Chicken Dum Biryani (Hyderabadi)

Chicken biryani - The name biryani is derived from the Persian word 'berya' which means fried or roasted.The name 'dum' has come from the word 'cooking in steam'-that is how the name Hyderabadi Dum Biryani.
The hyderabadi style differs from the Lucknowi style mainly in the way it is cooked.Here the rice and the chicken is cooked simultaneously and fried onions are added.Whereas in lucknowi style the rice is cooked separately from the chicken.They are then brought together and layered, resulting in a dish of the contrasting flavors of flavored rice (which is cooked separately with spices) and chicken.So go ahead and have this delicious Chicken Dum Biryani with Raita(optional) for your sunday lunch :-)

Ingredients -
For chicken -
500 gm chicken
salt
turmeric(haldi powder)
green chillies slit
ginger garlic paste
curd
ghee
onions(1 big and 1 medium sized)
tomato(1 big)
coriander(dhania) powder
cumin (jeera) powder
biryani masala - cinnamon,cardamom, pepper corn,cloves
1/2 cup cilantro(fresh coriander leaves)


For rice -
1.5 cup basmati rice
3-4 green cardamoms(elaichi)
cinnamon(dalchini)-2 small sticks
1 bay leaf (tej patta)
4-5 pepper corns (kali mirch)
3 cloves
salt
oil
saffron(kesar)-6 strands
milk(1/2 cup)


Method -
Marinate the chicken for atleast 1.5 hours with the following-
salt,green chillies slit (3-4),haldi powder,curd,ginger garlic paste.


In a kadhai add 1 tpsn oil and 1 tbspn ghee.
Cut the medium sized onion lengthwise(vertical). Fry it in the oil till it turns brown.
Keep it aside once done.
Now add 2 tbspn oil to the pan.
Add the big onion finely chopped to this.Then add ginger garlic paste and salt.
Now add the tomato finely chopped and then coriander powder(1 tpsn) and cumin powder (1 tpsn).Close the lid and let this cook.
Open the lid of the pan and see that the mixture is well cooked.Now add the marinated chicken to this and close it again for around 10 min.
To make the biryani masala - make a fine powder of 4 cardamoms,3 cloves,4-5 pepper corns,2 sticks cinnamon.
Add the biryani masala to the chicken and again close and cook for another 10 min.


For the rice preparation - Mix 1.5 cups of basmati rice and water.To this add whole cardomoms,cinnamon,pepper corns,bay leaf,cloves.Also add salt to taste and oil(1 tspn).Now boil this rice till it is half done-(take 1 rice grain and touch, it should be soft)
Drain the water and keep the rice aside.
Dip the saffron strands in luke warm milk.
Now add the rice to the above chicken layer.
Add  ghee,few fried onions and some saffron(soaked in milk).
Again add the remaining rice layer and ghee,fried onions and saffron(soaked).
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.