Sunday Dum Chicken Biryani and Cold Beer

Milk is for babies. When you grow up you 
have to drink beer. Arnold Schwarzenegger Lazy ,lazy days of summer. And one holiday a week to break the monotony and drudgery of work and studies in general. There has to be some compensation. Some compensation that needs to be low effort to prep and high output on taste and presentation. A Sunday morning brunch that would be incomplete without a little chicken and some alcohol to help it all go down.  Alcohol! Not for me the martinis and the talk of blood on a Virgin Mary to help the biryani go down. What tastes best is plain and simple lager or beer. The colder the better. The best Indian Beer around-Kingfisher. Vijay Mallaya really knows his brew.He may not know how to run a business, or keep the hot air hostesses and luxury aircraft in the air,but he sure knows his hops and his malt. A perfect accompaniment to spicy,herby and racy chicken biryani. Also called a pilaf by many a Brit cooks,they seem to have a particular aversion to washing and soaking rice. We the Indians,love to wash off all the good stuff off our basmati, soak it in water and then throw away all the nutrients that leech into the water and then throw away the water in which we cook our rice. No wonder that rice is nothing but empty calories. All the nutrients are washed down the drain,no wonder the creatures of the drain are all well fed and fat. The roaches and rats and various critters who are just bursting with good health. So lets make them healthier and continue to throw the cooking water of rice out.

This biryani is a Saturday night prep and just layer the partially cooked and marinated chicken and monitor the clock type biryani.
Totally Sunday chilling out stuff.
Totally chilling out with a bottle of beer biryani.
Chillax!
for the
Sunday Dum Chicken Biryani and Cold beer...
you need
Many many bottles of chilled beer
1 chicken cut into 12 pieces-approx 800 gms
1 cup chopped green coriander and mint leaves and a sprig or two of mint leaves for the rice
5-6(or more) slit green chillies
3 medium tomatoes thinly sliced
1 cup sliced red onions fried and drained (made from 4 medium onions thinly sliced)
4 tbsp clarified butter/desi ghee/any vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups yogurt
4 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp whole spices-peppercorns,green cardamom,cinnamon,cloves and a wee bit of mace
Extra 1/2 tsp green cardamom
a handful Bay leaves
2 cups long grain fragrant basmati rice
1/2 cup warm milk
pinch saffron
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp each cumin,coriander and red chili powder
3-4 tsp ghee or butter for the biryani
Atta Dough to seal the pan.
OK. the ingredient list looks very long,but you can manage all.
Start on a Saturday night,before you touch the cocktail mixer...
Wash the chicken and stab it a couple of times to ensure that the marinade seeps through all the cells of the flesh.
Chop the greens and slit the chillies.You can add more or less chillies.They hardly add to spice the factor,just add to the flavor.
The sliced tomatoes and the ghee/oil in a large steel bowl.If you don't have a big steel bowl,use a glass bowl,not Tupperware or any other plastic or porcelain.Porcelain absorbs all the smells and flavours,so it may take the chicken and give you some ancient unpalatable flavor...
SO ,in the interest of a wonderful biryani,Avoid.
Add half the sliced onions(I deep fried 4 sliced onions till  they were crisp in vegetable oil and drained them on kitchen paper),and the chicken and the powdered spices,the ginger garlic paste,and the extra cardamom and the yogurt and the salt.
Massage it all together so as to break some of the tomato slices and cover with cling film and pop in the fridge till next morning.That is all the work you need to do!
Make sure you wash your hands well with soap and water ,else you'll blame me for your stinky hands.
The whole spices and the sprig of mint.
Pretty as a picture .My potted bay leaf plant,which I harvest ever so often.
Wash and soak the rice at least half an hour before you begin.remember to pop in a few bottles of beer into the fridge to chill now.
In a large container full of water and a tsp of salt and the whole spices and mint and boil, when the water comes to a rolling boil add The drained rice a.d let the rice cook till al dente.
It must have a bite and should not be done,else the biryani will not fluff up.
Drain and spread on a platter to cool.
That is a big casserole dish,that goes on my induction cooker.Any pan with a heavy bottom will do.Connotations!
Spread liberally with 1 tsp ghee or butter and layer the bay leaves.They protect the chicken from burning,in case you forget to turn the heat on low on time.
The rice cooling.I take out the pepper corns and cloves.They get stuck in cavities and gaps ...ruining the experience.
Warm the milk and add the saffron.
Layer the chicken,so as to cover the entire base.
Once the chicken covers the base,pour over all the marinade liquid.
Half the rice over the marinade.Cover with a handful of the remaining  sliced onions.
Top up with the remaining rice,the remaining onions and the butter.I had some more mint,so...
Pour over the milk infused with saffron.
Pop the lid on and seal the lid with Atta dough.My lid has a hole in the lid to let out the excess steam and tantalise us with the aromas...
On now,open your beer bottle...
Full flame 12 minutes lower the flame to Medium Flame for 15 minutes and place the biryani on a flat sauce pan over a low flame for almost 30 minutes and then turn off the flame and let it rest for at least an hour.
Open up when you are ready to eat...
Served with yogurt or a mint chutney or a simple salad of chopped onions,tomatoes and lemon juice or just as it is... With the beer...
Grains of rice are indeed pretty...
Pretty intense,soaked with the flavor of the chicken.
The only work done was watching the clock.
Come on,admit it...
It seems to be an easy way to spread your Sunday....
Try  it this week end...
And your Sunday will never be the same.
PS this serves 4 healthy adults,with a good appetite for beer and chicken.
So what are you baking today???