mutta mala

Cooking Time:  20  Minutes

Preparation Time:  25  Minutes

Ingredients: 

1. Egg     10    nos.
2. Sugar     1    cup
3. Water     2    cups

Thalassery Style - Chicken Dum Biriyani

Description

Thalassery Chicken Biriyani is a traditional Biriyani recipe of North Kerala. Here, we describe how to prepare a perfect Thalassery Biriyani that is a favorite of many food lovers all over the World. We have to cover several careful steps and procedures to get the best and ideal Thalassery chicken biryani for our friends and families. This biryani recipe can be the most shared recipe item through Homely Kitchen. This will be perfectly suited for parties of any kind, wedding, ceremonies etc. Its incredible taste can be a sensation in the food lovers’ world. This biryani recipe is one of the best and magnificent dishes in Homely Kitchen with exquisite taste.

Ingredients

1. Chicken- 1 kg
2. Biriyani Rice- 1 kg ( 5 glass )
3. Onion - 6,chopped
4. Tomato - 3 big size
5. Green chilly-8
6. Ginger- a big piece
7. Garlic - 6 peeled cloves
8. Turmeric powder-1 1/2 tsp
9. Chilly powder-2 tbsp
10. Garam masala-1 tsp
11. Salt - to taste
12. Lemon-1
13. Curry leaves- 3 sprig
14. Cilantros - 2 sprig
15. Raisins-6
16. Cashew nuts - 6
17. Oil - 100 gm
18. Ghee - 50 gm
19. Water-7 1/2 glass 

Preparation

Making the chicken masala

• Marinate chicken with 1tsp turmeric powder,2 tbsp chilli powder and salt and keep it for 10 to 15 minutes.
  Sauté it it a frying pan by pouring oil for 10 to 15 minutes(Not fry).

• Heat a vessel and pour oil(you can take the balance oil that is used for frying the chicken) and put chopped onions by adding salt and saute until it turns brown color.​
• Add tomatoes into it and saute well.
• Then add green chilly,garlic and ginger paste into and saute it too.
• Add ½ tsp turmeric powder into it.
• Now add curry leaves and cilantros into it .
• Add fried/cooked chicken pieces into the masala,mix well and close it with a lid and make the fire in simmer mode.Let it cook for some time.
• Open the lid after a few minutes and turn over the masala with a stirrer.Now our masala is ready.

​

Making the biriyani rice

• Heat another vessel and pour oil.
• Put 1 cup of chopped onion into the boiling oil and fry it until brown color.

• Put raisins and cashew nuts into it and fry them too.
• Remove the fried onion, raisins and cashews from the oil and keep it aside.

• Pour the water into it and let it boil or you can add boiled water so that it will boil easily.
• Add the salt.
• squeeze a piece of lemon into the water.
• Add the cleaned biriyani rice into the boiling water and mix well.

• Close the vessel with a lid and let it cook .
• Turn out the sides using a stirrer at regular intervals.Make sure the rice should not stick at the bottom of the vessel.Make the fire in simmer mode and check whether the rice is cooked or not.If not cook it for few more minutes.
• Now our biriyani rice is also ready.​ Switch off the fire.

• Take the biriyani rice in a quarter plate or a stirrer and place it over the chicken masala and make a layer(1/3 of the rice should be placed over the masala).Make the fire in simmer mode.This is known as dhum.
• Put the fried onion,cashew nuts and raisins over it along with 1/4 tsp garam masala and cilantros.
• Make another layer with the rice and put the above things.Again continue the layering and press the rice with a stirrer.
• Close the vessel tightly with a lid ( You can place a weight over the lid so that it will be closed tightly ).Then only the spicy taste of the masala joins with the rice.
• Let it cook for few minutes.

• Open the lid after 5  minutes and again retake the biriyani rice into the biriyani vessel using a stirrer until the masala portion reaches.
• Now our  delicious Thalassery Chicken Biriyani is ready .There will be some yellowish rice over the masala .Mix it along with the rice in the vessel.

​

Serve it separately in two plates or you can place the rice over the masala and serve it...

Thalassery Chicken Biriyani Very easy recipe

Ingredients:-
For Chicken Masala:-

1. One Chicken(bone in) cut into medium size pieces ~ 2.2 lbs(1Kg)
2. Turmeric ~ ¾ tsp
3. Chilly power ~  ½ tsp(optional, I add them mostly)
4. Salt ~ 2 tsp(Will have to check  for the salt at the end of masala preparation and adjust)
5. Big Onions finely sliced - 4(~ 5 cups)
6. Tomato finely sliced - 2(~ 2 ½  to 3)
7. Fresh Ginger crushed or finely chopped or paste ~ 2tbsp
8. Fresh Garlic Crushed or finely chopped or paste ~ 2 tbsp
9. Green chilies crushed or paste or finely chopped - 12 to 14 numbers(can add more to make it more spicy, I make it medium spicy)
10. Garam Masala powder ~ 1½  tsp
11. Coriander leaves chopped ~ ¾ cup
12. Mint leaves chopped ~  ¼ cup
13. Curry leaves two sprigs
14. Freshly squeezed Lime Juice from a Lime ~ 2 tbsp
15. Oil ~ 2 tbsp

For Ghee Rice:-

1. Jeera Rice/Basmathi Rice - 4 Cups
2. Water - 6 to 6 ½ Cups 
3. Cinnamon Stick - 2 inch size broken into halves
4. Green Cardamom Pods - 5
5. Cloves  - 8
6. Bay leaves 2(optional)
7. Whole Pepper corns ~ 10 nos(optional, I like to add them though normal recipes do not call for it)
8. Curry leaves a sprig
9. Ghee ~ 2 tbsp
10. Freshly squeezed Lime Juice ~ 1tbsp(optional)
11. Salt to taste ~ 2 tsp(check and adjust accordingly)

