It is world's first biryani day today. They often say ‘Biryani’ is not a food but an emotion in India. This one-pot delicacy is probably of the most relished delicacies across the subcontinent, and the many renditions of the dish are proof. You, yourself may have tried many kinds of biryanis such as Awadhi Biryani, Kolkata Biryani, Hyderabadi Biryani or the lesser-known but equally amazing variants such as Bhatkali or Doodh Wali Biryani. In other words, this rice dish, layered with masalas and meat/vegetables can be prepared in numerous ways and one such Biryani recipe that caught our fancy recently was this Barbecue Matka Biryani by homechef and Slurrp community member Sonia Sarpal. Matka biryani is biryani that is cooked in an earthen pot, which is also the traditional way of making biryani. This biryani is smoky, hot, saucy and even a little bit sweet (caramelised onions for the win). This is easily one of the most eclectic dishes you can cook over the weekend. For this biryani, you need to marinate the chicken, fry it, and even parboil and season the rice with cloves, peppercorn, lime juice et al. Each and every morsel of this biryani is teeming with flavour. Here are a few things you might want to stock up on before you start.
For chicken marination:
- 750 gm chicken
- 1/2 cup hung curd
- 1 cup mint coriander chutney (1/2 cup coriander + mint leaves +1 inch ginger + 5-6 garlic + 1 tbsp lemon juice)
- 1 tsp salt + turmeric powder + coriander powder + red chilli powder + garam masala + yellow food colour
For Chicken
- 1 tbsp oil for frying chicken
- 2 -3 burning coal
For rice preparation:
- 500 gm rice
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 6 cups water for boiling
- 1 bayleaf
- 5-6 cloves
- 4-5 pepper corn
- 2-3 black & green cardamom
- 1 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
For biryani preparation:
- 1 tbsp oil
- 2 sliced onion
- 4 tomatoes for purée
- 1 tsp shahi jeera
- 1 bayleaf
- 2 black cardamom
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 2-3 green chillies
- 1 tsp coriander powder + red chilli powder + garam masala + turmeric powder
For layering biryani:
- 2 tbsp fried onions
- 10 mint leaves
- 1 tbsp yellow food colour
- 2-3 Lemon slices
- 2-3 green chillies
- 2 tbsp biryani masala(1 bayleaf + 11/2 tsp saunf+ 2 star anise. 2 black cardamom + 10 green cardamom 1 tsp pepper corn + 3-4 cinnamon sticks + 2 tbsp coriander seeds + 2 tbsp shahi jeera +1/2 tsp nutmeg)
You can watch the recipe here.
Try this Biryani and ring in World Biryani Day in style.
