Indian royal dinners are never considered complete without a hot pot of aromatic and tasty biryani. Although cooking biryani is nothing but a form of cooking art, it is comparatively easy to ace the genuine flavor and make a pleasant chicken biryani. Finding the authentic recipe can be daunting, so to ease your problem, ZiFiti offers you a simple recipe. It doesn’t involve much of an effort and also offers you the rich taste you’re looking for. If you are missing the Indian royal taste of biryani, buy all biryani masalas of various renowned brands from ZiFiti and make perfect biryani at your home. It takes just 35 minutes to prepare and 50 minutes to cook. Good to serve for five to six people. You can buy all the ingredients from ZiFiti online.

Ingredients for Biryani

• 3½ cups water
• 2⅓ cups long-grain Basmati rice
• 4 Bay leaves
• ½ cup Warm Milk
• pinch saffron strands
• ¼ cup ghee
• 2 onions thinly sliced
• 2 green chillies chopped
• For marinade
• 500 gms chicken thighs or drumsticks
• 10 black peppercorns
• 6 whole cloves
• 5 cardamom pods
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 whole star anise
• 1 bunch of fresh coriander leaves·1 bunch of fresh mint leaves
• ½ tsp black cumin seeds
• 1 cup yogurt
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp biryani masala
• Salt to taste

Step by step instructions to cook Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

1. Crush black peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, star anise and cumin seeds into a fine powder. Chop mint and coriander leaves finely.
2. Mix all dry spices, chopped mint and coriander leaves and other marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix all of them. Add the chicken to coat it well. Apply a plastic wrap to cover the bowl and let the marinated chicken sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
3. Wash the rice carefully. Take a pan and add water and rice in it. Once it boils, now add 2 bay leaves and lessen the heat to medium-low. Cover and let it simmer until rice is incompletely cooked and is firm. This might take about 5 minutes. Once done, drain the rice. Mix saffron to a bowl with milk, stir and keep it aside.
4. Pour ghee to a large pot with a fitted lid or a pressure cooker; heat it over medium to high flame. Mix the onions in it and fry until it gets golden brown for about 15 minutes. Drain them on a paper towel. Now, you need to switch the flame to low and add bay leaves, green or red chillies as per your choice, and stir for about 1-2 minutes. Take a tbsp of ghee and set it aside.
5. Now it’s time to add the chicken along with the marinade into the pot and you need to cook for 2 minutes per side until it’s no longer pink. Spread the drained rice on top, sprinkle fried onions and drizzle ghee with saffron milk on top. Cook for 8-10 minutes over a high flame enclosed with a lid. Then reduce the flame to low and carry on cooking for 5 minutes.
6. Switch off the flame and let it stand enclosed for about 15 minutes. You should garnish with mint and coriander leaves on top. Serve hot with raita or green chutney and green salad.