Murg Noormahal Biryani

Murg Noormahal Biryani

Recipe source : Sanjeev Kapoor’s The Yellow Chilli Cookbook

Its biryani time again. I am still in search of the elusive perfect biryani.

The best biryani I have eaten till date has been at Tunday Kababis in Lucknow. Now that is one city I really fell in love with. What’s not to love? It has chicken of both varieties, the eating kind and the wearing kind.

One of our road trips was from Delhi to Lucknow, then Benaras and back to Delhi via Kanpur. This was one axis we hadn’t explored. Driving through the fields of UP was a journey of its own. There are still large pockets in this country which are yet unexploited. There is no commercialisation of the land. People still live the old fashioned way. The fields are still green with crops and not grey with concrete.

Coming back to biryanis. We went in search of the original Tunday Kababis in the bylanes of Lucknow. GPS helped to an extent and later we had to rely on the trusty old rickshaw wallas to take us to the exact spot. It is a small eating joint tucked away inside a small gali. But the crowd there was a testimony to the “lazeez” taste of their chicken and mutton dishes. We had to wait for 20 minutes before we could get a table. Yet every second of the wait was worth it. Ever since that trip I have been yearning to get back and have that plate of biryani once again.

I came across this recipe in Sanjeev Kapoor’s The Yellow Chilli Cookbook. I made some changes to suit home cooking. I have omitted all the butter and cream.

Ingredients

For the rice

2 ½ cups basmati rice, washed and soaked

4 green cardamoms

2 black cardamoms

1 bay leaf

4 cloves

½ tbsp. rose water

2 tsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp salt

For the chicken

750 gms chicken, cut into pieces

¼ cup ghee

1 tbsp shah jeera

4 cloves

7 green cardamoms, crushed

1” cinnamon stick, crushed

2 onions, sliced

1 onion sliced (for browned onions)

4 green chillies, slit

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tbsp garlic paste

2 tbsp biryani masala

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp red chilli powder

 1 tsp coriander powder

¾ cup yogurt

Chopped coriander leaves

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp kewda water

First prepare the rice. Wash and soak the basmati for 15 minutes. Boil 5 cups of water with green cardamoms, black cardamoms, bay leaf, rose water, lemon juice and salt. Add the rice and parboil it. Spread the rice on plates to dry it a bit.

Meanwhile prepare the chicken. Heat some oil. Add the sliced onion and brown it nicely. Drain and keep aside.

Heat the ghee. Add the shah jeera, cloves, green cardamoms and cinnamon. 

Then add the sliced onions and fry nicely. 

Add the slit green chillies, ginger paste and garlic paste and saute for a minute. 

Add the chicken, salt and biryani masala. Increase the heat and fry for a minute. Add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder and coriander powder. Cook for a few minutes. 

Add the browned onions (leave some for garnishing) and cook some more. 

Now add the curd, lemon juice and kewra water. Cover and cook till the chicken is almost done.

Take a big pan or patila. Apply some ghee on the bottom. Now layer the rice and chicken. Spread some chopped coriander leaves on each layer. Spread browned onions on top. 

Put the lid on and seal with some dough. Place the pan/patila on a tava and cook on low heat for an hour.