Day 4 - Malcolm's Chicken Biryani (Wf, GF, DF)

Every Thursday my husband and I have a date night, at home, with the kids tucked into bed early! We take turns cooking something special for each other and recently my hubby was brave enough to try a Chicken Biryani. It was AMAZING!!! Every bite was deliciously spicy but not too hot, and the crispy fried potato chunks were just the cherry on top! This makes enough to feed 8.

Malcolm's Chicken Biryani

Ingredients:
3C Jasmine/ Basmati rice
1 kg Chicken breasts, skin removed and deboned
2 Onions, finely chopped
3 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cm Fresh ginger, grated
1 Tbs Curry powder
2 tsp each Ground coriander, Ground turmeric and Ground cumin
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
½ tsp each Ground nutmeg and Ground cloves
1 Tbs Garam masala (Use less if you want to)
2 Bay leaves
1 tin Chopped tomatoes
1 tsp Sugar
2 cup Chicken stock
Salt to taste
4 large Potatoes, peeled and cubed, parboiled
Oil for frying
1C Chicken stock
Fresh Coriander leaves
Poppadoms
Greek Yogurt


Method:
1. Cook the Rice according to packet instructions.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 170°C.
3. Heat 3 tbs oil in a large pot. Cut the chicken breasts into large chunks and fry in the oil until they start to brown. Remove and set aside.
4. Fry the onions, garlic and ginger for 2 minutes before adding the curry paste and spices. Allow to fry for another minute and add the chicken back into the pot.
5. Stir to coat the chicken in all the spices and add the tomatoes, sugar and chicken stock.
6. Lower the heat and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.
7. Heat 1/2 cup of oil in a large frying pan and fry the potatoes until golden and crisp. Season with salt and set aside.
8. To assemble the dish, layer a 1/3 of the rice at the bottom of  a greased oven-proof dish. Next, cover the rice with the chicken curry but reserve some of the sauce. Follow with the rest of the rice and spoon over the remaining sauce. Finally, cover the rice with the fried potatoes. Pour over the chicken stock and cover with foil (or a lid if your oven-dish has one).
9. Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes.
10. Serve the Chicken Biryani with Greek Yogurt, poppadoms and fresh coriander leaves.

Serves: 8

How to Make Biryani Masala from Scratch

My good friend Melodie had mentioned that she'd recently made a delicious Biryani dish. Oooh la la! and I wanted some, but I got too impatient to wait for her to email me the recipe, so I googled it and found some recipes. Can you believe it, I had all the spices I needed in my cupboard! (I couldn't!) Making this Masala was quite an adventure. I've never dry roasted spices before, and I've definitely never used so many different flavors and aroma's in one dish. It was trial and error...I couldn't tell which way it would go. Anyway, it was AMAZING!!! I've been thinking of it all night, and even snuck to the kitchen for just another bite. Mmmmmmmm! What follows is my own interpretation and method of what I think makes is an AWESOME Biryani Masala.


Biryani Masala

Ingredients:
10 Cloves
1 Cardamom
1 Cinnamon stick, broken into crumbs
1/2 Star Anise
1 tsp Fennel seeds
1 tsp Cumin seeds
4 Bay Leaves, crushed

1/2 tsp Dried Chilli flakes
6 Black Pepper corns

1/2 tsp Fenugreek seeds

1 Chopped Onion
Oil


Add later:

2 tsp Ground Coriander
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp grated Nutmeg

Method:
1. Dry-roast these ingredients from larger ones to smaller ones in a frying pan, don't add ground spices yet. (Dry-roasting helps to enhance the flavors).
2. Add some oil and the chopped onion and gently simmer, until the onion browns. Now add the ground spices.
3. Add 2 tsp Vinegar and a bit of water.
4. Pour the contents of the pan into a blender and pulse puree until smooth. Mine made about 200ml.
5. Now you have Biryani Masala ready to be added to the Biryani of your choice.
6. I recommend using about 70ml Biryani to 4 Cups of uncooked rice.

Makes +_ 200ml Biryani Paste