Smoked Chicken Biryani

Ingredients:

1. Chicken 1-1/2 kg
2. Rice 3-31/2 cup
3. Yogurt 1 to 1 and 1/2 cup
4. Ginger Garlic Paste 2 tbsp
5. Red Chilli Powder 1 tbsp
6. Coriander Powder 1 -1/2 tbsp
7. Nutmeg+Mace+Cardamom powder 1 tsp
8. Lemon Juice 2 tbsp
9. Sugar 2 tbsp
10. Onions 4-5(1 raw onion finely chopped+ 3 deep fried biryani onions)
11. Mint Leaves 1/2 cup
12. Green Chillies 6-8
13. Ghee for frying 1/2 cup
14. Kewda Water 1 tbsp
15. Yellow Colour 1/2 tsp
16. Milk 1/2 cup
17. Ginger Juliennes 1/4 cup
18. Tomatoes cut in roundels 2-3
19. Whole Garam masala
20. Shah Zeera
21. Charcoal 2-3 pieces

Whole Garam masala consists of:
(1-2 bay leaves, 2 black cardamoms, 4-5 green cardamoms, 10-12 cloves, 10 black pepper,1 tbsp cumin seeds)



For Marinade

1. In a bowl add yogurt, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, coriander powder, nutmeg+mace+cardamom powder, ginger juliennes. Mix all these ingredients really well.
2. Now add lemon juice, chopped raw onions, 3/4 portion of fried onions, salt, mint leaves, whole garam masala, and orange colour
3. Mix everything in step 1 and 2. Now add cleanly cut portions of chicken into this(the chicken should be pat dried).
4. Mix or coat everything to the chicken pieces.
5. After this add the tomato roundels to this marinade. Mix well, do not break tomatoes in this process. Let the chicken marinade for minimum 6-8 hours or maximum for a day.





For rice:

1. In a big vessel add water and a little of the whole garam masala, shah zeera, salt and mint leaves.
2. Bring to a boil and add the presoaked basmati rice and cook till it is half done. Drain the remaining water in a strainer. Keep these half done rice aside.

Smoking the Biryani Marinade:


1. Transfer the marinade into a vessel in which you are going to prepare biryani
2. Now take a piece of aluminium foil and place 2-3 burning charcoal on it. as shown in pic

3. Keep the lid of the vessel ready.
4. Now take about a tbsp of ghee and pour on the burning charcoal and cover the lid immediately



5. Make sure that the smoke doesnt leak out much, you can place a heavy object on the lid of the vessel to avoid large amount of smoke releasing from the vessel.
6. In the same position, with the lid on the vessel put the vessel on medium flame.
7. Do not remove the lid untill the smoke subsides. As shown in pic

8. Once the smoke subsides you can check the chicken and remove the charcoal pieces from the vessel along with the foil.
9. Now let the chicken cook on medium heat until there is only a little amount of water left in the vessel.
10. The moisture content should only be that much where in u can cook the half done rice. If there is more moisture than required then the half done rice will get overcooked and become soggy.
11.Once you are sure of the moisture content check the salt in the marinade, once that is done add the half cooked rice to this chicken marinade
12. Now sprinkle the rest of the fried onions on top. Mix colour with milk and pour it over the rice mixture. Add a little ginger juliennes, little mint leaves and 2-3 tbsp of ghee on top of the mixture, as shown in picture

13. Now cover the lid and let it cook on high flame for 5-7 minutes or till the time you can see the steam on top of rice. Close the lid and cover properly and let the biryani cook on dum for 15-20 minutes.

14. Serve hot with any raita or kachumber of your choice.

Tip:

1. Do not throw away the drained rice water. You can use it, if by mistake you have over cooked the marinade and you feel there is not enough moisture to cook rice , u can any time add required amount of boiled rice water as it contains all the masala fragrance in it.