Biryani (chicken or veg) – Belgaum style

I donno the origin of this biryani. I learnt it from the cook(aapa) of my pachi’s house in Belgaum. I guess this is a traditional muslim dish. But for vegetarians my pachi uses vegetables(mainly potatoes) instead of chicken.
Ingredients:
Basmathi rice 2 cups
Chicken 1/2 kg
or Potatoes(you can even add cauliflower,carrot, beans along with potato) 3-4 Onions 2
Coriander leaves 15-20 strands
Mint(pudina) leaves 10
Green chillis 5-6
Ginger-garlic paste 2 tea spn
Curd 2 tbl spns
Food color(orange or yellow) a pinch
Garam masala 1 tea spn
Salt
Oil 2 tbl spns
Ghee 2 tbl spns
If garam masala is not available or if you wish to use fresh masala, then dry roast the following and make powder.
- Cloves 6-7
- Cinnamon 2″ piece
- Cardamom 2
- Poppy seeds 2 tea spns
- Nut meg(Jayphal) 1
Method: Cook the rice with 2 drops of oil and salt(Oil doesn’t allow the grains to stick together) in around 1:3 water for 10min. (Rice should be only half cooked). Drain the water. Grind coriander leaves, green chilies, mint leaves, ginger-garlic paste, 1/2 onion to a fine paste. Add this paste, salt and curd to chicken or vegetables and keep it aside to marinade. (chicken should marinade for about half an hour to one hour. Vegetables need not be marinated).
Cut the onions into thin long pieces. Heat oil & fry them till they turn brownish. Separate out the oil from onions.
Heat the oil(left out from frying the onions) in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the marinated mixture along with chicken, salt(add less salt because it is already added to rice), 1/4th of the garam masala. Spread a thick layer of rice. Then spread a layer of onions, garam masala, color(mixed in water). Again add a layer of rice & repeat the procedure given in this paragraph till all rice, onions, garam masala, color is added. From above add ghee. Add 1/2 cup water. Close the lid & cook on low flame for about 10-15minutes. Then remove the flame & let it cook on the heated stove(without flame). Serve hot.
Updated on Sep 15: Today I tried the biryani with Shaan Biryani masala instead of garam masala. It came out very well.
Serves : 4
Preparation time : 45min – 1hr
For step by step instructions, click here. This tastes great with chicken gravy.
wow – thank you for sharing today i am going to have this for dinner lets have then i will tell you how was that – because i am not a good cook
thanks a lot for sharing this recipe.i tried it yesterday and it came out really very well.ur step by step method was very useful.
I cook onions till reddish and grind them. Then i marinate the chicken with the paste, ginger-garlic paste, chilly powder, turmeric, 3tbsps sour thick curds, garam masala, ground pudina paste, little dry roasted coriander seeds powdered. Add lots of chopped tomatoes to the marinated chicken and set aside.
Parboil Basmati rice with a pinch of salt.
In cooker put half a cup of oil, marinated chicken, parboiled rice. Pour saffron dissolved in little milk over it. Cook it for about 20 minutes(Cooking time depends on the quantity of chicken)
Happy Eating and Serving
this recipe is really nive all the more because u have give the water proporsion as i always mess up with that.
Its is very good, as it explains everything about the dish schematically
Shilpa,
Can you get the andhra biryani recipie. NOT the muslim biryani. Please let me know
to this biriyani you can sprinkle 3-4 spoons of rose water and close the lid and let the biriyani cook on a low flame or in 250 degree oven for 15 minutes. Tastes just like Mugalai Biriyani.
Shilpa,
Few questions, when do i add green chilly, i think its missing in steps. And while making a paste, u have told to add 1/2 onion, u mean 1/2 onion or 1/2 of what we are using in the recipe. One more doubt, with half cup of water, will all the vegetables u have mentioned, will they cook all right? Thanks for recipe.
