Green masala chicken biryani

We love Biryani except my younger daughter, we are so used to eat non-veg but my little girl is vegetarian. Our favourite most biryani is the one and only Hyderabadi Dum biryani. We eat biryani atleast once in a week mostly its on Sundays. If we didn't eat biryani on Sunday we make it a point of eating a restaurant brought biryani. Here in Canada i didn't find any good restaurants which serves good hyderabadi biryani similar to Paradise, Bawarchi, Pista house or any biryani joints of Hyderabad.

 Having said this we get pakistani biryani. The taste of biryani is quite different and it is not as spicy as hyderabadi biryani. There is one joint which serves awesome biryani. Most of the times we grab two packs and warm it at home and eat it.
The biryani i ate here had lemon pieces and i was desperate to know why they have used the lemon pieces than the juice. I always used to say to husband what would be the ingredients used to make this biryani. Once i came across a website by name Pukka Paki by Sumayya Jamil and when i was browsing the menu i found this Green Masala Chicken  Biryani. I was impressed by the ingredients used and the procedure. I felt the procedure is lengthy but worth giving a try. I made this biryani few days back and it was awesome. The best part i liked is the chef used the lemon pieces rather than the juice of the lemon. I reduced the quantity of ingredients to match our taste. I adopted the same recipe and the procedure and omitted few ingredients. Here is the recipe and please check the original recipe here

Ingredients:-
Chicken 1 kg
Tomato chopped 1
Basmati Rice 1 kg
Oil 1 cup
Ghee 3 Tbsp
Lemon slices 4 (thin)
Clove 6
Cinnamon 2 2'' long sticks
Green cardamom 10
Pepper 15
Star anise 2
Salt to taste
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Step 1

Yoghurt mixture

Onions 2
Curd 1 cup

Slice onions and deep fry. Mix the deep fried onions with curd and keep aside until use.

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Step 2

Green masala paste

Ginger garlic paste 2 tbsp

Mint leaves 1 cup

Coriander leaves 2.5 cups

Green chillies 4

Turmeric 1/4 tsp

Chilli powder 1 tbsp

Make a smooth paste of the above ingredients

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Step 3

Saffron few strands

Warm milk 1/2 cup

Soak saffron in the warm milk for 1 hour.

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Step 4:-

Soak rice with cinnamon1, cloves 3, Cardamom 2 and star anise 1 for 1 hour.

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Procedure:-

Take a deep pan with oil and ghee. Once hot add the chicken pieces and fry until they are brown in colour or until you see a brown layer on the chicken. Take them from the oil and keep aside until use.

Now in the same oil add the remaining masala (cloves,cinnamon,pepper,cardamom and star anise).

Then add chopped tomatoes and sauté until tomatoes leave oil.

Now add green masala paste. Cook until oil oozes out from the gravy.

Add chicken and yoghurt mixture along with salt. Mix thoroughly and let it cook for a while.

The gravy becomes little thick. Be careful to check that the gravy is not dry.

In the mean while add salt to the rice and cook until the rice is half cooked. Use a strainer to drain out the water from the rice.

In a thick bottom deep pan and pour the curry in it. Then add the rice on top of the curry and sprinkle saffron water and dig the lemon slices into the rice. More coriander leaves can be added here.

Close the pan with a foil and see that the vapours doesn't escape. Let it cook on medium for 30 minutes.

Serve hot with mirchi ka salan and raita. Mirch ka salan recipe is here

au revoir