fried onions Archives - MyEdibleCravings

Dum Ka Chicken is the latest dish that I came across, courtesy from one of our friends. It is a very tasty and sumptuous dish made using chicken. As the name suggests, the chicken is dum cooked (cooked in a sealed pot) which I have explained in the cooking instructions below. Dum Ka Chicken is one of the easiest dishes that I have ever cooked and it is one of the many reasons for it to be my most favorite dish in recent memory.
Dum Ka chicken is a Hyderabadi nawab dish meaning it’s a royal dish :). As I had mentioned above, it is very easy to make. All you need to do is marinate the chicken overnight and then cook it using dum method the next day. Also, it is, as I would like to say, an one pot dish, meaning, you just need to use one utensil during the entire preparation i.e., you use the same pot in which the chicken is marinated to cook as well. You can also prepare Dum Ka Chicken using a conventional oven.
Dum Ka Chicken is very rich in flavor and goes well with almost any entree items like rice, chapati, paratha, naan etc. Do try this royal, very tasty, simple (I am running out of adjectives :)) dish and post your wonderful comments!

Dum ka chicken

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 50 mins

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 4

Ingredients

To make a paste:

Chironji or charoli- 1 tbsp
Cashews– 1 tbsp
Green chilli – 4 nos

Other ingredients:

Cinnamon stick – 1”
Green cardamom – 3 nos
Cloves – 3 nos
Shahi jeera – ½ tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Lemon juice – from half a lemon
Yogurt – ½ cup (2 tbsp)
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Chilli powder – 1 tbsp
Coriander powder – 1 ½ tbsp
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Cumin powder – ½ tsp
Mint, finely chopped – ½ cup
Cilantro, finely chopped – ½ cup
Onion , big, sliced – 1 to 2 nos
Olive Oil – 2 tbsp
Salt
Chicken – 750 grams
Water – 1 ½ cup

Instructions

Step 1: Marination

Add all the above given ingredients in a deep thick bottomed sauce pan.
Make a paste of the above given ingredients and add it to the pan.
Heat oil and deep fry the onions to golden brown. Add them to the marinade.
Mix everything together and check for salt and spices.
Add the chicken to the marinade and mix well.
Finally add water and mix well. Cover the lid and refrigerate it overnight.

Step 2:

Dum cooking – Stove top method

Next day seal the lid with dough or aluminium foil and tightly close the pan (This method is called dumming). Cook in medium to medium low flame for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile heat a dosa pan in another burner. After ten minutes transfer the sauce pan on to the dosa pan and reduce the flame. Cook in low flame for 40 minutes.
Switch off the flame and leave it for another 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes open the lid and check if the chicken is well cooked. By this time chicken should be juicy and cooked well.
Enjoy dum ka chicken with white rice and egg on the side! 

Dum cooking – Conventional oven method

Marinate the chicken in any oven safe pan.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees F.
Cover the pan with aluminum foil and then close the lid.
Cook on the stove top for 20 minutes in low flame. And then place it in the oven and cook for 2 hours and 30 minutes. Enjoy! 

Notes

1.Use the same oil you used to fry the onions. It enhances the taste of the gravy.
2.And I recommend to always use freshly fried onions and not the store bought.
3.If you are calorie conscious then you can shallow fry the onions with olive oil or vegetable oil and add it to the marinade.
4.Mint and cilantro quantity is equal to one handful amount.
5.Chironji or charoli is a nut that can be found in any Indian grocery store.

Biriyani in general is a wonderful dish and is one of the most famous dishes from India. As many of you know, there are many varieties of biriyani like thalappakatti, anjappar, mughalai, hyderabadi, ambur etc. Today I have given you the recipe of a biriyani variety from Kerala called as the Thalasseri biriyani.

