Hyderabadi Biryani Masala

Hyderabadi Kacche Biryani

Ingredients

 1 cup oil/ghee

Marinade

 1 kg chicken

5 onions – deep fried (brishta)

2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

2-3 tbsp Zaiqa Hyderabadi Biryani Masala

4-5 green chillies (crushed)

1 tbsp lemon juice

500 gms curd for meat (a little less than that for chicken)

½ cup mint leaves (chopped)

½ cup coriander leaves (chopped)

Salt as per taste

For the rice

1 kg Basmati rice

Whole garam masala (7 green cardamom, 4-5 cloves and 2 inch cinnamon)

Salt

Preparation

Marinate chicken/meat with all the ingredients mentioned under
‘marinade’. Reserve ½ of the deep fried onions (brishta) for layering.

In a separate heavy bottom pan, add whole garam masala and salt to boiling water.

Add the soaked basmati rice to the boiling flavoured water and cook till half done. Strain and keep aside.

In a thick bottomed vessel, layer the marinated chicken and spread
half of the remaining brishta (fried onions). Layer with rice, sprinkle
saffron dissolved in milk (¼ cup), drizzle 2 tbsp hot ghee evenly and
top with remaining brishta (fried onions).

Seal the biryani with a silver foil or flour dough and cook on dum for 30 mins.

Suggestion 1 – To make mutton biryani, along with
all above mentioned ingredients, add 2 tbsp raw papaya paste or any other meat tenderiser to the marinade. This is an important ingredient or the meat won’t tenderise well. Alternatively, marinate meat with all
the ingredients, add a little water and pressure cook till half done.
Once half-cooked, layer and cook in dum style with rice as mentioned in step 4.

Suggestion 2 –  For vegetarians, replace the chicken with mixed vegetables (sauté assorted vegetables in ghee for 5 mins and marinate for 30 mins with the marinade ingredients;
after that follow the steps for dum cooking.)