Chicken Dum Biriyani

 Ive never been to Calicut in my life but have a lot of friends from there. So, have heard a lot about Kozhikode Biriyani but never ever had a chance to taste it. My neighbours in Chennai were 5 Engineering students and one of them was from Calicut, Amal. The rest of them always used to tell me about Amal's Mom's Biriyani along with the rest of the delicacies her mom cooks.
Recently, I got Lekha on chat and Lekha said she has Amal's mom's biriyani recipe with her and upon my request, sent it immediately with a picture for my reference. So this is that recipe, Ive not done any changes except for cutting down on the measurements- I just made with 2 cups rice and I have to tell you, it is simply out of the world!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband was all praises and said it is even better than the Biriyani from the best hotel in Calicut.

Chicken - 1/2 kg cut into medium size pieces
Garlic -5
Ginger-1 inch
Tomatoes - 2 chopped
Green chillies - 2 slit
Onions - 3 sliced
Fresh pepper powder - 11/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Lime juice - 1 tbsp
Curd - 2 tbsp
Garam masala- 1/2 tsp Get the recipe here

Coriander leaves - 1 big handful chopped
Mint leaves - 1 handful chopped
Salt and Oil- as required

To prepare rice:(make the rice after the biryani masala is ready)
Basmati rice - 2 cups
Water - 3-4 cups
Onion - 1 sliced
Cumin seeds(Jeera) - 1 tsp
Cardamom pods(Elakka) - 3
Cloves -4
Cinnamon sticks - 3 small pieces
Bay leaves - 2 or 3 nos
Ghee - 2 to 3 tbsp
Salt - As required

To garnish the Biryani:
Onions - 2 small thinly sliced
Cashew nuts
Raisin
Ghee and oil to fry the onions

Prepare Biryani masala first:
1)Wash chicken well and cut into big pieces.
2)Grind ginger, garlic and chillies.
3)Heat pressure cooker and add oil.
4)Saute crushed ginger, garlic, chillies and onions along with salt until the onions become pale.
5)Add tomatoes and saute it until it softens.
6)Then add chicken, pepper powder and turmeric powder. Mix well and cook for 5 minutes.
7) After 5 minutes, you can pressure cook for 3 whistles on high flame. There will be enough water coming from chicken/tomato/onions.
8)Once the chicken is cooked, wait until the pressure cooker cools down or until all the pressure releases from the cooker.
9)If the gravy is a lot, boil them again to reduce the gravy. (If you are preparing for more rice make sure you have enough gravy).
10) Add lime juice, chopped coriander and chopped mint leaves.
11)After 5 minutes and if the meat is cooked well, add curd and stir well. Once the curd is mixed do not boil it.
12)Add garam masala and close the pressure cooker with a lid and switch it off.

To prepare rice:
1)Wash rice well and pour enough water to immerse the rice and keep it for 15 minutes.
2)Heat a vessel and put the ghee. When the ghee is hot enough, put the onions and saute well until onion starts changing the color.
3)Add cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, cumin seeds and bay leaves
4)Pour 3 to 4 cups of water into the vessel. Make sure you don`t put more water than needed. If the water is not enough you can add water at a later stage.
3)Add salt to this.
4)Now strain the rice and put it into the vessel.
5)Cook the rice in high flame with lid open. When the water is almost gone, close the lid and cook the rice for around 5 minutes. Make sure the rice doesn`t over cook. Also make sure you cook the rice enough. You can keep checking it by pressing the rice.
6)Once the rice is cooked, just mix the rice without messing the rice up. You can just shake the vessel also to mix it.

Make dum for biryani:
1)Take a oven safe thick vessel and apply ghee in the vessel.
2)Divide the rice into 3 portions and Biriyani masala into 2 portions.
3)Now, sprinkle garam masala on top of the rice. Put enough garam masala around little less than half teaspoon.
4)Now put the first portion of rice into the vessel and spread it nicely and put the 1st portion of biryani masala with chicken and spread it.
5)Now put the 2nd portion of rice and spread nicely. Sprinkle the garam masala as mentioned above.
6)Now put the remaining portion of masala with chicken and spread it nicely.
7)Spread the 3rd portion of rice on top of the biryani masala and sprinkle the garam masala as mentioned above.
8)Take a long spoon and just push into the bottom and move a little. It is just to do a small mix of rice and chicken. Do it in 2 or 3 places. Don`t mix it too much.
9)Now spread the cashew, raisins and onions on top of the rice.
10)Cover the vessel with aluminium foil.
11)Preheat oven to 180C.  Keep the covered biriyani in the oven for 20 minutes at 180C.
12)Take out the vessel and mix the biryani well with masala and the onions.
Serve with Raitha, pickles and Papad.

Make garnishing:
1)Fry the cashew nuts in ghee and oil. Keep it aside when the color of the cashew starts changing.

2)Fry the raisins and keep it aside.

3)Now, fry the onion until it becomes golden color. Once it is fried, place it on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.

4)Home made Garam Masala must be prepared before you are done with the rice.