hyderabadi chicken biryani recipe - Yummy Indian Kitchen (2024)

Hyderabadi chicken biryani recipe is a pakki yakhni method of making chicken biryani where chicken is cooked before placing on dum.

This is a different method of making biryani and in Hyderabad usually biryani is made in two ways one is called as 'kachi yakhni biryani' and the other one is known as 'pakki yakhni biryani'.

Other biryani recipes on the blog are egg biryani, lucknowi biryani. Do try all these biryani recipes from the blog and do give us your feebdback.

About Biryani making:

In Kachi yakhni biryani chicken is marinated with herbs and spices and then put on dum along with rice for a long time so that the chicken and rice is well cooked.

In pakki yakhni chicken biryani, chicken is cooked before and put on dum for a short period of time since the chicken is already cooked.

In this post I would like to share pakki yakhni style of making of hyderabadi chicken biryani recipe where the chicken is cooked already and put on dum along with cooked rice for a short period of time.

Biryani can always be served with raita like raita or can be served with bagara baingan, mirchi ka salan etc...

I have already shared various biryani recipes on the blog and all of them are hyderabadi style of making biryani recipes such as hyderabadi mutton biryani

Chicken biryani recipe that I have already shared is a very delicious quick and easy method of making dum biryani and that is how biryani is put on dum in hyderabadi method of making biryani.

But when I shared chicken biryani recipe on my youtube channel, I have received many queries regarding the softness of chicken.

Many asked me whether the chicken would be cooked or not and the chicken would be raw if chicken is not cooked before and so on...

Actually kachi yakhni method is the quickest and best method of making chicken biryani if one has the basic idea of dum procedure.

But since it is confusing so many out there, I have decided to share another common version of making biryani where the biryani is cooked before and can easily be put on dum where there is no fear of chicken not being cooked.

Rice used for making biryani:

1. Rice is the major part in making biryani.
2. Generally, it is better to use basmati rice and while using basmati rice, one should make sure to make use of aged basmati rice since it gives long grains and does not make the biryani soggy during dum.
3. If basmati rice is not handy then make use of ordinary or normal rice but do not soak the normal rice. Soaking can make your biryani soggy.
4. In this method of pakki yakhni biryani rice should be almost 85% cooked, that is cook the rice for atleast 10-12 minutes and then strain.
5. Adding lemon extract and oil while cooking the rice helps the rice turn out long and it does not appear soggy.
6. Follow these steps to get long grainy rice in the outcome.
7. Do not cook the rice for more than 12 minutes else biryani might turn soggy and tasteless.

I have also shared a video for this recipe to help my viewers understand the recipe in a much better way and it can be made in an hour.

How to make Hyderabadi chicken biryani with step by step photos and procedure :

Step 1(Cooking of chicken):

• Firstly, take a heavy bottomed, flat base non stick handi, add oil and heat it. Add whole garam masala such as cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom.

• Add ginger garlic paste and saute for minutes on low flame to get rid of raw smell.

• Add chicken pieces, mix and roast the chicken until the color changes. The chicken should always be roasted to give a good taste to the chicken.

• Add salt as per taste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, mix well and cook the masala for 2-3 minutes on low flame.

• Add slit green chillies, chopped coriander leaves. Do not mint leaves as it tastes different with pakki yakhni biryani .

• add fried onions, mix well and cook the gravy for 3-4 minutes on low flame.

• Add beaten yogurt, mix and cook the chicken gravy on low flame until oil leaves the sides.

• The gravy masala should be well cooked until oil appears at the sides and corners.

• Add garam masala powder, black pepper corn powder, give a mix.

• Add 2 cups of water into the chicken gravy, mix and cook the chicken for 5 minutes on low flame by covering the lid.

• Cook the chicken for 5-10 minutes. As the chicken is getting cooked, start cooking the rice as well as directed below.

Step 2(Cooking of rice):

• Wash the basmati rice and soak the rice for about 20 minutes while the chicken is getting cooked.

• Take a pan, add water for boiling.

• Into the water add salt as per taste, whole garam masala such as cinnamon stick, black pepper corns, cardamom, cloves, shahi zeera.

