Chicken Biryani

7 May 2020, today is the first time I tried boiling the Biryani Rice to go with the Pericik Chicken I have bought from my Muslim friend.

My children fell in love with Biryani Rice for so long but yet I never really make it before. There is always a first ! Since I do not cook the chicken on top of the rice, I need to figure out how to boil the rice on its own based on my memory of good Biryani Rice.

Here was my first attempt :-

• 1 big cinnamon stick
• 3 green cardamom seeds
• 2 star anises
• 2 bay leaves (left out)
• 2 tablespoons of milk (left out)
• One handful of raisin
• Salt to taste

On top of it, I fried red onion, ginger, Kunyit and add in a tablespoon of curry powder and a tablespoon of Kunyit poweder.

I looked up another recipe to try in future :-
https://www.rotinrice.com/nasi-biryani/

3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 large shallots (peeled and thinly sliced)
3 tbsp butter
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
3 cardamom pods
6 cloves
2¼ cups basmati rice (450g)
½ cup golden raisins (80g)
2½ cups water (600ml)
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp rose essence or kewra water
½ cup cashew nuts (toasted) (70g)

• In a medium sized pot, heat vegetable oil. Add sliced shallots. Fry until golden. Remove and drain on paper towels. Discard or reserve oil for flavoring other dishes.
• In the same pot, melt butter. Add cinnamon stick, star anise, cardamom pods, and cloves. Fry for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant.
• Add rice and stir to combine. Then add golden raisins. Pour in 2½ cups (600ml) water. Bring it to a boil. Season with salt. Cover, reduce heat to medium and allow it to cook for 8 to 10 minutes until all water is absorbed. Reduce heat to the lowest setting and let cook for another 5 minutes. Turn off heat.
• Mix ground turmeric with 1 tablespoon hot water in a small dish. In another dish, mix rose essence or kewra water with 1 tablespoon water. Sprinkle both mixture onto rice. Fluff rice gently with spatula.

Cover and allow rice to sit for 10 minutes. Garnish with fried onions and cashew nuts before serving. Alternatively, nasi biryani may be layered with your favorite meat curries before serving.

Below is Guai Shu Shu's Chicken Biryani Recipe which I adapted for the rice.
https://www.guaishushu1.com/fish-biryani-nazi-biryani-ian/

Chicken marinating

4-6 Chicken tights (at least 1/2 kilo )
2 tablespoons of plain yoghurt
2 sprigs of coriander leaves
1 tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
2 tablespoons of ghee or cooking oil
2 teaspoons of garam masala
2 teaspoons of chilli powder
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
1 teaspoon of coriander powder
1 teaspoon of cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of milk

Cooking Biryani Rice

4 cups of basmati rice
1 big cinnamon stick
3 green cardamom seeds
2 star anises
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons of milk
A generous pinch of saffron
Salt to taste

His method is to cook with chicken on top of the rice which can be quite tricky.

1. Cut the chicken into big pieces. I cut my chicken thighs into two pieces only. Remember that the thighs will shrink after cooked.
2. Put all the chicken marinating ingredients into a big bowl and use hand to massage the chicken for a minute or two to ensure that the chickens is well coated with all the marinating ingredients. Let it marinate for at least 1-2 hours. Overnight marinating is preferred.
3. Put the pinches of saffron into the milk. Let it soak until the colour appeared. Saffron is optional as the colour of will be masked by the colour of garam masala.
4. In a pot, put one tablespoon of ghee, sauté the star anises, bay leaves, cinnamon stick and green cardamom until fragrant.
5. Add some water (about 1 litre but it depend on size of your pot and you can add subsequently), add the salt and bring to boil. Take a small teaspoon of the liquid and taste if it is salty enough. If it is not salty, adjust accordingly as this will make the rice salty and no subsequent salt will be added.
6. Add the cleaned rice, and let it boil for about 5=10 minutes. Take some rice out and ensure that the rice is not transparent. You need not to fully cook the rice as it will be subsequently steamed in the chicken cooking process. As long as the rice can be broken by the finger, it is considered as done.  Drain the rice and all the spices .
7. Put all the marinated chickens on the pressure cooker pot or normal pot . Level it. Ensure all the marinating liquids are also added as it will help to simmer the chicken later.
8. Cover the chicken with the rice and spices (cinnamon stick, cardamom and star anises), level it. Pour on top the saffron milk .
9. Pressure cook the rice for about 15 minutes. When done, fluff the rice and ensure all the chicken juices at the bottom of the pot are well mixed with the rice on top before serving. Flavour will further develop after a hour or two.  For stove top version, you will need to start cooking using high heat for 10 minutes, after that, reduce the heat to small or medium and let it simmer for additional 30 minutes.
10. For servings, put some rice and chicken on the plate and garnish with cashew nuts, green chilli, slice red onion, chopped coriander, tomatoes and raisins if preferred.  Best served hot and a tablespoon of yoghurt or some lemon juices can be added to enhance the taste.