Quick Chicken Biriyani - From Rotisserie Chicken

Discussion in 'NonVegetarian Kitchen' started by Amulet, Dec 27, 2018.

  1. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    Most non-veg eaters know Biryani, and have had various varieties of this dish at home, and in various types of restaurants -- from hole-in-the-wall, to posh. If one were to be living in a foreign country, well... one may have to innovate. I had made and taught a quick biriyani recipe to my kids. [This biriyani will be on the mild side, good for amreeki kids; if you need it spicier, just increase the level of sri racha sauce shown at the bottom of this post.]

    The essential steps are:
    1. Buy an already cooked rotisserie (whole) chicken from a local deli/grocery store. For America-Canada residents such things can be bought for under US$6. Costco, Walmart and Samsclub started the sale of such roasted chickens, and now pretty much all large grocery stores have them, usually under $10.


    2. Separate the light and dark meats of the chicken. We shall only use the dark meat (thigh, legs) in the biriyani, and use the light meat (breasts) for other dishes (make sandwiches, or slice and sprinkle over a salad, or spagetti dish). Or.. you can serve it to the finicky child who'd want just the chicken, and no additional treatments. The reason for this: Dark meat is more tolerant to re-cooking, whereas light meat would most likely turn tough and leathery. [The Why - is a homework problem, if anybody should care]. From each roasted chicken one would get two thighs, and two legs. No need to debone any of these pieces. We'd do that while eating.

    3. This quick biriyani involves making a spicy tadka with onion, coating that on washed-drained basmati rice, then transferring that to a rice cooker, and cooking it with the dark meat of chicken in a yoghurt-water mix.

    I prepare a tadka separately in a skillet, coat that over the rice, and then transfer that coated rice into the rice cooker. It can be adapted to an Instant Pot, where saute and rice cooking can follow in sequence.

    One cup of basmati rice is washed and drained; no need to soak for any length of time. However, drain it completely in a fine colander.

    In the saute skillet or IP, use 1 teaspoon each of oil and ghee for Tadka. Heat the oil, and add 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, and let it sizzle, then reduce the heat, and add 15 or 20 split-cashew nuts, and a few curry leaves (or bay leaves). Let the cashews become slightly browned. Then add one teaspoon each of Sri Racha Sauce, Mint Chutney, and Ginger Garlic paste. [The heat is still low]. Let the sauces sizzle in the oily mix for a couple of minutes; this infuses their flavors into the oil. Add one medium sized chopped onion into the tadka, 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon of coriander, 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala and mix and let cook for about five minutes. Notice that we added powdered spices not directly on the hot oil, but provided the onions in the pot/skillet as a heat-cushion. Onions will have to turn transparent. Normally onion saute would require adding salt to draw out the water from the onion pieces; however, since we have the salt content of SriRacha sauce, and Mint Chutney working on this, we do not add any more salt into this recipe. Costco’s rotisserie chicken is also a “brined” chicken, and is quite salty on its own — as salty-roast chickens are designed to go with drinking beer or wine.

    While that onion is cooking, whisk together 1/2 cup of yoghurt and 1-1/2 cups of water to a total of 2 cups. Use the same sized cup used to measure basmati rice. We will plan a 1:2 rice to water ratio. Whisk as uniformly as you can.

    When the onions are transparent, put the cup of washed/drained rice into the pot, and gently mix to coat the rice with the oily mix. This coating will prevent the rice grains from sticking together.

    You may add peas, small cut red capsicum, carrots etc.. at this point. These add colors to the biriyani. However, these are not essential.

    Transfer the rice, onion, tadka mixture to a rice cooker, add the water-yoghurt whisked liquid on top of the rice, gently give that mixture a stir with a wood spoon or a pair of chopsticks. Then gently place/drop the chicken pieces (two thighs, two drumsticks) on top. The chicken may or may not be fully immersed in the water. Not fully immersed is fine.

    Switch on the rice cooker (or the IP) as you would, to make the rice. Done. Once the rice cooker had finished its job, let it continue to keep the biriyani warm for another 20 to 30 minutes. This “rest” period adds to the taste. After the rest period, use a flat wood spatula to gently (dont break the rice grains) turn over the rice, and then re-rest the biriyani for an additional 10 minutes before serving.

    Serve with raita. [This biriyani will be on the mild side, good for amreeki kids]
    For the experimenters:
    Use 3 pieces of chicken in the biriyani, and save the 4th one for a comparative taste test. When the biriyani is done, test the texture and taste of one of the pieces that went through the cooking cycle with the rice, with a similar one that was not used in the biriyani. This comparison would give you an idea of how tolerant dark meat can be to re-cooking.

    Dark chicken is usually cheaper in America, because the locals prefer chicken breasts in many of their recipes. In most other countries, dark meat of chicken (or other fowls) is the more expensive part of the bird.

    In any generic “simmered curry” dish with chicken, it is preferred to use dark meat, because the meat will get tender, and not toughen by cooking it a bit longer….. and even a bit more. A generic take-out curry, if it contains only dark meat, that can be converted into a biriyani in a rice cooker.

    If you are a frequent biriyani cooker, buy chicken thigh and try your favorite recipe, and compare that with a recipe made with chicken breast. You’d give up on the breasts, and go with legs.

