Katchi Chicken Biryani

How are you all my lovelies??? Been a while isn't it? Well I'm back in London and except for the weather (from glorious 30C to freezing 4C) and a wee bit of home sickness, I'm pretty alright. I mean I do go into these mood swings because my house right now is unbelievably quiet except for Ro's annoying banter on and off and coming from a house that was so full of noise and laughter and chaos, this silence is quite deafening. I had a brilliant time back home and although I thought 2 months was a mighty long to be at home initially, now that I'm back, I wished it was longer. I had put up a few pics on FB and so not going to rant about my vacation here.

On the other hand, I was really pleased or rather surprised at how many people actually went through my blog back home. Everyone I saw at the wedding or otherwise had something to say about my blog and was a wee bit taken aback that I had no clue it was doing the rounds. As much as I'm embarrassed that they all now know about my bitching sessions here, I am also happy that you guys actually read  go through it...even some of my brothers friends (thank you girls...you know who you are!). 

Now back to cooking..well, I'm still in my 'I dread cooking mode' (well..when have I not been right?) and so have been doing just basic stuff for over a week. Also, the rich mallu food for 2 months has shown a nice round effect on both of us and I'm on a salad and cereal diet while Ro wants to be weaned off the rich full delicately (seriously, those were his words). So he's been having curries and dal and all that jazz which yours truly made one day (and cried while doing it) and stored it for the whole week. 

However, yesterday I was so in the mood for some biryani and its been going on for the past 2 months if I may be precise. Wherever we went to eat, I ended up ordering the biryani and that too just chicken biryani and was always happy with my choice. It got so annoying to the point Ro started calling me 'my biryani-obsessed wife.' I was having biryani withdrawals and so decided to go ahead and make one yesterday. Also since Ro was at home, the cleaning, chopping bit was gladly taken over. I saw a Kachi biryani on Deeba's blog and another recipe here and decided to mix and match, thinking for sure it would be a disaster since I'm not the 'do-according-to-your-instincts' kinda person..especially when it comes to cooking. I also went unconventional by making it with chicken since I'm not a big mutton fan. But boy was I surprised when it actually turned out awesome and had to pen it down before I forgot (like a whole lotta other recipes on this blog). Otherwise you think Id jump into blogging this soon after a looong break? No frikkin way!

I have also not been dropping by your spaces, but I promise I'll start doing so this week itself. Pardon the photographs as well since I'm not that enthu about styling and stuff at the moment.

For the marinade:

Chicken- 500 gms, cleaned (I used thighs and legs, skinless and bone-in pieces)

Ginger paste- 1 tbsp

Garlic paste- 1 tbsp

Onions- 3 medium, thinly sliced and fried till crisp (use only half for the marinade)

Chilli powder- 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Garam masala- 1 tsp

Yoghurt- 3/4 cups

Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp

Salt- to taste

For the rice:

Rice- 250 gms (about 2 1/2 cups)

Water- approx. 5 cups or more

Cloves- 3

Cinnamon, 2 inch stick, broken in half

Cardamom- 3, crushed

Whole black peppercorns- 1/2 tsp

Salt- to taste

For layering:

Coriander leaves- 1/4 cup, cleaned and finely chopped 

Mint leaves- 1/4 cup, cleaned and finely chopped

Ghee- 2 tbsp

Onions- half of the fried onions from the marinade

Green chillies- 3, slit

Lime juice- 1 tbsp

Saffron- a generous pinch dissolved in about 1/3 cup of warm milk

Wash and soak the rice.

Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients mentioned in the 'to marinate section. Keep aside for at least 3 hrs (I kept it aside for maybe half an hour). 

Note that you use only half of the fried onions for the marinade. 

Heat the water for the rice in a large enough pan. I used a kettle and then poured it into the vessel.

Once its starts to boil throw in the whole spices, rice and salt.

Stir and cook till about 3/4th done..about 5 to 6 minutes.

Drain in a colander. Remove the whole masala (which I forgot) and keep aside.

Clean the same vessel and melt the ghee. 

Remove about 2 tsp's of ghee and keep aside.

Into the pan put the marinated chicken and stir well. Close and cook for about 10 minutes. At this point it becomes semi- gravy like..which is fine.

Open the lid and layer the chicken with coriander leaves, mint leaves, the fried onions, slit green chillies and drizzle the lime juice as well.

On top of that spread the half cooked rice followed by sprinkling the remaining melted ghee and the saffron milk.

Cover with a tight lid and cook on medium heat for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Lower the heat and cook for 15 more minutes for the dum effect (I completely omitted this stage..was waay too hungry)

Serve in layers itself or mix it up for all you care:)

I served it with some raita, pappad and pickle.

Notes: My final cooking time was a total of half an hour and I'm assuming its cos its chicken and not mutton.

The spice level was a tad too high for us but it still tasted good nonetheless
Getting the onions crisp was a task i didn't enjoy that much. But somewhere you have to sacrifice right..so yeah do it anyway!