Kolkata Chicken Biriyani

This is a culmination of extreme hard work, failures and research. We all love biriyani, but There are a number of tricks that could make the experience heavenly. Here's something that worked for me

Ingredients:

• Chicken (~1 - 1.5 lbs)
• Basmati Rice( 1.5 cups)
• Yogurt(~3/4 cup)
• Potatoes(2-3 large cut into Half)
• Onion(1 large)
• Ginger Garlic paste(Homemade preferred , about 2 tablespoons)
• Ginger Garlic Juice(1 garlic and 2 small pieces of Ginger pasted with more water)
• Biriyani Masala(Homemade preferred)
• Turmeric(1 + 1 tablespoon)
• Kashmiri Red Chili powder(4 tbsp)
• Red Chili Powder(4 tbsp)
• Cashew Powder(10-12 cashews)
• Whole Cloves(4 pcs),Cardamom(4 pcs), Cinnamon(1 stick), Black Cardamom( 1pc), Mace(1 flower), Star Anise(1 pc)
• Ghee(3-4 tbsp)
• Aloo Bukhara(Dired plums 4-5 pcs)
• Saffron (3-4 strands)
• Whole milk(1 tbsp)
• Heavy Cream(1 tbsp)
• Khowa Kheer
• kewara(~ 5 tsp)
• Rose Water(~ 3tsp)
• Meetha Atar(~ 5 drops)
• Oil(I use a mix of Veg, Mustard and Ghee ~ 1 cup)
• food color(optional but gives a nice flare)
• Boiled eggs (Optional)

Setup:

• Marinade Chicken - (This step is not mandatory, but really enhances the taste of chicken. I usually do this the night before i plan to make the biriyani) - mix 1/4 cup Yogurt, 3 tbsp Biriyani Masala,2 tbsp Kashmiri Chili, 1 tbsp Turmeric, 2 tbsp red chili powder, Ginger- Garlic paste, 2 drops meetha atar, salt to taste in a bowl, a pinch of color and add and coat the chicken. add somemustard oil and mix for the marinade to settle
• Prepare Saffron - microwave the whole milk for ~15s and put the saffrons in it. The longer you can keep it the better. add 1 tsps of kewara and rose waters here too
• Prepare Aloo Bukhara - heat the aloo bukhara in about 1 tbsp of ghee in the microwave for a minute
• Prepare Rice - Wash and Soak the rice for at least an hr. Take care while washing so that the basmati doesn't break
• Start the Oven - If you're using an Oven pre-heat it to 450 F. Otherwise you can ignore this

Recipe:

• In a pressure cooker, mix in 1/4 cup curd, 1 tsp kewara, 2 tbsp ghee, 1 tbsp kashmiri and 1 tbsp red chili powders, 1 tbsp turmeric, 1 drop meetha attar, salt to taste, a pinch of color
• Add the potatoes to the above with about 1/2 cup or so of water so that they are submerged. Cook it in high pressure for about 3 mins
• Release the steam and take out the potatoes
• Take a deep bottom pan and heat up the oil mix. This will be all the oil needed for the entire process
• Once the oil is hot deep fry the boiled potatoes till golden brown and set aside
• Next put the chicken pieces in and sear them till they're golden as well
• Next put in the onions and fry them to crispy brown. Here's a good link for this process of making Birista . Take the onions out and set aside
• Now in the Pressure cooker where the residue from boiling the potatoes is still there, mix the remaining yogurt, the ginger garlic juice, 1 tbsp each of Red and Kashmiri chili powders, 1 tsp turmeric, 2 tbsp biriyani masala and the remianing oil
• Put in the chicken pieces and cook covered for ~15 mins till the chicken is tender. Let it cool a bit. The oil will separate from the gravy. Take the chicken pieces out. Then store the oil in a separate bowl. It will come out easily if poured carefully This is very important to get the appropriate color
• Now make the rice. For that, take 3.5 cups of warm water and bring it to boil. Add Whole Garam Masala in the meantime to the water
• once it starts to boil, pour in the rice. Keep stirring while it's getting cooked. The goal is to cook it to almost done. Add some sugar and mix it once the rice is 90% cooked 
• Take it off the heat and drain it
• Now the biriyani has to be assembled while the rice is piping hot.Here's the order:
• Gravy from chicken
• Khowa Kheer
• 70% of the birista
• 70% of the cashew powder
• Heavy Cream
• aloo bukhara with it's ghee
• a little biriyani masala
• salt
• a drop or two of meetha attar
• mix the above well and add the chicken pieces
• potatoes
• rice, level the rice on top and add the next few ingredients 
• remaining birista
• Oil from the chicken
• more khowa
• rest of the cashew powder
• Saffron milk
• Now cover the pan with Foil paper(you can use flour to seal the lid but it's a pain and foil works as good!) and seal the lid
• Cook in the oven preheated to 450 for 10 minutes(less if you have less gravy)
• Then reduce the heat to 350 and cook for 15 more minutes
• Garnish with the boiled eggs if you want

Images

    

References :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfjfXc3HhfY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsbTvEkopqw