How a Pakistani Chef Makes Traditional Chicken Biryani | Passport Kitchen | Epicurious

[Music] in Pakistani Cuisine Biryani is a dish that's made for celebrations for Gatherings and is always made in abundance so there's always plenty to share it is associated with royalty and extravagance and a dish that is made with a lot of love my name is Fatma I'm from Lahore Pakistan and this is how I make chicken biryani Biryani is actually made with a few different proteins chicken is common mutton is common my father-in-law was very upset that I chose to make chicken biryani but it's what I grew up with so it's my favorite breaking down a chicken is a little bit of a practice art you kind of have to know its Anatomy this chicken has a skin on but pakistanis usually do not eat chicken with its skin on the way that we cook chicken the skin doesn't get rendered it doesn't get crispy we cook it a lot and you know quick stir fries are in stews kind of like the way that we're going to make it in the Biryani so it doesn't really do anything so we commonly remove the skin I am cutting these into pretty big pieces so that when everything's done and people serve themselves they can choose how much chicken they want how much chicken did potatoes ratio they want and how much rice it's kind of personal how you make your plate so this way people can choose for themselves [Music] I spoke to a few different people on how to make Biryani the technique is all the same but a lot of people have started to use boxed mixes I wanted to make the spice from scratch and learn all the names and learn all the different spices that go into it we have mace round chilies black cardamom star anise green cardamom cloves carom seeds also known as AJ van powdered nutmeg calazira which is black cumin seeds Black peppercorns and fennel seeds as my mother would say whatever spice you have just put it in the spice blender all these spices are untoasted the spice mix will get toasted once we add them to the chicken that's going to be cooking in the oil you can already smell all the star nice and cardamom there's a lot of really beautiful fragrance in here and they're gonna add a ton of flavor to your Masala so the texture has become very fine it's a fine powder which is going to dissolve really easily in the chicken and you're not going to get like mouthfuls of spices as you eat your biryani we think that Biryani comes from the word frying or roasting which in this case is referring to the frying and roasting of the onions which is the first step in making your chicken masala this is half a cup of oil a half a cup of oil does seem like a lot but we're gonna fry our onions in it these are thinly sliced red onions you want to get these browned and softened and caramelized frying onions is a pretty typical way of starting a lot of Pakistani dishes it contributes a lot to perfuming the oil but it's also the idea of layering which is very ubiquitous in Pakistan and in Pakistani cooking so the onions you can see are evenly Brown we're gonna use some of these onions to top our Biryani with and I'm going to use most of them as part of my chicken masala so chicken masala is essentially going to be the chicken element that we're gonna make that's basically going to be chicken with spices and it's basically a chicken and gravy and then you have your rice element and then those two things are going to get layered together you cook this on pretty high heat making sure it all gets coated in oil I'm gonna add ginger and garlic paste a generous tablespoon of each I'm gonna add three tablespoons of my spice mix and anything that's left extra you can just preserve it you want to create a nice flavorful Masala that won't overpower but complement the rice I'm gonna add two bay leaves a cinnamon stick red chili powder the turmeric is for color and flavor it's going to add that iconic yellow that Biryani is at the end we're gonna add the very iconic which are dried plums so they're really sticky you usually don't eat them whole you can maybe take a little bite but they're mainly used for perfume and fragrance so while this is getting nice and toasty we're gonna add our Tomatoes I like adding it because it helps form that gravy adds tartness adds sweetness so this is Desi natural dahi dehi is the word for yogurt and Urdu and they see it means from the subcontinent so I would say that I'm a daisy person what's different between Desi yogurt and the yogurt that you might see in the west is that the Western yogurt is trained well this is not so it has a little bit more water to it the Masala is looking incredible once I've added my yogurt and tomatoes I'm going to add my potatoes these are cubed pretty big so that they can cook at the same time as the chicken this is a very controversial step where I'm from from Lahore which is Punjab we don't really usually add potatoes but people from the south from Karachi and Hyderabad think that Biryani is not Biryani if it doesn't have potatoes in it so the last step of this chicken masala is adding the onions back I'm only going to add two thirds and reserve one third to add to the top as garnish it's gonna meld really nicely in with the chicken and the potatoes [Music] long grain basmati rice from India Pakistan is super important I love using zebra Brands there are extra long basmati rice grains they don't break while they're cooking so you really want high quality rice the rice has been washed until the water runs clear and then I soaked it in a few inches of water for at least 30 minutes up to an hour or two this is going to cook for about five minutes it's going to come back up to a rolling