Chicken 65 Biryani

I love biryani and Chicken 65 biryani is my top most favorite. For every other biryani, I definitely require a side dish but not for this one. It is too good on its own.  And here I have to mention one thing about my SILs, though I love to eat biryani soooo much, I never learned to do it mainly because whenever my 3 SILs visit us or if I visit them, they will do their style biryani for me ( yes!! specially for me :) ) Even after I learned from them, during their visits biryani is always done by them. They will say "I will do, you just enjoy it hot!!" Yep, thats how I like my biryani very hot straight from the stove ( aavi paraka!! ) Love my SILs :)

This Chicken 65 Biryani was introduced to me by 3rd SIL Gomathi. You may think whats so special about adding chicken 65 pieces to a biryani?? But trust me it is special!!! Somehow the chicken 65 pieces combined with this biryani masala makes it so awesome. Normally where chicken pieces in biryani are left back, here people will be hunting for some more :) OK now without any further ado onto the recipe...

You can check out my Chicken 65 recipe here

INGREDIENTS:
Chicken 65 pieces - 3/ 4 kg
Seraga Samba rice - 2 1/2 cups
Water - 5 cups
Onion - 3 ( sliced )
Tomato -1 ( small )
Green Chilli - 9 ( 5+4)
Shallots - 3/4 cup
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Coriander Leaves - 1 handful ( finely chopped )
Mint leaves - 20 ( finely chopped )
Oil - 2 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Bay Leaf - 2
Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
To Grind:
Fennel Seeds - 1 tbsp
Cashew - 5
Kasa kasa ( poppy seed ) - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 1/2" stick
Cloves - 2
Cardamom - 1
Coconut - 1 small piece ( as shown in pic )
METHOD:
1) Grind all the ingredients under the title To Grind  to a smooth paste. I used my ammi ( grinding stone ) you can use your mixer too.

2) Pulse the shallots and 5 green chilli just once or twice ( here a gain I used my ammi, you can do it in your mixer ) No need to do a fine paste ( refer picture ) Wash and soak the rice in water for 10 to 15 minutes.

3) Drain the rice and keep it aside. In a pressure cooker, Heat oil and ghee and toss the bay leaf ( I normally tear it before tossing in oil to get maximum flavour ) Add in the onions and fry for about a minute. Add the pulsed onion and green chilli mixture.

4) Add the remaining 4 green chilli ( slit vertically ) Fry for a minute and add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell leaves. Next add the tomato and fry till it turns mushy.

5) Add the ground masala and fry for 1 - 2 minutes and add the chilli powder. Next add the chopped coriander and mint leaves and mix well.

6) Finally add 5 cups water. After it comes to a boil add the drained rice.

7) When the rice is more than 50 % cooked ( refer above picture ) add the chicken pieces and mix well. Close the pressure cooker without the whistle.

8) When the steam starts to come out put on the whistle and keep it in the lowest flame for 10 minutes. Then transfer the cooker to a heated tawa for 10 more minutes in the lowest flame.

After the pressure releases enjoy your super hot and super tasty Chicken 65 Biryani!!!!

NOTES:
1) For Chicken 65, you can use ready made masala or prepare yourself. I have tried both the versions and both are so good. Here I used homemade version which I will post soon.
2) Normally for biryani we use 1 : 1.5 ratio for rice and water. But here in this biryani it is 1:2 which is totally perfect for this biryani. I have tried the same biryani with 1:1.5 ratio too but liked the former better.
3) Using this tawa method totally works for me, there is no burnt rice at the bottom :)
4) You can also use basmati rice instead of seraga samba rice.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#48

Cheers,
Sindhiya.S