Chicken Biriyani (pressure cooker method)Recipe

Hope everybody had a great weekend.Ours went on well.Saturday was a busy day with the Sharu having an open day at school and we also went on a shopping for buying crockery ,weekly veggies,a visit to the grocer and so on.My daughter prefers to have non-veg on sundays especially chicken .She wanted to have biriyani so we decided on chicken biriyani this sunday.I decided on going ahead with amma recipe.The biriyani came out well and Sharu complimented it by comparing it with amma's biriyani.Now a days amma has started adding kal pasi and marathi moggu in her biriyani this makes the dish very aromatic, so I also added this for the first time and came out well. I always use the pressure cooker for biriyani should try cooking with dum the next time ,will try it and post it soon.

Chicken Biriyani Recipe- Ingredients

Chicken - 1/2 kg
Basmati Rice - 1 cup (I used Daawat brand)
Onion - 1 medium sliced
Tomato - 1 (chopped)
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

To Temper:

Oil - 3 tbspn
Ghee - 3 tbsp
Cinamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 2
Elaichi -1
Star Anise - 1
kal Pasi - a pinch (optional)
Bay Leaf (Birinji elai)-1
Marathi Moggu -1 (optional)

To Grind :

Mint Leaves --1/4 cup(loosely packed)
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup (loosely packed)
Green chilly - 2
Onion - 1
Tomato -1

To Marinate :

Ginger Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. First grind the ingredients in the "to grind" list to a fine paste.Now clean the chicken and marinate it with the ingredients in the "to marinate".
2. Heat oil + ghee in a pressure cooker and add the items in the "to temper" list followed by the chopped onion ,tomato and ginger garlic paste and saute well, now add the ground masala followed by the marinated chicken,salt and the powders.Stir well till all the masala is coated well and till oil oozes.
3. Add a little water if the masala is too dry and pressure cook for 2 whistles or till the chicken is cooked(not mushy) .While the chicken is cooking you can rinse the basmati rice just once and soak it in 1 cup of water for about 15 minutes.
4. After the chicken is cooked check for seasoning .The most important step here is to measure any water that is there in the cooked chicken,if there is water just transfer it to the measuring cup and add extra plain water to it so that it measures to one cup.
5. Now drain the water from the rice (1 cup )and add this water to the cooker,let it boil.Now add the drained rice to the cooker ,check for seasoning close the cooker. cook for 1 whistle on high and cook in sim for 1 more whistle.Switch off the stove and fulf up the rice once the pressure releases.
Now your chicken Biriyani is ready to serve with raita or any gravy of you choice or just plain curd.

My Notes:

• Although kal pasi and marathi moggu are optional they add a great aromea to the biriyani.
• The amount of water need is important , I prefer the rice to water in the ratio 1:2 with this ratio the rice is well cooked soft but not mushy .
• Please adjust the red chilly powder and green chillies as per your spice level.
• You are free to modify the ghee and oil as per your liking but I would recommend you use atleast this amount of ghee for better flavour.