Chicken biryani is a flavorful and aromatic Indian dish made with marinated chicken, basmati rice, and a blend of spices. It’s layered and slow-cooked to perfection, allowing the chicken and rice to absorb the rich flavors of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and bay leaves. Chicken biryani is a hearty, one-pot meal that’s perfect for gatherings or a special dinner, offering a delicious blend of spices, tender chicken, and fluffy rice.
It might look difficult to cook, but actually it is easy to cook and full of flavor.
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 45 min
The key to making chicken biryani lies in its two essential steps: marination and cooking.
Marination: The chicken is marinated with sour cream (some people use yogurt, but I prefer sour cream as it brings a creamy texture), spices like turmeric, cumin, garam masala, and a nice off-the-shelf biryani masala. This step infuses the meat with deep flavors and tenderizes it, ensuring that the chicken is juicy and flavorful in the final dish.
Cooking (Chicken and Rice): The marinated chicken is partially cooked separately, while the basmati rice is parboiled. Then, the two components are layered in a pot, covered, and slow-cooked to allow the rice to fully absorb the flavors of the marinated chicken and spices.
This two-step process is what gives biryani its unique taste and aromatic quality.
Things you need (2 person):
Marination
400gm boneless chicken
200ml sour cream
1-2 tea spoon biryani masala or garam masala
1-2 tea spoon paprika powder
Cooking
300gm long grain basmati rice
50gm butter
2 tablespoons oil
4 Cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 large onion chopped
1 small piece of cinnamon
2 pieces of Anise star
2 pieces of black cardamon
2 bay leaves
a few cloves
2 tomato chopped
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons Salt
Marination
The chicken has to be marinated in the sour cream, masala, paprika powder for at least 2 hours.
Mix the ingredients together and keep them away for at least 2 hours.
Cooking
Once you start cooking, soak the long grain basmati rice in water for 15 minutes.
Chop the onion, garlic, tomatoes in small cubes.
Heat the oil, and Anise, cloves, cardamon, bayleaves and the cinnamon stick, along with chopped onion/garlic. Stir it on high flame until the onion is golden-brown color. Once the onion turns a bit brown, add chopped tomato
once the tomato softens a tad, add the marinated chicken and a cup of water and cook it covered on high flame. Stir every now and then.
In the mean time, the rice should be cooked to about 70-80%. To ensure that the rice is fluffy, I add the butter and mix it well with the rice.
Let the chicken cook to around 80%. Add salt as per taste.
Once both rice and chicken are 70-80% cooked, I layer them together and cover it and let it cook on a low flame for 15-20 minutes. This ensures that the rice absorbs the juices of the chicken and the marinated chicken and is aromatic.
A lovely, flavorful, chicken biryani is ready to eat.