Malabar Style Chicken Dum Biriyani / Kacchi Biriyani With Video

9+ years of blogging and 1200 recipes..what an amazing journey it’s been for YummyOYummy and me!
Can’t thank my readers enough for supporting me through all these years..Without your motivation and feedback, I wouldn’t have reached this far.
Let’s celebrate my 1200th recipe with my favorite dish Biryani… and that too the very special Malabar Chicken Dum Biriyani.
I know the blog has slowed down quite a bit the past couple of months. Honestly, it’s tough to maintain both the blog and my youTube channel. But I promise to post more in the coming days.
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Ingredients (Serves 6)

1. Jeerakashala rice / Kaima rice – 2 cups (Soaked in enough water for at least 25 minutes)

2. Cardamom – 5, Cloves – 6, Cinnamon stick – 1 inch broken, fennel seeds – 1 pinch, bay leaf – 1, whole black pepper corns – 1/4 tsp, star anise – 1

Ghee – 1.5 – 2 tbsp

Salt – To taste

3. Chicken – 1- 1.25 kg, cut into medium pieces

4.  Yoghurt – 1/4 cup 1+ 2 tbsp

Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tbsp

Green chilies – 7-8, ground to a paste or crushed

Onion – 1 medium-large (around 2.5 cup), thinly sliced and deep-fried (Remove 1/4 th of the fried onion to garnish later. You can use raw sliced onion instead, I prefer to use fried onion for this recipe)

Tomato – 1 medium, chopped

Cilantro / coriander leaves – 1/4 cup, chopped

Mint leaves – 1/4 cup, chopped

Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp

Kashmiri chilly powder / regular chilly powder – 1.5 tsp (optional, added for color)

Coriander powder – 1.5 tsp (optional)

Biriyani masala / garam masala powder – 1 tbsp (Recipe below )

Cumin powder – 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice – 1 – 1.5 tbsp

Salt – To taste

Oil – 2 – 3 tbsp (you can use the oil that you used for frying onion)

5.  Hot milk / hot water – 1/4 cup

Saffron – 1 pinch (optional, added for extra flavor)

Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp

Rose water or kewra water – 1/4 tsp

Pineapple essence / biriyani essence – Few drops

6.  Ghee – 2 – 3 tsp

Garam masala powder – 1 – 2 pinches

Mint leaves – 3 tbsp, chopped

Cilantro – 3 tbsp, chopped

Fried onion – 1/2 cup

7.   Eggs – 5 – 6, hard-boiled (To serve)

 

Method

1. Combine the ingredients numbered 4 (except chicken pieces and fried onion) in a large bowl. Taste-check for salt. Add chicken pieces, fried onion/raw onion, if using and mix well. Cover with a lid and place it in the refrigerator overnight. Take it out of the fridge, 45 minutes before cooking.

2. Coat a heavy-bottomed pan with 2 – 3 tsp ghee. Add the marinated chicken pieces and spread them at the bottom of the vessel.

3. Soak saffron in 1/4 cup hot water. Add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, rose water / kewra water, few drops of pineapple essence / biriyani essence and mix well.

4. To cook rice – Soak kaima rice for 20- 25  minutes and drain well. Boil water in a heavy-bottomed vessel/sauce pan adding all the ingredients numbered 2. Taste-check for salt, the water should be slightly salty. Add drained soaked rice and cook until 60 – 70 % done about 7-8 minutes depending on the type and quality of rice you use. Drain and spread on top of the chicken pieces. Sprinkle saffron milk, fried onions, chopped mint and cilantro on top of the rice. Cover with a tight-fitting lid or cover with a layer of aluminium foil and then place a tight lid on top. Put it on high flame for 5 minutes. Now place a flat tawa on the stove and place the biriyani pot on top. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 3 minutes. Next reduce the flame to the lowest setting and cook for 20 – 25 minutes. Rotate the pot on the tawa every 10 minutes. Switch off the flame. Let the biriyani pot remain on the tawa for about 20 minutes. Yummy chicken dum biriyani is ready to serve! Open the pot just before serving, mixing gently from deep inside. Garnish with boiled eggs, chopped cilantro, mint and fried onion. Mix gently.  Serve hot Malabar style chicken dum biriyani with boiled eggs, kachumber, raita, biriyani chammanthi etc.

Tips

1. Marinate chicken for at least 6 hrs or preferably overnight in the refrigerator after covering with a lid. This ensures that the chicken absorbs all the spices well and it also makes your job much easier the next day. Next day, bring the meat to room temperature before cooking biriyani.

2. If the chicken in the biriyani is not completely cooked/tender after 20 minutes dum + 20 minutes rest time, cover with lid immediately so that the steam wont escape and set it aside for another 15 – 20 minutes.

3. Adding salt is the only tricky part in a dum biriyani. While cooking rice, please taste-check  and ensure that it is a little salty. That way the rice will have enough salt.

4. If the cooked biriyani doesn’t have enough salt – add enough salt to 2 – 3 tbsp hot water, mix well and sprinkle evenly on the rice. Mix gently and cover with lid immediately OR add a little extra salt to your raita .

5. In most of the dum biriyani recipes, a dough made using wheat flour and water is used to seal the biriyani pot so that the steam cannot escape out of the pot. Instead of the dough, you can use a tight-fitting lid OR press an aluminium foil over the edges of your pot and place a tight-fitting lid and something heavy over it.

6. Keeping the biriyani pot on the dosa tawa/flat griddle avoids the meat from getting burnt at the bottom, so make sure that you do it.

7. Use a non-stick biriyani pot or a biriyani handi for this recipe.

For the biriyani masala powder

Fennel seeds – 2 tbsp

Cloves – 8

Cardamom – 6

Whole black pepper corns – 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon stick – 1/2 inch, broken

Nutmeg – 1/8th

Mace / jathi pathri – 1/2 tsp

Star anise – 1 small

Bay leaf –1 small

Kus kus – 1/2 tsp (optional)

 

Grind the above ingredients in the small jar of a mixie/coffee grinder and use 2.5 – 3 tsp garam masala powder in the recipe. Store the remaining in an air tight container.