Chicken Biryani Recipe - Secrets of Making a Perfect Biryani

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If I ask you, "which is your favorite Indian rice recipe"?, I am sure your topmost answer will be "a biryani". Even in biryanis the most liked of all is a chicken biryani.

So here is a recipe for you to make a perfect biryani.

Ingredients required

Ingredients for marinating the chicken

* 1 Kilo Chicken on the bone cut into 12-16 pieces
* 1 cup of curd
* 1/2 Teaspoon turmeric powder
* 1 Tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
* 1 Teaspoon of coriander powder
* a little salt

Mix all of the above ingredients and let the chicken marinate for 6-12 hours, more the better.

Herbs, spices and condiments used are as follows

* 8 cloves
* 1 Cinnamon stick
* 6 green Cardamoms
* 2 Bay leaves
* 1/2 Teaspoon shahi jeera (caraway seeds)
* a few pinches grated nutmeg and mace each
* 1 Teaspoon Coriander powder
* 1 Teaspoon red Chili powder (to taste)
* 5-6 Tablespoon of chopped fresh mint
* 2-3 chopped green Chilies
* 4-5 chopped Tomatoes
* a whole bunch of fresh coriander leaves

For fried onions

About 8-9 medium size onions

Other Ingredients
* 500 g good basmati rice
* Oil for deep frying and 3-4 tablespoon for cooking
* 1 Tablespoon of ginger garlic paste
* 1/2 cup of milk
* a few strands of Saffron (kesar)
* Desi ghee (clarified butter) about 6-7 Tablespoons
* Cashew nuts ( a few or as many as you want)
* Raisins and almonds are optional
* Salt to taste

Deep fry the onions
While the chicken is marinating, slice the onions very thin. You can use a food processor for this or a slicer. Now heat oil and fry these sliced onions in batches. The heat should be medium. Definitely not high, otherwise the onions will get burned.

Stir the onions continuously for uniform browning. When they become light brown, drain them on kitchen paper. Keep them aside. They will get nice crispy as they cool down.

Cook the Chicken

Take a deep, wide mouth vessel and heat 3-4 tablespoons of oil in it. In this add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms, little bit of shahi jeera and allow to crackle. Now add a tablespoon of ginger garlic paste and stir a little. Now tip out all the marinated chicken and the marinade. Cook on a high flame so that the water gets evaporated quickly. Add the chopped tomatoes, mint, green chilies, all dry powders(coriander, chili), and salt. Cook till the chicken is cooked and the gravy (masala) is not watery. Add one third of the fried onions. Mix well. Keep aside.

Parboil the rice

Boiling rice is one of the most important part of cooking a biryani. The rice needs to be parboiled. Meaning, it should be three fourth cooked. The rest of it gets cooked on dum (when we layer the chicken and rice, seal it and put on a very slow fire).

To boil the rice take a big deep wide mouth vessel, add lots of water (at least 10 times more than rice). Add ample salt (this is very important because the rice needs to be salty when cooked). Also add a cinnamon stick, a couple of green cardamoms, a few cloves and the rest of caraway seeds (shahi jeera), for flavoring the rice.

Now boil all this for a few minutes on a high flame (7 minutes or so). This is how to check if the rice is done. Without burning your fingers, take a few grains of rice (use a clean spoon to take some out of the boiling water), break a grain, if it breaks into 3 parts easily, your rice is done.

Strain the rice and spread it on a clean surface ( a tray or something), so that it cools faster. If you want to pick out the whole spices which you added, you can do that now. Or else just let them be.

Keep all these ready

Now that the rice and chicken are cooked. Fried onions are ready. You just need to get a few more things organized, so that the layering can be done.

* Chop the coriander leaves
* Boil the milk and add crushed saffron in it. Give it a stir.
* In desi ghee, fry the cashew nuts till golden brown. Also the almonds and raisins, if using. Keep aside.
* Keep some melted desi ghee aside.

Layering the biryani

Take a heavy bottom pan with a lid (non stick is best).

Take some melted ghee and grease the bottom of the pan with it. Then

* Put a layer of rice,
* Then a layer of chicken
* followed by a layer of fried onions
* then a layer of chopped coriander.

Repeat and finish off with the rice layer. Lastly, sprinkle the leftover fried onions (if any), cashews and other nuts. Pour the saffron milk on top. Also pour some desi ghee down the sides of the pan and some on top of the rice. It will trickle down with the heat.

Yep, you are done. Seal the lid by sticking it with some chapati dough or simply fix a big foil before placing the lid. The idea is to restrict the steam from escaping. Place this pot on a very slow flame. Ideally place this vessel on top of another flat pan or tawa, so that the bottom of the pan doesn't come in direct contact with the heat source.

