Easy Chicken Biryani | Maunika Gowardhan

hi folks youtube my name is monica i'm back with a really classic and simple indian recipe today i'm going to show you how to make a really easy chicken biryani traditionally biryanis take a really long time to cook and have a lengthy list of ingredients but today i want to cook a really simplified version one that you can actually cook and actually replicate at home so let's get started chicken thighs i think because the ones i'm using are boneless they are really quick to cook and also it renders its own fats that means it keeps the moisture within the dish i'm going to first marinate the chicken so i need really thick creamy yogurt so i would suggest greek yogurt or even if you have some natural yogurt is perfectly fine so i'm using about three tablespoons of yogurt a little more than a pinch of kashmiri chilli powder kashmiri cherry powder is akin to paprika so if you can't get hold of kashmiri chilli powder just swap it with a mild paprika the key to this spice is that it has a really high color intensity and a really low heat intensity i'm also adding about half a teaspoon of turmeric powder so a lovely nice color and little bit of warmth to it so those are your basic spices that you actually want to marinate your chicken with so give it a good mix perfect i'm going to just chop my chicken and you want nice good sized bites so you don't really want to be far too thin i prefer to use my hands so i'm going to get stuck with my hands here so i'll leave this to marinate for about 20 minutes or half an hour i'd leave you have overnight that's great and i will start the base of the curry while this is actually marinating i'm using about two to three tablespoons of vegetable or sunflower oil so about two or three pods of green cardamom and one teaspoon of cumin seeds and you can hear them sizzle you just need to actually fry them for a few seconds kind of release their essential oils so just some roughly sliced onions white onions are great and my heat's on a medium i'd say give this about six to eight minutes you want them to start to change color and soften as well so while they are actually softening i'm going to get on with actually slicing the tomatoes so i've just got some regular tomatoes i'm using about three or four of these and also a little chilly um any birds actually or just regular mild should be perfect so you can deseed it if you want but i like a bit of heat in my biryani because you want the warmth of flavor and you want the spice as well once that's nice and brown which it is right now i'm going to add my sliced tomatoes so give this about two or three minutes and nicely soften and go mushy so you want to actually with the back of your spoon start smashing the tomatoes ever so slightly at this stage i'll also add some tomato puree now the key to actually having tomato puree in a dish like this is two elements really one is that it actually thickens the sauce quite nicely and it gives it a vibrant color as well so i'm adding about a heap tablespoon of tomato puree so mix it really really well at this stage you can see it's all nice and mushy my tomatoes have disintegrated ever so slightly and the puree is actually mixed in really really well and also i will be adding some ginger and garlic paste the essence of indian cooking and i think most homes in india can't live without it so a good heap tablespoon of ginger and garlic paste i'm also going to add some coriander powder now you want a good heaped teaspoon of it so this is looking really lovely and while the heat's still on medium i'm gonna add my chicken now the chicken's actually been marinating in the fridge for about 20 minutes till i've been making the base for the gravy you've got a little bit of yogurt in here so one of the reasons and the key to actually adding greek or full fat yogurt is to make sure that yogurt doesn't split while it actually hits the pan add a good amount of salt to season and stir it really really well now the chicken is nice and thick so at this stage you let it simmer and just to make sure it's actually cooked all the way through i'd add a tiny touch of water not a lot maybe about 50 mils of water just to kind of create a light sauce i don't want it to be quite quite a rich sauce so seal the pieces really well well for about two or three minutes and then you just stick the lid on and cook on a really low heat for about five minutes no more than that because the rest of cooking will happen when you actually lay the rice on top of it okay so while my chicken is actually simmering away for five minutes i'm going to get the rest of my ingredients together the key to a classic chicken biryani is all the other elements that actually go into the dish so first things first i'm going to actually get the saffron milk on so i've just got a few strands of saffron because i think it's a lovely lovely flavor that actually goes through the rice and to this i'm going to add two to three tablespoons of warm milk what the milk does is actually loosens the strands of saffron and the more it soaks in the yellow it gets and it lends a lovely flavor to the rice and also a lovely color to the rice so at this stage i'm gonna chop some coriander fresh coriander and fresh mint so nice good generous handful which goes over the rice i would actually recommend using rice that's basmati and one that actually is already cooked means that you actually save on time as well when you're cooking the biryani so that's done and now we'll actually check on the chicken again it's already smelling amazing so you want to make sure the chicken's evenly layered in the pan to make sure that the rice actually goes over it it's really crucial to use a nice long green rice basmati is perfect for a dish like this because you want those separated greens you can see i'm spreading it really evenly with my tablespoon at this stage what you want to do is turn the heat completely off okay so i've layered the rice and to this i'll add a few ingredients so a little bit of the saffron milk you can see that it's lending a really lovely color so about half the amount of saffron milk is what you want at this stage half a teaspoon of garam masala powder and then what you want is some of the coriander and some of the mint so you can see the yellow grains of rice the white grains of rice a little bit of garam masala but now at this stage with the with the heat off again i'm adding the second layer of rice so i'm using about 300 grams of rice and you want to make sure it's evenly spread through this is a really good recipe to begin with as a starter for somebody who's never cooked a biryani before so once i've added the second layer of rice i'm going to do exactly the same thing i'll add the rest of my saffron i'll also add some of the garam masala again and then i'll add the rest of my mint and my coriander now at this stage what i'm going to do is stick the lid back on and cook this on a really really low heat for about five minutes and once that's done rest for about 10 minutes and we're good to go you can see that all the grains are still separated and what the layering process and the steaming does it just infuses the flavors that much more so i'm going to just ladle it out into my serving dish now along with this a biryani is really never complete unless you have some really delicious accompaniments so i've got my bundi raita which is actually my favorite and boondi is basically just the fried gram flour which you actually have with the chickpea flour it's little crisp morsels which you actually add to the yogurt i've got my chutneys as well so i've got an apricot and fennel chutney some pickle and also some onion salad so you don't really have to do all of it but i think some of it would be really lovely to actually serve along with your biryani at the end of the day it's a really lovely family fee so you want to make sure there's a good spread for everybody to actually tuck into and you can see that the colors are all different there's a bit of white grains of rice shards of the saffron the fresh mint coriander and of course the chicken which is really lovely and a spoonful of my salan so a little gravy and again you don't have to but my salan essentially is just an onion based salad with some tamarind some chili so there you have it my easy chicken biryani it looks utterly wonderful and really delicious all the flavors come through the garden with chili the hint of spice as well and also the balance of the layers all the spices that we've added saffron the garam masala and it's definitely one to try so for lots more indian recipes make sure to check out my website in the description box below and also for some exciting indian recipes coming up on foodtube make sure to subscribe to the channel as well if you'd like to see another recipe using saffron make sure to check out my mango lassi on drinks too [Music] you

Channel: Jamie Oliver

Views: 1,509,774

Keywords: jamie, oliver, cooking, food, cook, recipe, tube, chef, foodtube, jamieoliver, Maunika, indian recipe, biryani, chicken, homemade, fresh, chicken thighs, boneless, marinade, yoghurt, veg, vegetables, spice, herbs, chilli, peppers, india, slow cook, saffron, basmati rice

Id: CwPcS9vhO7E

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 16 2016