To Garnish:-

1. Cashews a handful
2. Raisins a handful
3. Finely sliced Onion - 1(~ 1 cup)
4. Oil to deep fry onion (~ ½ cup)
5. Saffron ~ 1 tbsp(can use orange food color instead)
6. Milk ~ ½ cup
7. Chopped coriander leaves ~ 2tbsp
8. Ghee/Oil ~ 2 tsp(used at the end for layering and doing dum)

Getting Ready:-

1. Deep fry the onion(using ½ cup oil mentioned) till golden color and set aside(don't fry till brown color as they tend to cook and change color even after taking out from the oil).
2. You can fry cashews and raisins in the same oil if you like or saute it in ghee before making rice.
3. Bring  milk to boil by adding saffron, simmer and let it boil for 3-4 minutes. Take off the stove and set aside.

           

4. Clean the Chicken, wash well, drain of the water and pat dry. Marinate with 1 tsp salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder and set aside for 30 minutes or more if possible.

Preparation Method:-
Making Biriyani's Chicken Masala:-

• Heat up a thick bottom vessel, pour 2 tbsp oil, add the onion, ginger, garlic, green chilies, curry leaves, remaining 1 tsp salt and saute in medium heat till onion turns translucent. 
• Add tomatoes and saute again well till they become soft and start to breakdown leaving its juice. 
• Now add the chicken pieces, stir well to mix everything, cover with a proper lid and let it cook till chicken is almost done in low-medium heat. It should be a slow cooking process where chicken will cook in its own moisture along with onion-tomato gravy. So always let it cook in low heat.(Chicken should not be fully cooked here, It takes around 10-15 minutes and will continue to cook another 5-10 minutes after adding other ingredients)  
• Open the lid, add the chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves, lime/lemon juice and stir well to mix. Add the garam masala powder and saute again to mix everything. Cover it with a tight lid and let it cook again so that chicken absorbs all the flavor of garam masala and other ingredients and is fully done. It takes around 5-10 minutes in low-med heat.
• Take off the stove and set aside till ghee rice is ready.

Making Ghee Rice:-

• Wash rice three to four times in water till you get a clear water, drain the rice fully and set aside. 
• Heat up a wide vessel, add ghee, saute the cashews till light brown and set aside. Add the raisins and saute till they pop up, take out and set aside. 
• Now add cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, cloves, pepper corns and saute well till you start getting a nice aroma of spices. 
• Pour water to it, add salt, squeezed lime juice, few curry leaves and bring to boil. Add rice, stir gently with a spatula till the bottom of the pan just to remove any sticky rice from the bottom. Simmer the heat to medium, cover with an air-tight lid and let it cook until almost done.  
• Open the lid once the water is absorbed(rice should not be fully cooked, but will continue to cook during the dum process) and take off the stove.
• Let it cool for couple of minutes, say around 10-15 minutes, if you try to flip or toss the rice when it is very hot it will tend to break and stick. 
• Stir gently with a spatula when the high steam subsides, move to two-three platters so that they don't form lumps and don't stick together. This way you will get a very nice non-lumpy, non-sticky rice. Proceed for the final stage of layering and dumming :-)

Final stage: Layering and Dumming the Biriyani in low heat:-

• Now Stove top Layering can be done in two ways

1. very simple and my favorite way is:

• Heat up a thick bottom pan, add 2 tsp oil(or ghee), simmer the heat to medium. Now Dump the chicken masala to the bottom, top it with half the rice, fried cashews, raisins, fried onions, coriander leaves, drizzle few drops of saffron milk all over the rice. 
• Top it with the remaining rice, followed by cashews, raisins, fried onions, coriander leaves. Pour the rest of the saffron milk all over the rice. 

Just before doing dumm, look at the saffron milk floating on the raisins n cashews :-)

• Cover it with an air tight lid or place a kitchen towel flatten on top of the vessel and cover to seal tight with the lid. Cook in low heat until you see steam releasing from the sides of the vessel. Its is the right time to take them off the flame, the rice will be cooked fully absorbing all the flavor of chicken masala and will be very light, fluffy with individual grains.

See the steam coming from the top sides of the vessel, not that clear though :-)

After the dum process, looks yumm right?

• You can gently move the rice with a sauce pan or spatula from the top to the sides, take the biriyani masala from the bottom and  move to the serving plate.

•  Now take a generous amount of rice with the saucepan/spatula and top over the chicken masala. 

• Spread some more raisins, cashews, onions, and coriander leaves and Serve with pickle, pappads and raita. Yummy yumm 

                                                                 OR

2.  Layer Rice and Biriyani masala alternatively and dum.

• Heat a wide vessel, keep in low heat, pour 2 tsp of oil, spread half the rice on the bottom of the vessel, top it with masala gravy and chicken, topped with fried cashews, raisins, fried onions, coriander leaves and few drops of saffron milk.

                                    

• Repeat the process with remaing rice, masala, fried cashews, raisins, onions and saffron milk. Cover with an air tight lid and cook in low heat till steam starts to release from the sides of the pan.

• Move to a serving plate, garnish with more raisins, cashews and fried onion. Serve warm with pappads, pickles and chutney.

Note:-
Conventional Oven Method:- You can do dum the biriyani in conventional oven also. Pre-heat the oven to 350 Degree F in baking mode. Take an oven proof dish or silver foil tray, layer with half the rice, top with half the chicken masala, nuts and onions. Repeat the same process alternatively. Seal it air tight with the oven proof lid or silver foil sheet. Bake around 30-40 minutes.