Leave for one hour. When you open it, what you get is the magical, flavorsome and aromatic chicken biryani. Please dig in. Don't forget to prepare a riata while your biryani is cooking. Enjoy hot biryani with a cold raita.

Manila Williams is the owner of http://www.creative-cooking-corner.com/ where she shares her easy, healthy and free recipes and cooking tips. If you liked this Chicken Biryani Recipe, then please visit her website to find out more tasty recipes. You will find many secrets of healthy cooking in store for you.

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Chicken Kiev - The History of This Dish and How to Make It

Chicken Kiev is a classic dish and this combination of pan-fried, breaded, thinly pounded boneless chicken and herbed butter is wonderful with mashed potatoes and green beans. Perhaps you have wondered about this history of this famous boneless chicken recipe.

Russian aristocracy became very interested in French cuisine in the 1700s and they would send their Russian chefs to France to train or bring French chefs into Russia. A French chef called Nicolas Francois Appert invented Chicken Kiev in the early 1800s. He also invented canning and the method of sealing food in airtight bottles.

Kiev is the capital of Ukraine but Chicken Kiev did not get its name from there. Appert's invention became famous and Russian chefs tried to imitate Chicken Kiev, calling the dish "cotelettes de volaille" instead of Chicken Kiev. Early restaurants in New York City changed the name back to Chicken Kiev, in an attempt to attract the new Russian immigrants and this name stuck.

Chicken Kiev was a classic dish by the 1900s and it was served in Russian restaurants both in Europe and the United States, as well as in Russia. It is served with fried julienne potatoes and fresh peas in Ukraine.

Types of Herbed Butter

There are lots of variations of herb butter and you can use any herbs you like. Thyme and rosemary make a nice herbed butter for pork or chicken, basil butter is good with a Mediterranean recipe and tarragon butter is beautiful with salmon. Herbed butter is normally refrigerated after you make it, to let it set.

If you want to roll it into a log for easy cutting, like chefs do, put it in plastic wrap and roll it like a cigar. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap and refrigerate it. When it is chilled, you can slice off rounds to make Chicken Kiev or to serve with another dish.

An Easy Recipe for Chicken Kiev

This delicious recipe serves four people. Try to pound the chicken as thin as possible, using the smooth side of a mallet. If you pound it too thin or use the pointed side of the mallet, the herbed butter will leak out, so be careful.

You will need:

4 boneless chicken breasts
2 beaten eggs
1 package fine breadcrumbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Oil, to pan fry
Flour

For the Herbed Butter:

1 stick softened butter
2 teaspoons chopped chervil or tarragon
2 teaspoons chopped parsley
1/4 cup minced chives
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

How to Make it:

Combine the herbed butter ingredients using a fork, and then chill it for a couple of hours. Put the chicken breasts between layers of plastic wrap, one at a time, pounding them until they are thin. Season them with salt and pepper. Divide the chilled herbed butter between the chicken breasts, and then fold the left and right sides of each chicken breast up, like you were rolling a burrito. Roll them from end to end, so the butter is sealed inside. Secure them with string or toothpicks if necessary.

Roll the Chicken Kievs in the flour, and then shake off the excess. Dip each one in beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumbs. Half-fill a skillet with oil and heat it to 375 degrees F. Cook the Chicken Kievs in the oil until it is browned on one side, then flip them over and cook the other side. Serve hot with potatoes and vegetables.

Boneless chicken can be used to make all kinds of recipes from a simple chicken salad to classic Chicken Kiev. We have all kinds of recipes at BonelessChickenRecipe.com, including the best chicken salad recipe, international chicken recipes, crockpot chicken recipes and much more.

BonelessChickenRecipe.com - Chicken so delightfully, moist you can almost smell it through your monitor.

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Chicken Tenders - 4 Simple Steps

I always thought making fried chicken tenders (or fried chicken for that matter) was pretty straight forward.

1. put chicken in seasoned flour

2. fry it

My chicken tenders were OK, but my family wouldn't be cheering when they heard chicken tenders was on the menu that evening. Until I figured out the 4 simple steps I was missing...

1. Soak Chicken in Buttermilk (at least 15 minutes)

2. Let chicken sit after dipping in flour (about 5 minutes)

3. Make sure oil is hot enough

4. Fry in smaller batches

Initially I always just dipped my chicken in flour and put it in the oil. It never got as crispy as I wanted. I tried dipping in egg first, but that just made the batter goopy. I then saw Paula Dean dipping her chicken in buttermilk on one of her cooking shows, but by accident, I let several tenders sit on a plate waiting for the oil to get hot. It's that extra little bit of waiting that lets the "batter" set up and makes the tenders the most light and crispy.

