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Chicken Biryani is an amazing super tasty dish that includes layers of chicken, rice, and spices which are steamed together. By absorbing the juice from chicken, the rice at bottom portion, gives a tender texture and rich flavour, while the rice at top layer turns out comparatively dry, white and fluffy. Buried in the Biryani, you can find the whole cuts of luscious chicken emitting the flavour from the great mix of spices and other masala with which it’s marinated.

This Chicken Biryani recipe is the much simple explanation of how to make a tasty and healthy biriyani in an Indalium Uruli/ Bronze Uruli/ Dutch Oven, by marinating the chicken in a spicy mixture of garam masala, garlic, ginger, chili peppers, coriander leaves. By frying at medium flame, the marinated masala on the exterior of the chicken caramelize into a super tasty crust. It’s better to make the fried onions separately, as it allows you to fully caramelize them into a sweet layer that contrasts the spiciness in the chicken. The rice is required to boil with spices like cardamom, bay leaves, and cumin to make it flavourful.

It’s also important to select the right cookware to make a good biriyani. An Indalium Uruli/ Bronze uruli or a Dutch oven is the best suitable piece of cookware for making healthy Biriyani.

INGREDIENTS & COOKWARE USED TO MAKE CHICKEN BIRYANI

• Good quality Chicken – For the best preparation, it’s highly recommend using a bone-in skin-on piece of chicken such as thighs or drumsticks. Breast meat will work in a pinch, but it may get dry due to the comparatively longer cooking time of the dish. 
• Long grain Rice – Long-grain rice like basmati is mostly recommended as biriyani rice. Include spices such as green cardamom, cumin, and bay leaves. It’s better to add some cloves or star anise here. It you couldn’t saffron, use turmeric (in lower quantity) to get the yellow tone.
• Ginger-Garlic Paste – The chicken need to be marinated well with ginger garlic paste along with masala. When the chicken steams, the flavour get released into the rice. 
• Pure Ghee – Ghee is butter with the milk proteins and water removed, making it clear. This is why it’s also called “clarified butter.” It gives you the flavor of butter without worrying about the milk solids burning. 
• Herbs –coriander leaves, and fresh mint leaves is much needed for biriyani preparation. These also make for a nice garnish to sprinkle on top of the Chicken Biryani, so it’s good to chop up a little extra of the same. 
• Spices - spices like garam masala and ground cinnamon is must for the good flavour and taste of Biriyani. The Biryani masala works well too.
• Onions – Just like rice and chicken, Onions are also important in Biriyani. 
• Chili Peppers -Fresh green chilies helps to add some heat to this dish, but red chili powder will also be fine. 
• Indalium Malabar Biriyani Uruli/ Dutch Oven/ Bronze Uruli- An Indalium Biriyani Uruli/Bronze uruli or a Dutch Oven is the best cookware to make a healthy biriyani.

MAKING THE BIRIYANI

First of all, combine the oil, ginger- garlic paste, chili peppers, mint, cilantro, garam masala, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl and stir together. You can use the Indailum uruli itself for the job. Add the chicken pieces and mix until chicken is thoroughly coated in the marinade. Allow the chicken to marinate for at least an hour before proceeding to next step.

Add required quantity of ghee to the Indalium Biriyani Uruli/Bronze uruli or the Dutch Oven and wait for a minute for the ghee to get heated. Add a layer of onion and saut well until the colour changes to light brown. Usually it took 15-20 minutes for this process. Then transfer the caramelized onions to a bowl and keep aside.

Now we need to wash the rice in water until it gets properly cleaned.To par-boil the rice, add salt, cardamom, cumin and bay leaf to the water taken in a pot or the dutch oven and bring to a boil. Now add the rice and allow to boil for 7 minutes. Drain the rice, reserving 1 cup of the liquid.

In the Indalium Biriyani Uruli/Bronze uruli or the Dutch oven you have used to caramelize the onions, add some oil and let it heat for a minute or two. Add the chicken in a single layer, skin-side down. Wait until the downside portion gets brownish. Flip the chicken over and fry the other side too, until it reaches a golden brown colour. Transfer the chicken to a separate bowl and keep aside.

Now it’s time to assemble the biryani. Add some saffron to the rice and toss well. Add half of the rice mixture to the bottom of the Indalium Biriyani Uruli/Bronze uruli or the Dutch Oven in which you browned the chicken in. Place the fried chicken over the rice as a single layer and add a layer of caramelized onion over it.

Add the remaining rice over the mixed layer of onion and chicken. Take the reserved liquid from boiling the rice and pour it over the last layer. Cover the Indalium Biriyani Uruli /Bronze uruli/  or the Dutch Oven with the lid and place it on the stove at medium flame. When steam starts escaping from under the lid, set the flame to low and continue cooking for around 15-20 minutes. Turn off the stove after the mentioned time.

Without opening the lid, let the biriyani stay like it for another 5-10 minutes. In the meantime, deep fry some chopped onion and nuts

Now open the lid & Mix the Chicken Biryani together. For a great appearance, add a layer of well-fried onion along with the fried nuts. Your delicious biriyani is ready and you can transfer it a serving platter.

Note: The ingredients and cooking pattern may vary from place to place.