Hyderabadi chicken dum biryani is a popular biryani recipe from Hyderabad, India. It is made with basmati rice, meat (mostly lamb meat or chicken), spices, yogurt, and herbs. Here’s a step-by-step recipe with a quick video tutorial, to help beginners or home cooks make perfect chicken dum biryani easily at home. Serve it with raita, salad, and salan.
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time1 hourhr
Total Time1 hourhr20 minutesmins
Course: Main
Cuisine: Indian
Servings: 6People
Calories: 821kcal
Author: Preeti Nayak
Ingredients
for preparing the rice
2cupsbasmati ricelong-grain, aged
7-8cupswater
salt to taste
for making fried onions (birista)
2onionsmedium size, sliced
oil for deep frying
for marinating the chicken
500gramchicken,cut into bite size pieces
2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
4tablespoonthick curd/yogurt
2teaspoonbiryani masala powder
¼ teaspoonturmeric powder
1teaspoonred chili powder
salt to taste
2tablespoonchopped mint leaves
4tablespooncoriander leaves
2green chilies slit
2tablespoonlemon juice
3 tablespoonoil (used to fry onions)
¼cupfried onions
Whole spices to cook rice
1teaspoonshahi jeera (caraway seeds)
2green cardamom
1black cardamom
2-inch dalchini (cinnamon)
for Assembling & Layering the chicken biryani
a pinchsaffron strands(soaked in ¼ cup of hot milk)
3teaspoonghee/clarified butter
½cupchopped coriander leaves
¼cupchopped mint leaves or pudina
2tablespoonfried onions
1teaspoonbiryani masala powder
Instructions
Preparations
Making birista (fried onions) - Heat oil & fry the onion slices in batches until they start to become light golden brown in color. But be careful don't burn them. Remove and drain out the excess oil on a kitchen tissue. Reserve the oil that we used for frying the onions, it will be used in marinating the chicken.
Soaking rice - Wash & soak the rice in water for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Drain off the water. This step is important don't skip it.
Marinate chicken - Marinate the chicken with the ingredients mentioned under the heading marinating the chicken. Marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight. The longer you marinate the chicken, the better it will taste.
Cooking rice - Boil water in a vessel. Add salt & whole spices. Add rice to boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes. Check the rice. It should be 80% cooked. If you press them it will split. Drain the rice. Keep it aside.
Assembling Hyderabadi chicken dum biryani
In a pan/kadhai first, add the layer of marinated chicken in the base.Sprinkle some fried onions over it.
Now layer the partially cooked basmati rice. Spread it evenly.
Over it, sprinkle biryani masala powder, fried onions, coriander leaves, mint leaves, kewra essence, saffron milk & ghee. Cover with a lid.
Dum cooking the biryani
Make a wheat flour dough. Seal the sides of the pan with the dough.
Switch on the flame. First 15 minutes cook at medium flame. Next 7 minutes cook at low flame.
At the same time on the other burner keep a tawa/pan to heat up. Place the pot on the heated Tawa/Pan. Cook on medium flame for 5 minutes.
Lower the flame and cook it for 10 minutes. Switch off the flame. Biryani is done now.
Remove from the heat & set it aside for 10 minutes.
Remove the seal carefully. With the help of a knife slowly open the lid. The time you open the lid the aroma of all the spices will fill your home.
Enjoy Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani with Raita or Mirchi ka Salan, onion slices & lemon wedge this weekend :)
Video
Notes
The curd/yogurt should not be too thick or thin. Make use of fresh curd. Do not use lemon juice if using sour curd.
Rinse the rice well with water until the cloudiness of water is gone. It will remove the excess starch from it that may cause the rice grains to be sticky.
Soaking the basmati rice is an important step. It cuts down the cooking time of rice and makes the rice grains long when cooked.
While frying the onions for making barista, do not put too much onion in the oil. It will reduce the temperature of the oil. Also, make sure the oil is hot or the onion slices will not be crispy.
Also, after frying the onions, do not stack the onion one on another otherwise, the onions will not be crisp. Spread it evenly on a plate.
Chicken biryani is incomplete without ghee/clarified butter.
Don't skip adding ghee while layering the rice because it will keep the rice moist & soft. Also, the addition of ghee increases the flavor too.
Use a thick bottom pan for making this dish. Or you can place it over a heated iron griddle or Tawa if you do not have a heavy bottom pan.
You can add a few drops of rose or kewra essence while layering the rice. Make sure to add only 2-3 drops. Check how concentrated is your essence first and then add it accordingly. Otherwise, it will spoil your biryani completely by overpowering its flavor.
Seal the biryani pot properly. If the steam will escape, you will never get the biryani right. Either it will result in dry rice or the biryani rice sticking to the bottom of the pot.
After sealing, if you find the steam is escaping from any side, stick the dough on that side & seal it again. Alternatively, you can seal the pot with Aluminum foil too.
If you have a heavy lid that will not let the steam escape, you can use that to cover the pot. No need to seal the biryani pot.
I noted down the exact cooking time for the dum process while preparing this Hyderabadi style chicken dum biryani recipe. Please follow the timings exactly.
Make-ahead recipe: you can make it ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator. Stays good for 2 days. Reheat and serve.