Malabar Chicken Biriyani | Thalassery Biryani - Repost For Kerala Kitchen Event

Malabar Chicken Biryani/ Kannur Biryani

This is based on the famous malabar biriyani, few changes are done done infuse more flavour.

Ingredients

Chicken - 1 lb(500 gms) -Large pieces, preferably thighs

Chili Powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Yogurt - 1 tbsp

Gharam masala - As required(or use whole cloves, cinnamon, star anise and bay leaves)

Ginger - One piece - thinly sliced

Green Chili -2 -thinly sliced

Garlic - 2 large pods(10 small pods) - thinly sliced

Onion - 1/2 medium size - sliced

Tomato - 1 small - sliced

water - 1/4 cup(for cooking Chicken)

salt - according to taste

Basmati Rice - 2 cups ( Malabar Biriyani uses a special small grain rice called Jeeraga samba rice, it has a special fragrance enhancing the biriyani taste, But it is not always available in other parts of the world.)

Onion -1 medium - sliced thinly for frying

Raisins and Cashews(Optional)

Water - 4 cups

Ghee(Clarified Butter) - 2 tsp

Vegetable oil - 1 tsp

Pudina(mint leaves) and coriander leaves -thinly sliced.

Preparation method:

Clean the Chicken pieces add chili powder, turmeric powder,gharam masala(or whole masala like cloves,
cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves for best taste). Coarse grind Green chili, garlic and ginger and add to chicken pieces. Add yogurt and mix well. Keep it aside for 15 minutes .

Cook the Chicken with 1/4 cup of water in a thick bottomed vessel until the chicken is cooked(around 30 minutes, meat should stay on bones). Keep the vessel covered during cooking.Warm up the 4 cups of water near boil.Take the cooked chicken pieces out of the liquids remaining in the vessel and measure the liquid remaining.

Wash the Basmati rice with water to remove any impurities.

In a thick bottom vessel(must have a properly fitting lid), add the oil and ghee and heat it.

Fry the onion slices over low heat till golden brown, separate from oil and keep it aside.

Fry Cashew and raisins and keep it aside.Add the basmati rice to the oil and fry for 1 minute(just warm up only, so that rice is covered with oil) Add the remaining liquid from Chicken to the rice Add the enough warm water so that total liquid in rice is around 3 and 1/2 cups.(Rice cooking time and water requirements varies by variety of rice, add the remaining water if rice dries up)Add salt to taste and some gharam masala or whole spices.

Cook the rice at high heat till the water starts boil and cover the lid and Cook at low heat till the rice absorbs all the water(This is the tricky as there are chances that rice sticks to the bottom if dries up, or the rice is not cooked properly, make sure the the water used is slightly less than the amount of rice and cook at low heat and check the rice when you see the steam coming out of the rice almost stops). When complete, rice must be soft, but it should not stick to each other

In a 12 inch baking pan add 1/2 of the rice as a layer at bottom and then add the chicken pieces and spread half of the pudina and coriander leaves and the fried onions ,cashew and raisins.Spread the remaining rice and spread some Gharam masala on top of the rice and cover with aluminium foil and bake it at 300 degree F for 25 - 30 minutes.

Garnish with remaining Pudina and Coriander leaves, fried onions , cashew and raisins.

Eat with raitha(yogurt with onions, tomatoes and salt), pickle.

You can replace the ingredients with store bought ginger garlic paste, biriyani masala etc.

Sending this to  kerala kitchen event  hosted by Prathibha at cook-ezee blogspot