lid with
some dough so that no steam can escape from the pot.
11. Place
a heavy bottomed tawa or skillet on high heat and then place the pot of
assembled biryani on the tawa.
12. Let
the biryani cook on high heat for 2 minutes. Then reduce the flame to lowest
setting and let it cook for 30 minutes.
13. After
30 minutes, turn off the flame off and let the biryani rest for 15 minutes more
before serving.
After 15 minutes, uncover the pot and serve the most amazing butter chicken biryani, that too homemade, with raita and salad!
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