Nayak mayi, thanks for pointing out the chilies. I have corrected it. They are added along with coriander & mint leaves while grinding. Yes, it is 1/2 onion, not half the quantity. We add a lot of fried onion(about 1 and 1/2) later. I am going to rewrite the recipe as I am doing the most of them, I will take care of all your feedbacks
. Since the vegetables are put in the bottom of the pan and the rice on top makes a kind of weight on them, they get cooked pretty fast. But if the heat is high, all water gets evaporated and vegetables don’t cook. So take care in that step. Also, use a narrow but tall vessel, so that there is a big heap of rice on top. Still, if the vegetables are not cooked, you can add little water in the end. Please have a look at making biryanis for more details.
hi,
will u plz tell me the recipe for preparing “KADHI”
Hi Shilpa.
I tried this tonight and it was so good. I skimped on salt a bit as I did not know how much to add. But other than that it was perfect. I followed your recipe to the letter. Thanks a lot. This is the first “proper” biriyani i have ever made. All my previous attempts were like khichdi. I always used to visit your blog, donno why I never tried anything. Now I will.
Thanks,
Asha
Hi Shilpa,
One more great tip.. which I learn’t from my co-sis’s mom. She does this charcoal treatment to the biryani after all the layers for the biryani are neatly done.
For this you require:
1 tbsp of vanaspati ghee or oil
2 cardamoms (green)
2-3 cloves.
fist sized dough (to seal the vessel)
Heat 2-3 pieces of lemon-sized charcoals on the flame for 5-10 mins (till they are flaming red hot).
The following procedure needs to be done quickly.
1. Now on the top most layer put a small steel bowl (press it into the rice). One by one blow the red charcoals and put it into the katori.
2. Put the cardamom and cloves on the charcoal. Immediately put one tbspoon of vanaspati ghee or oil on it. This will let out smoke. Quickly cover the vessel with a dish and seal the dish with dough. The key is not let the smoke escape. Now cook the biryani on low fire as usual.
Try this out.. It lends a amazing aroma
.
I ain’t a great cook .. but I try to learn, concentrate and do it
Let me know, how it turns out.
I tried this recipe. I always used to cook biriyani in Bangalore’s style. Now after trying Belgaum Style, I liked it very much. Thanks for recipe.
hi there,
dorry for this comment. i m a foodie. love to eat konkani food as my mom is a konkani. while reading your belgaum chicken biryani… i found that during the final preparation you havent mention any thing about the chicken after marination process. especially when the biryani is being kept for dum…
Hey shilpa.. how ru doing?? love ur biryani recipe..
Do check my blog out too and give me ur advice and ideas…:) wud really appreciate it..:)
Hi shilpa….
there is something wrong with the measurements…. its showing 2 coriander leaves…2 tblspns of colour?????? even rest of the proportions are confusing…..please check it….
Shilpa: Thanks Sowmya for pointing out. When we moved site from one place to another, the formatting got messed up. I have corrected it now.
i should thank you for your site…. or else it would have been very difficult to handle my ‘foodie’ hubby….hahahah
thank Shilpa,
The bwas great.It tasted like a biryani which I had eaten long back at an aunts place.I always tried a number of times to get that flavour.and when I tasted this biryani it was verrry close to that one.Keep up the good work.
Hi, V have recently shifted to Bangalore, and have tasted pulao over here(Bangaloreans refer as palav…) whatever it is the taste is different. Wanted to know if anyone can give me the recipe for palav made in Bangaloreans style….
btw Shilpa just made the Biriyani(with Potato)it came out really very great…
Thanks for the wonderful recipe, as Iam a pulao/biriyani fan…
want to know procedure to cook biriani in video
belgaum biryani..looks diff..definitely will give a try..tq for sharing…..
Hi Shilpa,
Thanks for a great recipie.. I tried it… wonderful…
All my family loved it…
Can you please share Hydrabadi biriani recipie with us…
Regards,
Saheer & Haseena
I tried the biryani today. It was amazing.Thanks a lot.Keep up the great work.. Cheers!!!!
Hi shilpa,
Can i marinate the chicken for 3- 4 hrs, will it make any difference in taste. Also my chicken was dry after i made biryani, don’t know what turned wrong.
Thanks
Shilpa: Yes, you can marinate for longer time.
Hi Shilpa
I tried this yesterday . Thank you so much. I just followed your steps .And it was fantastic. Thanks once again