Skinless bone-in chicken pieces – 8, cut 1 chicken of about 1 kg into 8 large pieces
Yogurt – ½ cup
Green cardamom – 6 to 8
Black cardamom – 3
Cinnamon – 4 inch stick
Cloves – 6 to 8
Mace – 4 to 6 threads
Black peppercorn – 6 to 8
Star anise – 3
Shahi jeera (Caraway seeds) – 1 tsp
Red chilli powder – 2 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Onion – 4, large, thinly sliced and fried till golden brown and crisp
Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Fresh coriander leaves – 1 cup, tightly packed
Fresh mint leaves – 1 cup, tightly packed
Green chilli – 4
Vegetable oil – ½ cup + 2 tsp
Lemon juice – 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Instructions
Put all the whole spices in a spice-grinder and grind to make a powdered spice blend.
Take a large bowl and mix together the following ingredients – yogurt, the spice blend you made earlier, ginger-garlic paste, chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, salt, half of the chopped coriander leaves, half of the chopped mint leaves, half of the fried onions, lemon juice, green chilli and oil. Mix everything well to make a homogeneous marinade for chicken.
Now add the washed chicken pieces into the marinade and massage the marinade well into the chicken pieces to coat every piece well. Cover with a cling film and refrigerate overnight.
While you are ready to make the biryani next day, first wash and soak the Basmati rice for at least one hour.
While the rice is soaking, make all the other preparation as it will take less than 5 minutes to cook the rice after you soak it for 1 hour.
Take a deep non-stick pot (Use a pot which comes with a snugly fitting lid) and lay the chicken pieces in single layer at the bottom of the pot. Sprinkle some of the remaining coriander and mint leaves but not all. Set it aside.
Warm the milk in a small bowl and add the saffron to it. Saffron will start leaving its color into the milk. Set aside.
Keep the ghee, kewra and rose water handy before assembling the biryani.
Now to cook the rice, bring a large pot of water to boil and add oil, salt, bay leaves and black peppercorn to it. Add the soaked rice to the boiling water and cook till the rice is 70% cooked which will take not more than 4 minutes. Remove the rice from fire and drain it. Do not overcook the rice at this point.
Layer the drained rice over the arranged chicken so that all the chicken pieces are covered. Now sprinkle the remaining fried onion over the rice and dot the rice all over with ghee or clarified butter.
Sprinkle the remaining coriander and mint leaves and finally drizzle the kewra water, rose water and the saffron infused milk all over the rice.
Now take the dough and make a thin lace from it. Set the lid of the pot upside down and paste the dough lace around the rim of the lid. Now flip the lid and put it over the pot to cover making sure the dough tightly seals any gap between the pot and the lid. If there is any gap, seal it with some additional dough. If there is any vent at the top of the lid, seal it too. The aim is to not let the steam escape so that the chicken is cooked in the steam.
You can also place some heavy weight like a stone mortar on top of the lid but that’s optional.
Now put the biryani pot on high heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Then place the pot over a flat pan/griddle/tawa and lower the heat to minimum and continue to cook undisturbed for 40 to 45 minutes. Since the griddle will be on direct heat with the pot on top of it, it will prevent the biryani from burning but cooking the chicken to utmost perfection.
After 45 minutes, switch off the flame and let the biryani start for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, break the dough seal with a knife and open the lid to get the most amazing aroma of food one could ever get and awaken your senses!
Enjoy the perfectly made chicken dum biryani with raita and salan.
Recipe by Flavor Quotient at https://www.flavorquotient.com/2015/08/easy-chicken-dum-biryani/