The Chicken Biryani in Bong style

By Bong style I especially mean that I am going to use potatoes in the biryani as potato and Bengalis are inseparables.

Biryani always marked with festive and special occasions and there is hardly who can resist this delicious dish.
Without wasting any further time, let’s gets into the cooking....first we'll start with

the chicken.

The Chicken

1. Make a paste of 1/4 inch ginger, 10 cloves of garlic.

 2. 1/2 bay leaf, 1 cup plain curd, 1 teaspoon red chilli powder, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon of cumin powder,1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder, juice of half a lemon.

3. Wash and clean chicken pieces. I used 4 leg pieces.

4. Marinate the chicken in the paste for 4-5 hrs. I did not put salt in the marinade to retain moisture in the chicken. If you also do so, remember to add it just before frying the chicken/ cooking the gravy.

The Potatoes & the Onions

 5. Peel and dice potatoes and deep fry in oil with sprinkle of salt. The potatoes will be golden brown from outside, but raw inside. They will fully cook once we assemble all elements of biryani together and cook in dum (pressure cooking in low heat).

 6. Finely slice 2 big onions and deep fry till golden and sweet. I always add sprinkling of sugar to enhance the caramelization. One tip to avoid the onions burning, create a ring of onions in the frying vessel, with no onions in the middle - where the heat is highest - and keep stirring.

7. Keep the potatoes and onions on a paper napkin to drain excess oil.

The saffron/ Kesar

8. Heat some milk and add some kesar/ saffron and keep aside.

The Rice-

9. Wash and soak about 1.5 cups of basmati rice in water for 10-15 mins. 10. In a deep Pan, heat 1 tea spoon of oil and put 3 cardamom, 2 cloves and 1 stick of cinnamon stick. Then put water as per the measurement of rice taken (or 1.5 cups of Rice, take approx. 3 cups of water). Bring the water to boil in the pan and add salt as per the taste. Put the soaked rice in the boiling water and cooked till the rice is till the outer layer of the rice grain gets softening).

10. Run under cold water to drain starch, if any, as it prevent the rice from cooking further from any trapped heat.

The cooking of chicken

 11. Pick chicken pieces from the marinate and start frying the pieces. 12. Add some salt in gravy and keep aside 13. Knead some dough and keep aside to seal the cooking vessel when we cook in "dum".

Assembling elements to cook together in "dum”.

14. To assemble the biryani, use a deep vessel with a flat bottom - like a rice cooker bowl.

 15. Pour about 1.5 tablespoon of ghee and coat the vessel well.

16. Lay the chicken legs and potatoes at the bottom along with some gravy

17. Cover with half the rice.

 18. Put the rest pieces of chicken, 1/3 the fried onions and some more gravy.

 19. Add the rest of rice.

 20. Top with 1/3 the fried onions, the milk with saffron and sprinkling of ghee.

21. Make some holes with finger on the top of the rice layer on the top and put few drops of rose water.

22. Save the last 1/3 of fried onions for garnish during serving.

23. Cover vessel with lid, and seal with the dough.

24. Heat vessel on direct low flame for ~5 mins. Heat a metal tawa separately on high flame simultaneously.

25. Remove vessel from direct flame and place on tawa. Cook on medium flame for 5 mins and then on low flame for 20-25 mins.

26. Once done, serve hot with raita/ onions. Ensure each plate gets chicken and potatoes.

 

26. Once done, serve hot with raita/ onions. Ensure each plate gets chicken and potatoes.

   27. Enjoy it by serve hot.