boil and when the rice is almost cooked it's going to start coming to the surface and I'm gonna boil my rice until it's about 80 percent done so I'm gonna put a timer on for five minutes and just watch it and as the timer starts to kind of trickle down to its last few seconds I'll take a taste of it and see that it's almost cooked all the way through but still has a bite to it so this is a very crucial step to bring the rice to about 80 to 90 percent done and straining it and stopping the cooking so that it can finish cooking when you're steaming the rice with the chicken rice has been strained the chicken is perfectly cooked down one of the most important visual cues in Pakistani cooking is where the oil separates from the Masala and all the elements that might be in the stew this is kind of what you're looking for where the Masala is kind of cooked down and the spices have gotten nice and toasted and the potatoes should be about half done at this point I'm gonna salt the chicken just lightly that's actually perfect I'm going to move the chicken to the side and I'm gonna bring out the pot that we're gonna assemble our Biryani in I have the lid here wrapped in a kitchen towel I'm gonna make the food coloring the yellow two Biryani is very iconic and there are some dishes specifically rice dishes in Pakistan that add food coloring you get that yellow from the Masala and the turmeric that we added in there but we're gonna add a little bit more saffron is not traditionally used in Biryani in Pakistani cooking it's a little expensive it's not something we use every day we might add it to the Biryani to elevate it maybe make some saffron water for that perfume but a regular day-to-day Biryani that you might get from the market will not have saffron in it so the chicken is going to be in two layers and the rice is going to be in three so I'm gonna add one third of the rice very delicately you don't want to go right to the middle you want to keep that Rice nice and intact and long so you go from the side so you're not smashing the rice and very delicately spreading it out I want to make sure that each layer has an even amount of potatoes an even amount of chicken you can leave the whole cinnamon in it's kind of up to you but since it's such a nice big piece even if somebody accidentally serves it to themselves they'll be able to put it aside we're gonna add the cilantro a third of it in the mint cilantro primarily is one of the most heavily used herbs in Pakistan and mint is right behind it mint is usually used piggybacking the cilantro I'm going to add a couple of slices of lemon this is also purely for perfume and then I'm Gonna Keep building my Biryani so now I'm gonna go with the second third of rice the remaining half of the chicken the second third of mint and cilantro a couple of more slices of lemon the last layer of rice is on top I'm gonna add the last of the herbs then the fried onions this is going to add a nice crunch and savory component lemon and then I like to use a spoon to make little divots in the rice where I'm going to pour the food coloring in and the food coloring is going to go on top as well because if I just do it on top it's not going to go all the way to the bottom but you also don't want the rice to be all yellow so I'm going to turn our heat on for about 15 to 20 minutes I put my rice on dumb dumb is d-u-m and basically means it wasn't quite done and now I'm just steaming it all the way through we put it on the lowest flame until it's done that's going to cook the rice all the way through it's going to cook the chicken all the way through it's going to cook the potatoes all the way through and you don't want to peek once it's closed just let it be depending on your flame you might start to see Steam escaping the sides which is the cue that it's done dumb is a very special technique to South Asia the Biryani cooked for about 20 to 25 minutes I took it off the heat and I let it rest for about 10-15 minutes so it should be good now I'm gonna do the grand unveiling it's beautiful something my mom drilled into me is always make sure that you are fluffing rice from the side versus going right in so you're not smashing the rice Biryani is always served in a platter never in a bowl I can tell that the chicken is perfectly cooked because my spoon hit it and it just fell apart briana's plated have some potato I like dark meat so I always go fishing for that Biryani is always served with raita which is a yogurt sauce and this is just a nice cooling creamy element to a dish that's pretty heavily spiced I am pretty excited about this perfectly perfumed potatoes cooked perfectly chicken is really nice and tender and you get all that layers I think that my mother would be like that's some pretty good Biryani more than flavor they would be looking for like the textures oh your rice is perfectly cooked or chicken is perfectly cooked or your potatoes are turned to much like those would be the things that you would notice before even the flavor but the flavor has obviously a ton of warm spices there's a lot of perfume to it and the cilantro and the mint are just a really nice accent and freshness with the raita delicious if you want to learn how to make Pakistani food Biryani is a really wonderful place to start it's the labor of love but once you nail it it is one of the most satisfying things that you'll make Mom are you proud of me [Music]

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 1,191,333

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Id: psjfRM4m2Rk

Length: 11min 45sec (705 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 12 2023