According to a famous Indian chef the most widely searched recipes on the internet is Chicken Biryani and I think that should be totally believable :) !! The popular ones are Hydrabadi and Lucknowi style Biryanis but Kolkata/Bengali style Biryani too doesn't lag behind in the race :) it is much similar to Lucknowi style, less spicy and more aromatic with some changes and an added ingredient - potato. Bengalis love potato and there are many veg/non veg curries where potato plays a vital role. So, here is a simple recipe of Kolkata Biryani. In this biryani the chicken is first fully cooked in korma style, next the rice is half cooked and lastly put on dum altogether. To make it simpler one can use Everest Biryani masala like I do, as it reduces one step of assembling 9-10 variety of spices, roasting and then grinding them. The taste wouldn't be much different from the authentic one, for sure! This given recipe will serve two-three people.
STEPS TO FOLLOW
Soak rice
Fry and boil the potatoes
Cook the chicken
Boil Rice
Assemble and layer the biryani
Put on dum
INGREDIENTS:
1. Basmati Rice: 2 cups
2. Chicken: Drumsticks and thigh, total 6-8 pieces
3. Potatoes: 3 large, cut in halves ( use starchy ones like the golden potatoes)
4. Onion: thinly sliced 3 cups ( 1 cup for the chicken korma, 2 cups for making fried onion/birista)
5. Ginger garlic paste: 2 teaspoons
6. Curd: half cup
7. Whole spices: 8 green cardamoms, 8-10 cloves, 5 cinnamon sticks (1 inch long each), 2 bay leaves.
8. Powder spices: Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Cumin powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander powder: 1 teaspoon
Red chilli powder: 1 teaspoon
Biryani masala: 4 teaspoons
9. Lemon: half
10. Salt: as required
11. Kewra water: 2 teaspoon
12. Rose water: 2 teaspoon
13. Milk: 1/2 cup
14. Ghee: 3/4th cup
15. Mustard oil: 1/2 cup
16. Boiled eggs, 1 per head (optional)
17. Yellow/Orange food color
PROCEDURE:
Start with washing and soaking the Basmati Rice. Soak it for half an hour then strain and leave it to air dry. I use Daawat or India Gate brands.
Prick the potatoes with a fork (so that salt and other flavours get in it). Coat them with salt and 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder.
In a heavy bottom pan (I use the same pan in which I put the biryani on dum) pour the mustard oil and fry potatoes on all sides till it become reddish
Pick the potatoes from oil and in a separate small pan add 1/2 cup of water and boil them with a little salt and red chilli powder till they are 80% done. Do not cook potatoes completely, just check that a knife can go through tightly. They'll get cooked completely when we put it on dum.
In remaining oil add the whole spices (3 green cardamoms, 3 cloves, 2 cinnamon sticks) and bay leaves, when they're tempered add 1 cup of sliced onion. (Make fried onion from the remaining 2 cups sliced onions, in a separate pan)
Cook the onion till they are nice brown, then add ginger garlic paste, saute for 2-3 minutes and then add all the dry powder spices (pour a little water before adding powder spices to avoid burning them). Add the half cup curd too.
When the spices are cooked well oil will leave from edges, add the chicken at this time. Add required salt too and mix everything in the pan very well.Cook the chicken on medium to high flame. close the lid of the pan and keep stirring it in every 2-3 mins.
No need to add water as the chicken will get cooked in its own water. Put off the flame when the released water from chicken has almost dried up.
Add the potatoes in chicken gravy and close the lid.
Take that half cup milk and add 2 teaspoons of biryani masala , 2 teasoons of kewra water, 2 teaspoons of rose water, mix all well and keep aside
Melt the ghee and keep aside.
Mix yellow food color in a little water (about 50ml) and keep aside.
Now boil water for rice and add the remaining whole spices, salt (2-3 teaspoons) and juice of half a lemon (lemon juice will prevent rice from being sticky). Add your soaked and air dried rice and cook on high flame for 5 minutes (or, till they look half cooked).
Immediately strain the rice and spread evenly on chicken and potatoes.
Time to add aromatic ingredients now! Spread the fried onion first, next pour the milk mixture uniformly. Evenly spread the ghee with a spoon. Sprinkle the food color mix in a circle shape. Place the boiled eggs and insert them into the rice by slightly pressing them. Cover the pot with aluminium foil ( or make atta dough to seal the edges) and put the lid tightly.
Close the hole on the lid if there is any. Now place the pot on a tawa and put it on dum. 10 minutes on medium flame and 20 minutes on low. After that put off the flame and give it 10 minutes of resting time.
SERVE
Take a thin spatula and gently insert it from any one side of the pot to see through the bottom of your pan and check how good everything looks. Serve pieces of chicken, piece of potato and boiled egg on the side and rice in the center. You can also get some cucumber, onion and a
tomato thinly sliced in round shape for a desi salad on the side of it AND relish!! :)
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