There is a story behind me making Thalasseri biriyani. To be frank, I had not even thought about this variety. When we went for Indian grocery shopping recently, I came across a rice variety called the Kalajeera rice. It closely resembled Seeraga Sambha rice variety from my state in India, Tamilnadu. Biriyani prepared in Tamilnadu use this rice variety and it literally adds an amazing taste to biriyani. So when I saw this rice variety I assumed kalajeera must be the name of Seeraga Sambha in Kerala and I was eager to try it out. But when I open the rice bag, I did not smell that distinct aroma that emanates from Seeraga Sambha rice and realized that I made a mistake. Still I did not want to waste a bag of rice just because it was not the variety that I want. Then I came across Thalasseri biriyani recipe. It is a very popular biriyani variety in Kerala and kalajeera rice is used to prepare it.

Thalasseri biriyani is a little bit similar to Hyderabadi biriyani except that we use tomatoes here. Also, if making a chicken variant of this biriyani, we need to cook the chicken first in tomato based gravy and then use that gravy with chicken to do the layering. Don’t get anxious by the number of steps given below; it is easy to prepare Thalasseri biriyani.

Thalasseri Biriyani

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Serves: 3

Ingredients

To marinate :

Chicken - 500 grams or ½ kg
Red chilli powder – 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Lemon juice – 2 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste – ½ tbsp (optional)

To make rice:

Ghee – 2 tbsp
Bay leaf – 1 no
Cloves - 3 nos
Cinnamon – 1”
Cardamom – 2 nos
Fennel seeds – ¼ tsp
Onion, big, sliced – 1 no
Kala jeera rice or Basmati rice – 1½ cups (soaked in water for 20 minutes)
Water – 2 ¼ cup ( 1 : 1 ½ )
Salt as required

To make gravy:

Ghee – 2 tbsp
Onion, big, sliced – 1 no
Green chillies, slits – 4 nos
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Tomato, big, chopped – 1 ½ nos (if medium – 2 nos)
Cilantro & mint leaves, chopped – a handful
Garam masala – ½ tbsp
Sakthi biriyani masala – ½ tbsp (optional)
Yogurt – 2 to 3 tbsp
Salt as required
Fried chicken

For the toppings:

Cilantro, finely chopped – 1 to 2 tbsp
Onions, medium, sliced, deep fried – ½ to 1 no
Ghee – 1 tbsp
Garam masala – a generous pinch
Saffron, soaked in warm milk – a pinch
Food color – a pinch (optional)

Instructions

Step 1:

Make a paste of the given ingredients ‘to marinate’. - Try to extract excess water in ginger garlic paste before adding to the marinated paste. Marinate the chicken with the paste and leave it for at least an hour.
Heat enough oil in a deep flat pan and shallow fry the marinated chicken.

Step 2:

Heat ghee in a deep flat sauce pan (which has a tight lid) and all the whole garam masalas (bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and fennel seeds).
When they start to sizzle, add sliced onions and sauté well. Cook until the onion turns slight brown.
Add the rice, enough water and salt. Close the lid, simmer and cook for 5 to 10 minutes until the rice is ¾ th done – do not add excess water in this stage, or else you will not get the right texture.
When the rice is done, transfer them carefully to another container and keep it aside.

Step 3:

Heat ghee in the same thick bottomed sauce pan (which you used to cook rice), add onions and sauté well. When the onions turn translucent, add ginger garlic paste and cook until the raw smell disappears. Add green chilli slits and stir well.
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they turn mushy.
When the tomatoes are well cooked, add freshly chopped coriander and mint leaves.
Add yogurt, garam masala powder, biriyani masala and salt. Stir well and finally add the chicken. Mix well, cover and cook for another five minutes until the gravy is well blended with the chicken and forms the semi gravy.
Check salt and switch off the flame.

Step 4:

Heat a dosa pan and keep it ready.
Meanwhile layer the cooked rice on top of the gravy.
Sprinkle the freshly chopped cilantro and lemon juice on top.
Layer the remaining rice and sprinkle the remaining cilantro, garam masala(optional), fried onions, saffron milk and food color.
Cover the lid- the lid has to be really tight.
Place the sauce pan on top of the dosa pan, simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

Notes

1. I used the same sauce pan to cook the rice (step 2) as well as to make gravy (step 3) and to dum the biriyani (step 4) as my pan was very thick. You could also cook the rice in pressure cooker. But make sure the rice is ¾th cooked.
2. Try not to use store bought fried onions instead deep fry the onions at home. This will enhance the flavor to the biriyani.