The most juicy Aligarh ki chicken biryani’s recipe.

Image courtesy – Smitha Paresh

It was not an easy task for me to dig out this recipe for my stranger who became friend.

Several months back I wrote a disappointed review for vegetable biryani for a quite famous outlet in Doha Qatar.

Last week one Mrs Smitha Paresh contacted me and asked me for a perfect Aligarh ki biryani. I told her about my relationship with Aligarh and she was surprised that I am aware of this dish very well. But I felt sorry that now I didn’t recall so many tricks for this particular recipe.

So finally I made few calls to my known ones to get the recipe for Mrs. Paresh. And finally I got my friend’s 82 years old granny on phone.

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Jolted and confirmed all tiny details twice. Handed over to Mrs. Paresh with a promise of picture for my blog, I geared up for this post.

And today morning I got a call from Mrs. Paresh who is herself a great cook. She told me that her husband studied in Aligarh University but now not in touch of anybody over there but he still recalls that juicy biryani and tight on bones meat in it. How still he gets angry at her for that dry kind of rice in biryani and even yells at waiters in restaurant for making idiotic biryanis.

Being from Aligarh myself I know how he must be feeling by looking at those white colorful and dry rice in the name of biryanis.

Aligarh ki chicken/mutton biryani is full of milky favors with a kind of juice in it and bone is always sticky to the meat. It is called queen of biryanis as I know the first status of being good biryani’s King goes to Hyedrabad biryani.

If you are in Aligarh and start talking to any biryani ustad he will always boast off that how good and juicy is Aligarhi biryani and much better than Lucknow biryani but they all give due respect to Hyderabad biryani.

So here is the recipe for perfect Aligarh ki juicy chicken biryani ~

Ingredients ~ (3-4 persons servings)

Chicken preparation ~

1 Kg chicken (cleaned,washed and chopped well)

For marination ~

2 Cups sour hung curd

1/2 Cup grated ginger

6-8 Thick garlic cloves paste

2-3 Medium green chilies chopped

1 Tbsp turmeric powder

1 Tbsp red chillies powder

4 Tbsps dry coriander powder

2 Tbsp salt

1/4 Cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 Cup melted desi ghee

(Mix all very well in a big bowl and marinate chicken pcs into it) Keep aside for 2-3 hours.

Now microwave this for 12 minutes on high.

Rice preparation ~

4 Cups of old/new basmati rice (India gate brand is best)

Wash the rice and soak for 2-3 hours

Now take this rice in a big bowl with 7-8 cups of water and add

1/2 Tbsp green cardamom powder

1/4 Cup kevda(rose) water

1/4 Tsp cloves powder

1/4 Tsp cinnamon powder

4 Tbsp desi ghee

Mix all very well. Boil this till rice is 3/4 boiled. You can take a microwave safe bowl and boil the rice for 8-9 minutes on high too.

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Tempering preparation ~

4 Big red onions (peeled,sliced in to long slices)

1 Green chili medium sized chopped finely

2/3 Tbsp finely chopped ginger

2 Big cloves of garlic chopped well

1 Big tomato sliced into very thin slices

2 Bay leaves

1/4 Tsp green cardamom powder

1/4 Tsp cloves powder

1/2 Tbsp salt

1/2 Cup desi ghee

(Heat desi ghee in cooker and add all spices, mix well and fry for 2-3 minutes on low flame. Now add chopped onions, garlic, green chili, ginger and fry them very well for 7-8 minutes on low flame till slices become semi dark brown now add tomato slices and fry till all become a good paste consistency.)

Biryani preparation ~

1 Cup fresh mint(pudina) leaves finely chopped

1/2 Cup hara dhania(fresh green coriander) leaves finely chopped

1/4 Cup desi ghee

(Mix all three in a bowl)

1 Cup of wheat flour semi tight dough

Method ~

1- Into simmering onion n tomato paste in cooker add marinated chicken and start frying very well on low flame. Cover the cooker with a small plate.

2- Fry chicken for 6-8 minutes and now strain rice and spread over the chicken.

3- Spread green mint, coriander and desi ghee mixture over rice.

4- Spread 1 and 1/2 cup water over it and close the cooker lid with out whistle. Cover the whistle nozzle with dough tightly.

5- Keep the flame hight for the first 2 minutes and after that for complete 10 -12 minutes flame shall be on the lowest.

6- After that 10-12 minutes close the flame and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Serve this biryani with cucumber raita.

All the best.I hope you will enjoy this very old recipe.

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