Chicken Biryani

اَعُوْذُ بِاللهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيْمِ
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمن الرَّحِيْمِ

Assalaamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaathu everyone!

If you haven’t had biryani rice, then you are missing out. There are so biryani recipes out there, but this Pakistani chicken biryani recipe is the one for me.

The first time I made homemade chicken biryani masala instead of using a store-bought masala was in Ramadan. I had absolutely no clue how to make chicken biryani without the packet and I looked up a lot of recipes to finally come up with my own. When I finally did make it my sister and mother liked it, but my brothers not so much. My brothers claimed it was really bland and didn’t have any flavour. I decided that the next time I would have to adjust the ingredients accordingly in the hope that the biryani would have more flavour. And it worked! I actually prefer this chicken biryani recipe to restaurant style chicken biryani as I always find the Indian rice in restaurants quite hard.

Another tip I have is to wash the rice really thoroughly and be sure to soak it. I know some people don’t do that, but I have noticed a significant difference when I have been too lazy to soak the rice or have forgot to. When you wash the rice, it helps to remove the starch. Depending on the rice you use you might need to wash more or less as some rice is not as starchy as others. Soaking the rice is important because the rice absorbs the water to give a fluffier texture. Again, the length of time of the soaking depends on the type of rice used as some will need to be soaked for longer. Be careful not to oversoak the rice as that is a thing.

This chicken dum biryani recipe might seem a bit strange because I put it in the oven, but it’s something that I have learnt from my mother. You can just cover it with a lid and allow it to steam on top as I have written in the recipe but I find putting in the oven actually helps a lot and makes the rice absorb all the flavours and the chicken becomes really tender and moist. You can do it without putting it in the oven and it will still taste delicious, but I really do recommend you put it in the oven for the best chicken biryani. I usually put it in the oven for half an hour at gas mark 8 and the rice becomes really soft and absorbs all the flavours from the chicken masala. Trust me, try it. If you don’t have an oven you can always use the hob.

Try this spicy rice recipe for the perfect chicken dum biryani.