    A “tikka” in a Tikka-masala, is simply barbeque’d chicken; if made with dark meat, would produce a much nicer texture in the simmered Tikka-masala dish. And if, the simmering is done too long, the tikka will not go tough on you. An exploring question to ask is whether fried chicken could replace barbeque’d one, and whether a KFC drumstick is a tolerable Tikka.

    -------------------
    Note on sauces to buy
    Mint Chutney, and Ginger-Garlic paste are standard desi- grocery store items. Sri Racha Sauce may not be (some stores have added this). This sauce is usually bought in any chinese, korean, japanese, vietnamese, thai stores. Huy Fong Foods is the most popular brand. Main ingredients are pepper, vinegar, garlic, and salt. It would have the consistency of ketchup. It looks like this:
    upload_2018-12-27_21-56-7.png
     
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2018
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  2. Sunshine04

    Sunshine04 Platinum IL'ite

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    If you mean the spicy sauce, it's called siracha sauce
     
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  3. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    In India, there is no need for a short-cut biriyani. One could simply order on the phone from one of the several outlets, and have it delivered pronto. And besides, even though there is sriracha sauce available locally, why bother with that ? One can simply ask the cook to make the whole darn thing from scratch..... from catching the chicken, plucking the feathers off, and the lot. People living in phoren give up so much of the traditional depth of desi life:sob: and culture.
    [​IMG]
    Price: 90.00 FREE Delivery.
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    • Authentic red chilli flavours of Thailand infused with Indian herbs and spices
    • Can be used as a condiment for any Indian or Western snack
    • Can be used as a spread for rolls, sandwiches, etc.
    • Can be used as a glaze or marinade for cooking and grilling
    • Use Sriracha hot sauce to make your food crazier - Fries, Fried Rice, Sandwhich, Noodles
     
  4. Sunshine04

    Sunshine04 Platinum IL'ite

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    I have always made biriyani from scratch in phoren land. These sauces will not give you Indian flavor.
    Actually Indians living in foriegn countries follow the Indian culture and values vigorously. They feel they need to connect with their roots. They think India is the same as at the time they left.
     
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  5. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    :hearteyes: Yes.

    I watched this documentary, that has minimal talking, but lots of actions:
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2018
  6. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    I thought the way I add sambhar powder to almost any dish is the height of creativity. You are making biriyani from Rotisserie Chicken. : ) I will try it, in the IP.

    What's with the long description? : ) Looks you were never an anxious new bride or all alone in a new country trying to call mom long distance for recipe and the precious AT&T or MCI minutes ticking away. The other day I told Thing1 and 2 how some months I had a bill of $500+ for phone. And told them to go find the inflation adjusted value. : )

    Nice details in your recipe. The bolded parts are helpful. I wish more recipes online had that.

    I plan to check out the homework problem also. Recently, a dish I cooked came out great except for the leathery-ness.
     
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  7. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    What you had been doing with sambhar powder ( a mixture of chili and coriander powders with a few other minor ingredients) is a very rational thing if the recipe calls for chili and coriander powders.
    There are a whole bunch of chutneys, and pickles you can use for cooking as well. Same as your sambhar powder creativity. A grated mango pickle (comes in hot, medium, mild variants) is nothing but amchoor in paste form, with a bit of spiciness in it.

    Mango, Mint, and Gongura are the some of the chutney/pickles (spicy preservatives) that are very useful in cooking. One of my kids makes a very good okra stirfry with gongura pickle. The simple procedure is to toss a tablespoon of the gongura pickle in the Tadka, after the mustard seed, urad/channa dals, and curry leaves, and let it simmer for a bit to infuse the oil with the spices of the pickles. And proceed with the rest of the recipe. No other powders or spices needed. We both like it done in a skillet/fry-pan, but I know that the IP converts will do it in the IP. Either way it has to be done until there are no gooey filaments going from one piece of okra to another.

    My parents were locals, no international long distance calls to them.
    Anxious? I married a somewhat adjustable one :blush:. Talking of bold font recipes, we are totally in love.
    YES!
    Never mind that Costco R. Chicken. Do the dark vs. light comparison, and that in the IP method, would be a good learning to pass on to the next gen., when they are standing by helping and conversing while you toss things in IP, and not making it an overt cooking lesson. Amulet said "let there be no light.... and LO! the new IP-biriyani of Rihana would be the rage" --- would be the new gospel:laughing:. I bet you'd find new frozen sauces with cooked dark-meat chicken already in it.
     
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  8. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    I tried this. Used a tablespoon of gongura pickle in my okra IP recipe. Came out good. One of these days I will try it on my friend. She will go into a loop trying to figure out what I used. ; ) Next, am going to try aalu-peas with gongura or tomato pickle.
    Happy New Year to you and your somewhat adjustable one. Here's to totally in love! :beer-toast1: Recipe? :kissingheart: With bold font or maybe sparknotes?
     
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  9. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    If a person were to be not too dumb, and has the good fortune, i.e., dumb luck, to be paired with a good one (or one who is adjustable to such goodness), all will be well. Failing to adjust (the adjustable one) early (enough) is the huge problem in all loving relationships.

    Happy New Year
    [​IMG]
     
  10. Amulet

    Amulet IL Hall of Fame

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    @Rihana
    Here is a quick recipe for how to make a biriyani from left-over chicken curry (made from dark meat chicken). This is an older photo. [spello: "pot" instead of "post" in the 7th line up from the bottom]

    I am looking for the recipe to make the curry from dark meat only. I shall post it when I find it.
    Biriyani-from-curry.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2019
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