Kovai Hotel Angannan special Chicken biriyani - கோவை அங்கண்ணன் ஹோட்டல் பிரியாணி - step by step

  Its been so long, I posted a recipe. Blame it on the laptop. It was broke.I was waiting for the laptop to get repaired.Mean while, I was preparing so many recipes and archiving. Had a good vacation in "Chicago". Got some time to post today, besides tiredness :)

   Recently, saw this recipe in a cooking show, by a Chef.The name grabbed my attention.The recipe, stated that the biriyani will taste good, when we use seeraga samba rice instead basmati rice. I had a small bag of seeraga samba rice - which i got from India. So used it.Samba rice will be small compared to the basmati rice, but when we cook it, the aroma is too good.It tastes too good. The biriyani is spiced up using green chillies. So alter the number of green chillies according to your taste. This biriyani doesn't need tomatoes. It is replaced by curd and lemon juice.

Ingredients:
To grind :
1.Pearl onions  -  5 or 7
2.Green chillies -  4
3.Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
4.Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
5.Cinnamon sticks - 1/4 inch
6.Cloves - 4
7.Cardamom - 2

For biriyani :
0.Chicken - 1 kg
1.Seeraga samba rice - 2 cups
2.Big onion - 1 1/2
3.Green chillies - 4
4.Mint leaves - 1/2 cup
5.Cilantro - 1/2 cup
6.Cinnamon sticks - 1 or 2
7.Cardamom - 2
8.Cloves - 4
9.Bay leaves - 3
10.Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
11.Water - 4 cups
12.Curd - 1/4 cup
13.Salt - to taste
14.Oil - 1/4 cup
15.Ghee - 2 tbsp

Method:
* Slice the big onion thinly,chop the mint leaves and cilantro well.Take seeraga samba rice or jeera rice, wash it well and soak it for atleast 30 minutes.If you don't have samba rice, we can just replace it with basmati rice. Just use 3 cups of water instead of 4 cups.

* Take a blender, add small onions,green chillies,cinnamon sticks,cardamom,turmeric powder and ginger garlic paste. Blend them well, without any chunks. Wash the chicken well for 4 or 5 times. Finally wash it with turmeric powder. Turmeric powder will remove the raw smell of the chicken. Add the grinded paste to the chicken ,along with curd.Add little salt to the chicken.Marinate for atleast 15 minutes. If you have time, marinate it overnight.

 * Take a biriyani pan or a heavy bottomed pan.Add oil and heat it. When the oil is hot, add whole garam masala ( cinnamon sticks,cardamom,cloves and bay leaves ). Add the green chillies, it should burst out. Now add the sliced onion  ,chopped mint leaves and saute till golden brown. This is very essential to get a flavourfull biriyani.Add little salt to the onion ,for it to cook soon.When the onion is golden brown, add the marinated chicken to the pan.

* Saute the marinated chicken with the onion.When the chicken is cooked , add the soaked rice and fry it along with the chicken. We can also fry the rice separately in a pan. Frying the rice will make it to stay separated, without messing.

* Mean while , heat 4 cups of water to rolling boil. Add it to the pan. This hot water ,will make the cooking process to speeden up.If you don't wat, just add cold water. Cover the pan and cook the biriyani in medium fla.Adjust salt to taste now.Add the lime juice now.

* When the biriyani is 90% done, add chopped cilantro and turn the flame to low. Drizzle the ghee on top and cover the pan and let it cook in "dhum" for the next 10 minutes. Once the biriyani is cooked, mix it using a fork and serve with raita.

Notes:
* This biriyani, doesn't use chilli powder, so try to adjust the spice level, by altering the green chillies.
* We can also use basmati rice instead of samba rice. But use less water than the samba rice.
* Using hot water to cook the biriyani is purely optional.It decreases the cooking time.
* Don't skip the marination part. Marination makes the chicken tender.