Chicken Biryani

PeeKay

New Member
@aroy, Just wondering, what would have been effect if some ghee were added in the chicken at the final stage of its cooking! It might have increased the taste of final product! Your opinion on this!
 

aroy

Well-Known Member
The cooking is done under Dum, hence there is no initial stage or final stage in the cooking.

What I normally do, is to pour the ghee used for frying onions on the final layer of rice, and then sprinkle the onions and the leaves. That makes the Biryani marginally oily, but the taste is heavenly.
 

PeeKay

New Member
Thank you for the clearing the cloud.

Please help me in understanding one more step. Recipe described in Post #5 states under cooking log that
.....
1325 : Start Biryani
1425 : End Biryani
I was under impression, this one hour duration would overcook rice.

May I try this recipe in a different way: May I first cook the chicken till it becomes tender then start the layering part and cook them for fifteen minutes. :confused:

Please guide as this is to be done on Wednesday
 

gulloo

Guru
..........

May I try this recipe in a different way: May I first cook the chicken till it becomes tender then start the layering part and cook them for fifteen minutes. :confused:

Please guide as this is to be done on Wednesday
PeeKay,

You are proposing a double edged sword, you loose some you gain some.

--- If you cook your chicken it would not remain "Kachhi Biryani", it would become "Pakki Biryani" technically speaking.
--- And if you do that you would have to adjust the time that the biryani remains under dum and the level of rice cooking that has been done before you start layering them on the chicken, of course goes without saying that the level of chicken that has been cooked would determine the above two. There are no hard and fast rules regarding time and percentage of rice cooked, you would have to do your hit and trial stuff in your own setup and sometimes it is pretty daunting but you get the satisfaction of getting your queries and inquisitiveness resolved.


+++ You would have better control over the final product since the blind procedure of "Kachhi Biryani" does produce blind results even in the hands of best home cooks, and the results improve if you work in a kitchen day in day out with the same setup, that's how the commercial kitchens in restaurants or other places get better results percentage wise.

Do try. Better way would be to start with a semi cooked chicken, perfect the technique and then move towards "Kachhi Biryani".
Mutton is better for experimenting than chicken.
 

PeeKay

New Member
Thanks for the guidance, gulloo!

I would try to follow the advise given by you and aroy!

As I have already marinated chicken today, I would inform the outcome day after tomorrow! :)
 

aroy

Well-Known Member
Thank you for the clearing the cloud.

Please help me in understanding one more step. Recipe described in Post #5 states under cooking log that

I was under impression, this one hour duration would overcook rice.

May I try this recipe in a different way: May I first cook the chicken till it becomes tender then start the layering part and cook them for fifteen minutes. :confused:

Please guide as this is to be done on Wednesday
The rice cooking depends on two things
1. The time
2. The water

Given infinite water, time determines when the rice is properly cooked, that is when it absorbs enough water to be palatable to you. I may like soft texture, you may want a slightly firmer texture. So we adjust the cooking time accordingly. In case of limited water, the rice will swell just that much. After that if on open fire it will dry up, if in Dum then it will remain so for quite some time.

In the Kachchi Biryani, the amount of water is regulated
- By half cooking the rice
- By ensuring only that much water is there in the vessel (marinade + water in the meat), as will be required to cook the rice perfectly (on the firmer side, rather than on the softer side). Once the water that can be absorbed by rice is finished, it will not get softer.

There fore the duration that the Biryani is cooked for, is determined by the cooking time of the meat (1 to 1 1/2 hours for chicken and 2 to 3 hours for mutton) and not by the cooking time of rice.

In the Lucknowi style, the meat is cooked to 90% and the rice to 50%, hence after mixing the time taken cooks both these ingredients to perfection is same.

The beauty of Kachchi Biryani is that all the juices and aroma of the meat and the spices are absorbed by the rice, so that there is a taste and flavour in each grain of rice (it even penetrates inside!).

Just ensure that the rice is 50% done (when it just starts to change colour and swells a bit), stick to the timing and you will get perfect Biryani.

One thing to note is that this style of cooking requires very little preparation time (frying onions, cooking rice to 50% and layering. In general the preparation takes one hour. Once on the Dum, with just enough heat o maintain the steam inside, no intervention is needed or warranted. Yours hands are free - no checking, no turning no tasting, and most important no fear of it either over or under cooking.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the guidance, gulloo!

I would try to follow the advise given by you and aroy!

As I have already marinated chicken today, I would inform the outcome day after tomorrow! :)
Ensure
1. The chicken is 1 to 1 1/2 layer thick in the pan, densely packed. So choose your pan accordingly.
2. In case the marinade goes over the chicken layer, cook the rice less.
3. In case there is very little marinade, add a bit of water and mix thoroughly. Ideally the marinade should be at the level of the one layer thick chicken in the pan.
 

gulloo

Guru
Thanks for the guidance, gulloo!

I would try to follow the advise given by you and aroy!

As I have already marinated chicken today, I would inform the outcome day after tomorrow! :)
I agree with aroy broadly.

But on another front and for a variation. You can cook the marinated chicken on dum without adding rice at all, and you would get a chicken dish which would neither be dry nor a curry product depending on the moisture your marinade had and the quantity of yogurt that you added, but make sure that you don't add too much spices in the marinade. Usually we add more spices to take care of the rice as well.

This would save you the chore of making masala which some people find very cumbersome and daunting because most of the people fail in "bhunao technique" and can't do it properly.
 
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