The last 2 steps go hand in hand. If your oil isn't hot enough, it takes longer to fry your tenders and the batter won't get as light as you want it. And if you put too many pieces in your oil at once, it will drop your oil temperature very quickly, and it'll take extra long to cook, causing your batter to be heavy.

Now for the recipe, I don't use specific amounts. Eye ball it and adjust for your own tastes. What's most important is that you soak your chicken in buttermilk (about 15 minutes), after dipping in flour let it rest before frying (at least 5 minutes), make sure your oil is hot enough, and only fry a few tenders at a time.

1-2 lbs of chicken cut in to 1/4 inch thick strips

enough buttermilk to cover chicken strips in a medium size bowl

1-2 cups of flour

McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning

(add more flour/seasoning if necessary to coat all chicken strips)

Fill a large pan with enough oil so that it's at least 1-1.5 inches deep. Turn heat to medium. Add a couple of shakes of steak seasoning to your flour. (more or less to your tastes) Stir. You won't be able to see the seasoning, but you'll taste it after you fry your tenders. Let chicken sit in the buttermilk for at least 15 minutes, and then take chicken 1 piece at a time and put in the flour. Cover thoroughly. Take chicken piece out of flour and put on a plate. Repeat until all chicken is floured. Let chicken rest for at least 5 minutes.

By this time your oil should be hot enough. Put 4-8 tenders in at a time (depending on the size of your pan). Set your timer for 8 minutes turning tenders over half way through. Take your tenders out and cool on a wire rack. Best served with white country gravy.

If your tenders aren't golden after 8 minutes, your oil isn't hot enough. Play around with turning up the heat or frying fewer tenders at a time. You might also just have to wait a bit longer to start frying so that your oil is hot enough. Once you get the system down, you'll have extra crispy, juicy chicken tenders your family will absolutely LOVE!

Danielle Eidson is a Certified Master Integrative Coach and Certified Spiritual Divorce Coach personally trained by NY Times best selling author, Debbie Ford. Her passion is helping people heal from painful relationships.

Do you know you have relationships with your food? Join Danielle in healing your relationship with food and creating a life that you love!

To find out more about her programs go to: http://HealingYourRelationships.com/

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Chicken Manchurian Recipe

Chicken Manchurian is very famous dish from Chinese cuisine, it is prepared in variety of ways with different meats either chicken, prawns or beef. I usually make chicken Manchurian with pineapple because it enhances its taste many times and gives extra sweet flavor to the sauce. Vinegar is not used in this recipe since I used chili garlic sauce which has sweet and sour taste but you may add vinegar if you want more strong sour taste. This chicken Manchurian recipe is prepared in just under 30 minutes and best for 4 people serving.

Ingredients:

For Fried Chicken:

500 gm boneless chicken (cut in small cubes)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tbspn corn flour
Pinch of salt
1 egg
Oil for deep frying

For Manchurian Sauce:

1/2 cup chopped pineapple
2-3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup chili garlic sauce
1 tspn crushed red pepper
1 tspn red pepper powder
Salt to taste
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup oil
Cornstarch as required

Cooking Instructions:

1. Marinate chicken in flour, corn flour, salt and egg. If you feel that the batter is thick, then add cold water accordingly make sure that the batter would be of normal consistency and just enough to coat the whole chicken pieces.

2. Heat oil in a a deep sauce pan and put the marinated chicken pieces one by one in the oil for deep frying on medium flame. Take out the fried chicken pieces when they turn into light golden in color.

3. To make sauce for Manchurian, heat oil in a sauce pan and fry garlic for just a minute.

4. After that add pineapple, tomato paste, tomato ketchup and chili garlic sauce. Mix all of them together and cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes.

5. Now add fried chicken pieces, red chili powder, crushed red chili, salt and water. Stir the sauce and chicken and let it cook for few minutes by covering the pan until the sauce starts to boil.

6. In the end, add cornstarch according to your need that how much thick sauce you want. Cook the Manchurian for 2-3 minutes more and then switch off the flame.

7. Take out the delicious chicken Manchurian in a sizzling dish and serve it with vegetable fried rice.

For more recipes Visit: Easy recipes Blog The author of this article runs a cooking blog where he and many other food lovers post various easy to cook food recipes including vegetable recipes, beef, snacks, chicken, BBQ & grill, desserts, cakes, drinks, salads, and many other meal ideas. The aim of his blog is to deliver the best easy to make cooking recipes to all foodies.

Copyright 2009 RecipeDose.com. You are allowed to use this article provided that no changes are made to the article, author name is not removed and all links to our site remain active and click able.

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