Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Ingredients
(For Marination)
1. Yogurt 1 cup
2. Chicken 1/2 kg
3. Green chillies 5-6
4. Mint leaves chopped 1/2 cup
5. Turmeric Powder 1/4 tsp
6. Red Chilli Powder 1/2 tsp
7. Garam Masala Powder 1/2 tsp
8. Ginger and Garlic paste 2 1/2 tbsp
9. Medium Onions 2 Deep fried till golden brown
10. Salt
11. Oil 1/4 cup

For rice
1. Basmati Rice 2 1/2 cup
2. Saffron few strands soaked in hot water
3. Milk 1/2 cup
4. Lemon juice 2 tbsp
5. Mint Leaves 2-4
6. Shah Zeera 1/2 tsp
7. Green Cardamom 2-3
8. Whole Black Pepper 4-6
9. Cloves 2
10. Salt
11. Ghee 1 tbsp


Method:
1. Clean the chicken thoroughly and cut the pieces according to your need, and fry the onions in 1/4 cup of oil till golden brown
2. Take the chicken pieces into a bowl, add yogurt, green chillies, mint leaves, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder and more than half of the deep fried onions(set little of the fried onions aside for later use) ginger and garlic paste and salt.
3. Mix all the ingredients with your hand till each chicken piece gets very well coated with the marination. This marination should not be very dry,if there is no gravy add a little water to it
4. Refrigerate this mixture for atleast 3-4 hours

For Rice
1. Take 1/2 litre water in a pot and add salt, cloves, shah zeera, green cardamoms, whole black pepper and mint leaves and cover the pot.(Add tht much salt so as the water tastes salty)
2. Allow it to boil nicely
3. Then add the soaked basmati rice to this water and add the lemon juice.
4. Let the rice boil in it for only 2-3 minutes not more than that
5. Strain the rice and water in a strainer,no water should be left in the rice,once that is done set aside the rice
6. Now in a pressure cooker add the ghee, and the marinated chicken mixture
8. On top of it add the boiled rice(do not mix anything, marination wld be the first layer then rice will follow as the second layer)
9. Now decorate the rice with the left over fried onions, and the saffron water, once that is over add 1/2 cup of milk on top in a circular motion, and add the left over oil used for frying the onions,
10. Cover the pressure cooker and let the biryani cook on medium high flame till the first whistle comes then lower the flame till the second whistle and then stop the flame and set aside the cooker and let it stand like that for another 10 minutes, once the 10 minutes are over open the pressure cooker (even if there is some pressure,release it).
11. Serve the biryani hot with any raita of your choice

Important tips while making biryani.
1. The marination should not be too dry there should be some gravy to it
2. In this recipe i have used water to soak saffron ,,u can avoid water if u are not sure,instead u can soak this saffron in 1/2 cup of boiled milk (we have used 1/2 cup milk in this recipe.)
3.You need 1/4 cup oil in this recipe to fry the onions u can use the remaining oil 1/2 in the marination and half on the rice in step number 9.
4. You can very well use the orange food colour while making biryani but saffron strands soaked in boiled water or milk gives the authentic colour to biryani.
5.Do nt overcook rice while making biryani,,, once the water starts boiling u can add rice to it.
and boil it only for 2 minutes ,,they are more than enough
6. This recipe is actually known as kacche gosht ki biryani because we have used raw meat in the marination and during cooking.
7. Always use a heavy bottomed pressure cooker while making biryani coz if the cookers base is thin there is always a fear of burning the marination during the first whislte where the flame is medium high
8. While you dish out biryani in a serving tray never mix the biryani,,always serve it in the original layer form.