Chicken Biriyani - Calicut Style

I learnt this delicious recipe from my friend's mom, Roopa aunty who is an amazing cook. This is one of my no-fail recipes that always fetches me a lot of compliments. So here goes:-

Ingredients

For biriyani rice

1. Basmati rice - 3 cups
2. Ghee - 4 to 5 tbsp.
3. Ginger paste - 1 and 1/2 tbsp.
4. Garlic paste - 1 and 1/2 tbsp.
5. Boiling water - 6 cups (i.e. double qty. of rice)
6. Salt to taste

For chicken masala

1. Chicken - 1 kg
2. Red chilli powder - 3 unheaped tsp.
3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp.
4. Onion - 2 large finely chopped
5. Ginger - 3 inch piece
6. Green chillies - 15 to 20
7. Garlic - 1 whole pod or 25 small cloves
8. Shredded coconut - a handful
9. Fennel seeds - 1 and 1/2 tsp.
10. Coriander powder - 2 tsp.
11. Garam masala - 1 and 1/2 tsp
12. Tomato - 1 medium
13. Salt to taste

To garnish

1. Lime juice - Juice of a 1/2 lemon
2. Onion - 1 medium
3. Cashew nuts - to fry and garnish
4. Kismis - to fry and garnish
5. Garam masala - enough to sprinkle
6. Coriander leaves - to garnish
7. Mint leaves - to garnish
8. Ghee
9. Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Clean and marinate the chicken in red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt and keep aside.
2. To prepare rice, clean the rice and keep aside to drain. Heat a vessel and pour 4 - 5 tbsp. ghee. As it heats up, add ginger and garlic paste and fry a little. Do not let it turn brown though. Add the drained rice and fry on medium flame for about 5 to 8 minutes till the rice turns a dull cream color. Add boiling water and close the lid. Cook it till all the water evaporates. (If rice is cooked in pressure cooker, 5 and 1/4 cups of water is only needed. Cook on high flame till the first whistle and switch off. Let the pressure release on its own completely before opening.
   Note: Cooking in a vessel with a glass lid is a more guaranteed way to get perfectly cooked rice, as you can monitor the amount of water and rice being cooked)
3. To prepare the chicken masala, grind or crush ginger, green chillies and garlic separately and keep aside.
4. In a vessel, add ghee and saute the finely chopped onions, As they become slightly brown, add and saute ginger, green chillies and garlic separately and in the same order. 
5. Grind shredded coconut, fennel seeds, coriander powder and garam masala coarsely and add to the vessel and mix well.
6. Once the rawness of the mixture has gone, add the tomato cut into small pieces. Cook till the tomato turns mushy. Add salt to taste.
7. Now add the marinated chicken and cook well until almost all the water from the chicken has been absorbed. Do not make the chicken completely dry though.
8. In a separate vessel, in ghee, fry kismis first, then cashews and then onions and keep aside or garnishing.

Layering the biriyani

1. Take a large heavy bottom vessel (preferably nonstick, as food tends to stick to steel bottom vessels) and heat a little ghee in it.
2. Spread a large spoonful of chicken and sprinkle coriander leaves and mint leaves on it. On this, add the cooked rice enough to cover the chicken, add a little lime juice, sprinkle some garam masala, fried onions, cashews and kismis.
3. Repeat step 2
4. Close the vessel and heat on low flame for about five minutes till steam starts to rise. It is important to use a heavy bottom pan, as charred food on the bottom can ruin the entire biriyani.
5. Open the vessel and mix everything well.
6. Serve hot with salad.