how to make chicken biryani - simple steps for all

The biryani is the liberator of the common man, the biryani is the gift form the Gods to the wrethched man kind , if megan fox turned into a food item, she would be turned into nothing but a biryani.

A properly made biryani could delight anyone , give meaning to the lives of say ; even a pakistani terrorist..or infact even a politician.
The most important misconception regarding the legendary biryani is that most people premeditate that a high amount of skill is required manufacture the biryani properly. Actually its not, a perfect biryani can be pretty much made by anyone with some organised cooking, (ie) cake-walk for engineers. So I have embarked upon this noble quest to explain to everyone how actually simple it is to prepare this man made miracle.

I have ingeniously sorted out the biryani making process into 4 sexy steps

1. rice preparation
2. chicken marination
3. frying
4. mixing

If you are comfortable with kitchen environment and quite experienced with where all the bowls, plates, knives, choppin boards are kept you can invariably multi-task the first three steps but since I am the world's number one clumsy idiot I always did them one by one.

The texture of the rice is the key to decide how brilliant the biryani is, so it is only wise to give that part undivided attention.

1. Rice Preparation

Wash the rice thoroughly (wash the state government's rice even more thoroughly) and transfer it to a big bowl. How many ever cups of rice you are using add the same amount of water. Heat the combination nicely and observe very very carefully. Just precisely when the individual rice grains start to rise up to the water level one by one and 'dance', as the cooking experts call it, (even I was able to spot that so you guys can easily do it) Immediately stop everything that you are doing and filter that 'quarter' boiled rice to a new bowl. Nothing else needs to be done to the rice.

2. Chicken Marination

Mix the required amount of chopped chicken ,curd, salt, cardamon, cumin, chillies and any other exotic spices you have (or after salt just biryani masala powder would do). The key here is the consistency and thickness of the mixture. You ideally want it to be not very thick and not very fluidy, bang right in the middle is what you should target. Adjust the curd amount to gain control. The other important thing is the continuous sample tasting. Make sure the mixture tastes the exact way you want in this step and that is pretty much the taste you will end up with the final biryani.

3. Frying

Simple step, fry some finely sliced onions, tomatoes if you like with some ginger garlic paste. Stir till the onions are close to golden colour and stop immediately. Use olive oil for great taste as I have discovered. And U can add some of the spices if you like.

4. Mixing

Mix the fried onions with the marinated chicken well, add a touch oil and mix this time. This forms the bottom most layer. Now add the prepared rice on top of this base layer. Add some bay leaves, cashew, raisin, pista and spices if you hare rich. Now tightly cover the container and place it on low- medium heat.

 The water from the chicken will cook the rice and all the flavors from it will be observed by the rice as well.
(Check in between for the rice texture and chicken texture and and water accordingly - not required if done properly)

After about 15-20 minutes the wonderful biryani would be ready. The smell would be a very good indicator. Make good raitha and serve with that.

I think I have covered everything here,

Hope this helps.Cheerio.