Chicken Dum Biryani

Ingredients

• 500 gm rice (long grain, basmati rice)500 gm chicken, in evenly sized pieces
  
  Marinade:
  
  2 tsp ground white pepper
  
  Juice of 1/2 lemon (skip if marinating for anything over 4 hours)
• 1/2 Tbsp desi ghee
  
  2 tsp garlic paste
  
  1.5 tsp ginger paste
  
  1 cup onion, chopped
  
  2 tsp chilli powder
  1 tsp fennel or saunf powder
  
  1.5 heaped tsp salt
  
  2 cups water (if needed)
  
  1 cup yogurt
• 
  
• Masala ( roast in a bit of oil and grind to a fine paste)
  5 cloves
• 4 cardamoms
  
  2 bay leaf
  
  2 by one inch piece of cinnamon
• 3medium sized onions, chopped and fried till golden
  
  
  
  
  Finishing Spices:
  
  1/2 tsp green cardamom powder
  
  1/2 tsp fennel powder
  
  1/2 cup cream (optional, won't make a difference)
  3 tsp kewra water
• half a javitri, grated

For Rice:

 

(in a utensil)
1 gram saffron
1 medium sized onion, chopped, fried and strained
an inch cube of Ginger, grated 
3 green chillies, sliced, 
150 grams of the cooked rice

 a small piece of jaiphal


(in 3 liters of water)
whole roasted garam masala in a ball strainer
(optional) salt, a tsp

• 
  

Method

wash the rice and soak it in water.

Cut the chicken into even sized pieces.

In a bowl add all the marinade ingredients and coat the chicken pieces well with it. Let it marinate for a few hours, overnight is alright.

Put 2.5 liters of water with the ball strainer on boil. The utensil should be big enough to accommodate 500 grams of cooked rice, along with excess water. Make sure the water and the rice doesn't boil over.

In the meanwhile heat ghee/oil in a pan and add all the spices for the masala, take the garam masala out When the spices are roasted and leave of their fragrance, add the onions and fry till still retain a bit of their original color, they'll cook in their own heat and become golden. Take it out and divide in two. Grind one part with the other masala and jaiphal. Youll need the other part to add to the cooked chicken. Set aside.


In the oil you fried onions in, in a pan with large surface area, on high heat, carefully pick and drop the chicken pieces, starting with the biggest ones,wait for the chicken to change color and turn the pieces over if you like and add a cup of yogurt. Keep 3 cooked, dried, pureed tomatoes at hand. If you feel the chicken is cooking fast, add them to the pan/if you like gravy add them any way but cook them separately.
Once the water boils, add the rice to it. Cook for about 7 minutes or till the rice is nearly done.  Strain and work quickly so the rice doesn't cool down.

Cook till chicken is nearly done and doesn't have much water left (till the chicken is partially cooked)once off the stove, add the finishing spices and the ground masala and fried onion.
Add the cream to it. Add 2 caps of kewra

This is the infusion in which the rice will be cooked. Keep this aside.




Check the seasoning before adding rice after which you would not be able to adjust it.

Add the rice to the grated ginger and sliced green chillies, et al., in the utensil.
In the layering utensil add rice in a third, slightly overlapping with the chicken mix, add the green chilli and fried onion rice in one part, taking care that the onion rice doesnt overlap much with the chiken mix


Let it cook on low heat (on dum, in it's own heat) covered with a wet kitchen towel for about half an hour or 60 minutes. (till the chicken and rice are fully cooked)