A Taste of Home: Chicken Biryani
The final colorful plate of biryani, garnished with lemon, pepper, and eggs on the side. Photo: Aliza Shafait
By ALIZA SHAFAIT
Biryani is better than pulao, and that’s where the conversation ends. If you’re from Pakistan, India, or Bangladesh, you know exactly where I'm coming from.
South Asia is a region filled with unique spices that can make anyone fall in love with it immediately. If you think I’m exaggerating, it seems like someone’s missing out. Of course, it’s all fun and games until you get elaichi (cardamom) in your first bite – every biryani lover’s worst nightmare.
Chicken biryani is made with organic basmati rice, tons of masalas (spices), and roasted chicken, with kicks of different spices on each bite. But this is just one type of biryani. There are many others such as Sindhi biryani, Punjabi biryani, Afghani biryani, and so on, each of which are delicious in their own ways.
The main ingredients you need to get the different bursts of flavors in the biryani. Photo: Aliza Shafait
On every occasion, our family makes the classic chicken biryani, whether it be for Eid, birthday parties, family gatherings, or weddings. While this is the dish I could eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I have never attempted to make it myself. I have never even touched raw meat, ever. But there’s a first time for everything. And while my sister warned me it’s a long process, it’s always worth the time to learn something new about your culture.
The word “biryani” comes from the Persian word “birian,” which means “fried before cooking.” This dish is part of the Mughlai cuisine that India is famous for, developed from the 15th century to about the 19th century during the reign of the Mughal empire.
My sister is my inspiration when it comes to learning to cook. She has started expanding her cooking skills to Singaporean rice, chick peas pulao, beef biryani, and other dishes as well. So she was the right person to teach me how to cook biryani.
“I would watch our Ammi (mother) make roti (bread) every day and catch the way she would move her hands,” my sister told me. And now it was time for me to learn from her.
First, heat oil on medium heat in a good-sized pot, fry two chopped onions until they are light brown, and add 1 tablespoon garlic ginger paste.
This is how your biryani should look after layering rice and the curry on top of each other. Photo: Aliza Shafait
Then, add 1 lb cubed chicken, two chopped tomatoes, one green chili pepper, a pinch of salt, and 4 tablespoons biryani masala (we prefer the “Shan” brand). Touching raw meat was weird for me at first, but I was fine with it eventually!
After the chicken has been frying for about ten minutes and looks mostly done, put in 1 tablespoon of yogurt and stir everything until it is well combined. The meat curry is done for now. You’ll cook the rice separately and then layer them together.
Boil water in a separate pot, put a pinch of salt, and boil 2 cups of basmati rice. You’re going to half-cook the rice so you can finish it with the chicken curry. After boiling the rice for 10 minutes, strain it.
Then take both the curry you prepared before and the boiled rice into one pot and add yellow food coloring into the rice to enhance the appearance of the dish, although it’s optional. Last but not the least, cover up the pot and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes.
While it tastes delicious, biryani might not be the most perfect thing ever on your first try because it is a little bit complicated and it takes a long time. The whole recipe took me about 1 and a half hours. If I'm being honest, I felt “done” with it when I was only a while into it. But I liked the challenge of cooking something I love, especially since it’s a part of my culture.
Once the biryani is done, you can smell the spices without even lifting the cover of the pot. To make your biryani juicier you can make raita (a mix of yogurt with cucumber and onions) since rice can sometimes be dry by itself. To add some final touch-ups you can also add fresh coriander on top, boiled eggs on the side, sliced lemons, or just onions and tomatoes.
Now you can finally enjoy the biryani!