Chicken Biryani

There are lots of biryani recipes online, including this detailed & (seemingly) traditional guide from Swasthi’s Recipes. (If you’re unfamiliar, Swasthi is a serious powerhouse; her website is a tour-de-force.) However, like almost everything I’ve made more than a few times, I just can’t seem to stick to recipes as they’re written. In the case of this dish, here are some changes I’ve made to my initial approach:

• Broil the chicken to get some char on the outside before adding to the pot.
• Salt the water you use to parboil the rice. (This step is actually in Swasthi’s recipe, but I had to rediscover it myself since I didn’t follow hers initially.)
• Most biryani recipes call for some sort of tight sealing of the pot with aluminum foil, dough scraps, etc. – someone should feel free to inform me if I’m wrong about this, but I haven’t noticed this causing any difference vs. just using a well-fitting dutch oven lid, so I skip this step.

Beyond these small changes, my recipe is pretty standard, but I’d like to write it up anyway, if only for my own reference to make sure I don’t forget things.

Recipe: Chicken Biryani (Feeds 4-6)

First, marinate the chicken overnight. It’s best if this step is done ahead of time, so that the acidic yogurt can tenderize the chicken. Marinade ingredients (amounts are very rough here, everything should be to taste):

• 1 cup any unflavored yogurt
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp garlic-ginger paste
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• (Optional) Zest of one lemon/lime
• (Optional) Ground, dried fenugreek leaves
• (Optional) Handful of finely chopped cilantro, including stems

Mix all this together. Then, using your hands, thoroughly apply the marinade to 2-3 lbs of chicken drumsticks and/or thighs until evenly coated. If marinating for only a few hours, you can add lemon juice to the marinade, otherwise no need.

Another step you can do the day before is caramelizing/frying onions in butter or ghee.

To assemble the biryani, you’ll need:

• Marinated chicken
• Fried onions (2 onions worth)
• 3 cups of basmati rice
• Whole spices: 5 cloves, 3 cardamom pods, 1 cinnamon stick
• Herbs: ~10 springs cilantro, ~10 sprigs mint
• 2 tsp garam masala or biryani masala
• (Optional) Saffron/turmeric milk: 10 threads saffron or 1/4 tsp turmeric infused in 1/4 cup of hot milk
• (Optional) Floral waters: rose, orange blossom, and/or kewra water

Steps:

1. Broil the chicken on high until it develops some dark charring; one side is sufficient.
2. Transfer the chicken to the base of a dutch oven, spread into one layer as much as possible, and pour any excess marinade over top.
3. Bring a large amount of water to a boil with the whole spices and 2 sprigs each cilantro and mint. As if you’re making pasta, add 1 tbsp salt (or enough for the water to taste salty), and boil the rice for about 5 minutes. The rice should be parboiled about 75% of the way to cooked, so it should still be starchy on the inside.
4. Layer half the rice over the chicken, transferring some of the whole spices with it as well. Top the rice with caramelized onions, fresh cilantro/mint sprigs, a splash of saffron milk, 1-2 tsp total of floral waters, and 1 tsp of garam/biryani masala. Layer the rest of the rice on top of all this, and again repeat with the rest of the same garnishes.
5. Cover the dutch oven with its lid and cook in the oven at 325F for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, let rest for 5 minutes, mix, and serve with additional cilantro and lemon wedges.

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