Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani/Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani Recipe.

India is blessed with good food and variety of awesome cuisines One of of my favourite cuisine is Hyderabad cuisine famous for its authentic Hyderabadi Dum Biryani..I'm a great fan of biryanis and  I love to try various biryanis .This  Hyderbadi Chicken biryani was in my mind since ages but i was always sceptical on trying this kachi/raw biryani i  always used to wonder will the meat cook ,won't the rice be mushy etc etc..but all my doubts were cleared when i tried this..
I had seen this recipe on TV few yrs back on one of the food channel  by Nawab Mehboob Khan  from  Hyderabad and also watched Vah chef's video they both were quite similar and far by the best authentic recipe I came across.The best thing of this biryani is there is no use of tomatoes and potatoes ..Just marinate the meat and cook it along with half cooked rice and there you have an extremely flavourful and delicious Hyderabadi Kachi Chicken Biryani

Ingredients
for the marination 
1/2 kg chicken
1/2 cup curds
1 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
4-5 green cardamom crushed lightly
1 inch cinnamon stick broken
6-7 cloves
2-3 tbsp coriander leaves
2 tbsp mint leaves
4-5 green chilies
2 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
1/2 tsp haldi/turmeric powder
2 tbsp lime juice
salt
3 tbsp oil/ghee
3 onions sliced thinly n fried till crisp golden brown

for the rice
2 cups basmati rice/1/2 kg
1 tsp shahi jeera/black cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
bouquet garni *
salt
ghee
1 tsp rose water
1/2 tsp kewra water(optional i didnt use)

Method:

• Fry thinly sliced onion till golden brown and crisp.
• Reserve the oil from fried onions for marination .
• Marinate Chicken with all the ingredients mentioned in the marinade list.
• Set aside for 2-3 hrs I left it  overnight in the fridge.
• Cook rice with salt,and whole spices mentioned in the list ,Cook rice till 50 % done

• Strain the rice and reserve 2 tsp of the water for later.
• In a vessel add  1 tbsp oil left from fried onions
• Arrange the chicken along with the marinade
• Add about 1/2 cup water
• Sprinkle chopped coriander and mint leaves over the chicken
• Arrange the rice over the chicken

• Lastly add saffron infused milk,2 tsp ghee mixed in water reserved from the rice
• sprinkle fried onions and rose water and kewra water
• Cover with a lid and keep weight on the lid so that no air escapes alternatively you can cover it with foil and then cover with lid or use dough to seal the vessel and then cover with the lid
• Cook on low flame for 30-35 mins ..
• You can place a tava under the vessel and cook on dum.
• Serve with raita and enjoy authentic Homemade Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani.

 Notes:

1. Use good quality basmati rice and soak for 30 min to 1 hr
2. *You could also use a bouquet garni/potli that is to tie all spices in muslin cloth (1 black cardamom,2-3 green cardamom,1 inch Cinnamon,1 star anise,1 javitri/mace )and drop it in the boiling water to cook rice and later discard the bouquet garni or simply add these spices in water while boiling the rice.
3. Ghee can be used in place of oil for marination.
4. If you have charcoal at hand ,use lit charcoal for dum by pacing the charcoal over the lid 
5. I added 1/2 cup of water along with the left marinade ,you can add 1/2 to 3/4 cup  water depending on how thick your marinade is .I used thick curds so there was no water left in the marinade .