I have been very keen on cooking different types of biryani. Since my childhood, I have tasted different flavours of biryani cooked by my mother. Biryani is the most favourite food of my family. As it has a lot of variety in it and you can make it with many variations. When I was a kid, my mother cooked beef biryani with a special homemade biryani masala. I still have the unique flavour in my mouth of that heavenly delicious biryani. Chicken biryani is the other most favourite biryani type in my family. I have given a twist to the chicken biryani by making it with chicken tikka or barbecued chicken. This biryani has a smokey flavour in it. Let’s talk about my fantastic experience making this mouthwatering biryani.
Watch the video for Chicken Tikka Biryani Recipe
I really enjoyed making this special chicken tikka in a wok for my barbecued biryani as I already love spicy food. Let’s have a look at what ingredients I used for my chicken tikka biryani.
Ingredients to marinate chicken
Chicken 2 Kg
Yoghurt 250 grams
Shan Chicken Tandoori Masala (Optional) 1 Packet
Red Chili Powder 2 tsp
Coriander Powder 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder 1 tsp
Salt 2 tsp
Lemon Juice 1 Lemon
Orange food colour 2 tsp
Cumin Powder 2 tsp
Ginger Garlic paste 1 tbsp
Lemon Juice 1
Oil 1/4 Cup
Water 1 cup
Charcoal 1 piece
I marinated the chicken pieces using the above ingredients. I just added all these spices with yoghurt and marinated the chicken pieces with my hands. So, it can absorb all spices. Then I kept the marinated chicken in the fridge for at least an hour. My next step was cooking the marinated chicken in a wok. I just avoided using charcoal to barbecue my chicken pieces as It is very time-consuming. So, there is another way to cook smokey chicken tikka in a short time. That is using a wok for cooking chicken tikka. I just put my marinated chicken pieces in the wok and added 1 cup of water and some oil. I covered the lid and cooked it until the chicken becomes tender and water dried up.
In the end, I smoked the chicken tikka with a charcoal piece. I just burnt the charcoal on the stove and placed a bread piece over the cooked chicken tikka, and put that burnt charcoal over it. Then I drizzled some oil over the charcoal that produced the smoke. I covered the lid for around 10 minutes. Just after 10 minutes, when I opened the wok lid, I was more than happier than ever. As my chicken tikka was just like a barbecued chicken in taste and also in appearance. I just kept this spicy chicken tikka aside and started preparation for a unique biryani masala. Let’s see what that secret biryani masala is.
Onion and Tomato Masala / Secret Biryani Masala:
Oil 1/2 Cup
Chopped Onion 4
Chopped tomatoes 4
Turmeric 1 tsp
Red Chili Powder 2 tsp
Coriander Powder 2 tsp
Salt 2 tsp
Dried Plums 8 – 10
Fresh coriander chopped 1/2 cup
Mint chopped 1/2 cup
Mix Garam Masala Powder (Cloves – 6, Blackpepper – 10, Cinnamon- 1-inch stick, Black Cardamom – 2, Green Cardamom – 6, Mace – 1 tbsp, Nutmeg – 1/2, Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp, Back Cumin – 1/2 tsp)
I learnt the recipe of this amazing biryani masala with my mom. It is a top-secret of one of my mother’s recipes. My mother was used to cooking biryani with this secret biryani masala. I am following her recipe to make this delicious masala/spice mix for biryani. To do that, I fried lots of onions in oil to make them translucent. Then I added some chopped tomatoes and added all the other spices mentioned in the ingredients list. I cooked this mixture with a covered lid for 8 – 10 minutes. Then I fry this mixture so it dries up and the oil gets separated from the spices. In the end, I added the garam masala powder that is a top-secret spice mixture.
These spices have their own unique fragrance, and they make a fantastic particular biryani fragrance when we grind them together. So if you want that unique biryani fragrance, then you must use all the mentioned spices.
Let’s have a look at how I prepared parboiled rice for biryani.
Parboiled Rice:
Basmati Rice 1 Kg
Water 4 glass
Bay leaves 2
Cloves 4
Black pepper 6
Star anise 4
Cinnamon 1 small stick
Green Cardamom 4
Black Cardamom 2
Mace 1 tsp
Salt 1 tbsp
Making perfect parboiled rice for biryani is an art. Not everyone can handle rice. Sometimes, rice is overcooked, and the grains break up. Sometimes, they remain undercooked and become hard when you layer them up in biryani. So, please be careful whenever you cook rice, especially basmati rice. Here, I have disclosed the top secret of cooking perfect parboiled rice for biryani.
First of all, I boiled 4 glasses of water in a cooking vessel and added some spices to the water for flavouring. For example, I added bay leaves, cloves, black pepper, star anise, cinnamon, green cardamom, black cardamom and mace in the boiling water. Adding these spices to the boiling water adds a unique taste and fragrance to the biryani rice. Don’t forget to add salt to the water as per your taste. Now add the soaked rice to the boiling water. I soaked the biryani rice for 15 minutes. This time varies with the rice type. For example, I soak basmati rice for 15 minutes and saila rice for an hour 🙂
Cook the rice with the open lid and keep checking them from time to time. We just need to cook them only for 4 – 5 minutes, not more than that. Otherwise, they will soften and will start breaking up into pieces. We want the rice half-cooked, so just turn off the flame when half-cooked or parboiled. After boiling the rice, I quickly drained out the excess water to avoid overcooking the rice. Now just keep the parboiled rice aside but make sure they do not cool down to room temperature. Rice should be warm or even hot when you layer them up in the biryani. So, I quickly prepared for layering my biryani without wasting any time.
Assembling Chicken Tikka Biryani:
Parboiled rice
Chicken Tikka
Onion and Tomato Masala
Kewra Water 2 tbsp
Biryani Essence (Optional) 1 tsp
So, I did not use mint, coriander, lemon slices, green chillies or even food colour on the top of biryani. This chicken tikka biryani already has enough spices in the secret biryani mix. I took a clean cooking vessel and drizzled some oil on the bottom. Then I made a layer of the secret biryani masala on the bottom. On that biryani masala, I placed my barbecued chicken tikka pieces. In the end, I made a bed of parboiled rice and drizzled some kewra water and biryani essence for the fragrance. Then I covered the lid and cooked this chicken tikka biryani on steam / low flame for around 15 minutes. Turn off the heat when enough smoke is produced inside the cooking vessel.
I swear it was the most flavorful and mouthwatering biryani of my life. I not only enjoyed eating it but also cooking it. It was fun trying all these fantastic spices from my mother’s top-secret recipe. I will recommend making this heavenly delicious biryani for your family and friends. I guarantee you guys will rock after making this flavorful chicken tikka biryani. So, try this fantastic recipe and have fun 🙂
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