• Add oil into the water and lemon extract too into the water. Adding oil and lemon extract while boiling water helps in preventing the rice from getting soggy. The grains remain loose even after dum.

• Bring the water to a boil.

• Add the soaked rice into the boiling water.

• Stir and cook the rice until it is 85% cooked. Stirring the rice up and down once or twice while cooking it helps in all the rice grains cooking evenly .

• Switch off the flame. Strain the rice with the help of a strainer.

• Place the strained rice aside.

Step 3 (Giving of the dum):

• Check if the chicken is ¾th cooked or not. Make sure the chicken is not fully cooked and if cooked even for 15-20 minutes is more than enough as the rest of the chicken will be cooked during the dum procedure. The overall cook time for chicken is usually 40 minutes if slow cooked and here I am tenderizing half of the time while cooking the gravy and remaining half of the chicken will be cooked during dum process.

• Now, over the chicken add the complete rice layer and spread it evenly.

• Add the lemon extract all over the rice. Add chopped coriander and mint leaves.

• Pour the saffron infused milk all over the rice. Add oil and fried onions all over, spread the onions evenly. Add ghee all over the rice. Seasoning with all these ingredients is not mandatory and can be skipped and just season with whichever ingredients are handy among the mentioned ingredients. Ghee adds fragrance to the dish and oil can be skipped if ghee is added.

• Cover the lid of the handi tightly. Cover the hole of the lid with a clove or atta dough if there is a hole. Place a tawa on the stove. Place the handi on the tawa. Dum on high flame for 10 minutes.

• Dum on low flame to medium flame for 10 more minutes.

• Switch off the flame when done. When biryani is done and when lid is open we can see the vapors on the top and the rice too is cooked well This is a sign of biryani cooked well. Take the biryani out from the bottom to the top.
• Serve it hot on a plate. Garnish with lemon wedges or onions rings.

• Serve hot with raita.
• The video below explains the process completely.

Check out the video procedure for making hyderabadi chicken biryani recipe:

FAQ'S FOR THE RECIPE:

Why is my biryani soggy and mushy?

This could be due to overcooking of rice in water. Never cook rice more than required. For pakki yakhni boil the rice in boiling water for 12 minutes and for dum cook the rice for not more than 8-10 minutes. If rice is cooked for a long time it turns soggy during dum.

How to make it less spicy or mores spicy?

Adding of whole spices while rice is boiling or while cooking chicken in more quantity can make the rice spicy but spicy biryani is hard to eat as the throat burns a lot while eating spicy recipe due to strong flavor of whole spices mainly if more cloves and cinnamon is added.

Is saffron water or food color mandatory?

Traditionally saffron is added during dum but homemade cooking can skip all expensive ingredients such as saffron, ghee and yet get a better taste.

Adding yellow food color, orange food color are not mandatory and they just give an appealing look to the rice but adding of artificial color is not necessary.

Why is my hyderabadi biryani dry?

It is because of less oil in the gravy and rice as well as the it happens when the ratio if rice and chicken is not right. While marinating ingredients used should be in right proportion to chicken and rice. Onions, yogurt and other spices added little less than required too can make biryani dry.

Can we make dum biryani?

Yes I have already shared chicken dum biryani and mutton dum biryani using kachhi yakhni procedure where I have used raw chicken and raw marinated meat and given dum directly without cooking the chicken or mutton.

How to seal tightly while giving dum?

There are simple ways to tighten the lid or seal tightly.

• Cover the lid and place a heavy weight on the lid.
• Second way is to seal the top with a dough and place the lid tightly to avoid steam from escaping out.
• Another method is to cover with an aluminium foil and then cover with a lid.
• All these methods do not let the steam out and helps in cooking biryani well inside steam.
• I have used a pot lid which had a hole and just covered it with a clove to not let the steam escape out.

What to do if biryani burns at the base?

Just place a tawa or gridle below the pot to avoid direct contact of heat and can prevent burning of biryani to a large extent.

Hyderabadi chicken biryani recipe:

Recipe

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