CHICKEN BIRYANI

Back in the days, my mom's biryani was pretty well known, for obvious reasons. It was always perfect and pretty much never went wrong. You wouldn't need any side dishes along with it. What impressed me about her biryani was how she didn't use any ready made masala mix at all. Most people these days rely on these masala mix so much, and why wouldn't they, it does make everything easier. So, going with the flow I tried a few masala mix myself and got a few Hyderabadi biryani masala mix, backing up my nostalgia since I used to have them a lot back in Saudi Arabia, thanks to my dad's colleagues. So let's get into the recipe right away.

First off, I started preparing my chicken for the biryani. Now, they had a list of instructions and I tried them numerous times but those instructions didn't just click with me. Also, not to mention, I was feeling a little creative that day and honestly I barely had any ingredients. Like I usually have yogurt or mint or cilantro, something or the other that pushes me to prepare biryani but that day I literally didn't have anything except the biryani masala packet. So in a pan smeared with oil, I added in some panch foron, cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon stick, and cloves and fried them in medium heat. After extracting the flavors of the beautiful spices, keeping the heat level unchanged, I went in with the chopped onions and let them brown a little before adding my powdered spices which included red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, and half of the masala packet. After cooking the spices for about 3-4 minutes, I added in the chicken pieces and about a cup of water. Once the water started boiling, I added in some lemon juice and cream cheese. Yes you read it right, I used cream cheese. I had this lying around for a while in the fridge and the only other substitute I had was vanilla flavored yogurt only, so yes cream cheese it is. It literally scared me to death when the mixture tasted a tad bit sour. My hubby doesn't take sour food too well. Anyway, I had to go on, so next I added in my rice and some green chili to the chicken mixture and let it all cook together on medium low heat with the lid on. Honestly, this method wasn't mentioned in the masala packet, but I was so lethargic to cook the rice separately that I just let it be. Also I did give the entire mixture a stir, every 10 minutes just so nothing gets burnt.

Once everything was cooked thoroughly, it almost looked creamy but somehow after a few stirs, it disappeared. As per to the taste, it did taste a little sour than normal but more of a good sour. In fact, my hubby barely noticed any difference. He just enjoyed the hearty meal and that made me happy!

Ingredients:

2 cups basmati rice

2 pcs thigh-leg piece, chopped into smaller pieces

0.5 cup onions

4-5 pcs green chili

1 cup cream cheese

0.5 packet Hyderabadi biryani masala mix

1 tsp panch foron

1 tsp cumin seed

2 pcs each cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick

1 tsp each red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder

1 tsp salt

0.5 tsp sugar