00:00Briyani is probably the most famous dish in all of India, and for good reason. It's delicious.
00:09Briyani might sound complicated, and it does take a little time, but I'm going to break it up for
00:13you into six simple steps. The first step being toasting off your spices. The first spice is
00:18cinnamon, which I'm going to break up into the pan. Then bay leaf, which I'll tear up as well.
00:22Notice how I'm starting with the larger spices first. Then star anise, which smells a little
00:26bit like licorice. A few cardamom pods. Then some mace. Before cooking biryani, I'd never seen the
00:31whole spice like this. Then some cloves, fennel seeds, then caraway seeds, which look a lot like
00:36fennel, but a bit darker. Some black peppercorns, black cardamom, which smells very strong and smoky,
00:40and coriander. Now we'll turn our heat to medium, medium, low, and then as we toast, it's a little
00:45bit less about what you see and more about what you smell. Your nose should tell you when they're
00:49done. You're looking to release all that beautiful flavor from these fragrant spices. The other thing
00:54I like to look out for are those crackles that start to happen with the spices. Sometimes they'll
00:58even start to jump around in the pan a little bit, and that should tell you they're getting closer to
01:02being toasted off correctly. Once your spices are fragrant and they look and sound and feel
01:06toasted, go ahead and immediately pour them off into your mortar. I also tend to wait to add in my
01:11nutmeg until after I've finished toasting so that it doesn't burn. Now I love this part. I like the
01:15sounds. I like the feeling of it all. The smell that you get is so incredible. You can almost see the
01:20scent climbing right out of the mortar as you break these apart. This is a really, really difficult
01:25smell to describe if you are not right there in front of it. The best way I can describe it is
01:29almost like a warmly spiced, fresh baked pastry. It's sweet and woody with hints of licorice and
01:34citrus, but you also get all sorts of smokiness and even this flower-like smell. Once fully ground,
01:39your spice mix is done. Step number two is marinating our chicken, and for that, I'll start with
01:43some yogurt, then this ginger garlic paste, some of this Kashmiri chili powder, as well as some turmeric.
01:49What you're seeing here is one of my favorite parts about cooking Indian cuisine. It's so colorful.
01:53Then a few scoops of that biryani spice mix that we just made, a nice pinch of salt, and a few split
01:58open green chilies. If you split them like this, they'll give off tons of flavor, but be really
02:02easy to take out at the end. Mix this up until your chicken marinade is evenly combined. Unbelievable
02:07colors. You may be wondering, Nick, where'd you get such a cool shirt? The shirt came from one of my
02:11subscribers who lives in India and gave it to me as a gift when I was there. Once you've mixed your
02:15chicken marinade, add in all of that chicken. We're using chicken with the bone in, not boneless
02:20chicken. That way the chicken won't dry out in our biryani. And then really get in there with your
02:24hands and make sure everything is fully mixed. Hit every corner of all that chicken. The better you
02:29mix it in, the better your biryani. The smell is this beautiful spiced yogurt. This is one of the
02:34things that makes biryani so incredible, the layering of so many different flavors. We have one spice mix
02:39in here that's being spread around by a nice tart yogurt. And then separately, our rice will have all
02:43different kinds of seasonings. And then you'll see when we layer it all together, how that flavor
02:46really builds up. Once fully mixed, cover and place in the fridge for at least two hours,
02:51preferably overnight. To finish the chicken, this here is one of my prized possessions. This is a
02:55beautiful biryani pot. And into it, I will add some ghee. And as that's melting down, I'll put on some
02:59gloves and grab my chicken from the fridge. This one has been marinating overnight. Once the ghee is
03:04melted, I'll place all my chicken skin side down, layering it all the way in an even layer across the
03:09bottom of the pan. Oh, this is going to be perfect. Look at this pattern. We want to use all of that
03:14nice spiced yogurt. So make sure you get every last drop and put it on your chicken as well.
03:18That's going to make a really nice sauce at the base of our biryani. And we'll leave this to cook
03:22over medium, medium high for about 30 to 45 minutes. If you're using a traditional pot like
03:26this, you'll notice the color will also change over time as it cooks. And that's totally normal.
03:30Step number three, frying the onions. If you like, you can definitely buy the onions pre-fried,
03:34but it doesn't take too long to make them at home. And they definitely taste a lot more homemade that way.
03:39To slice them, I'm going to use a mandolin. You want them to be nice and thin, but not too thin.
03:43If you're doing it right, they should look something like this. Once we've sliced our onions
03:46into a pan with some oil and your onions can go straight into that cold oil. The reason we start
03:51with cold instead of hot is so that our onions can soften a bit as that oil heats up. Now heat on,
03:56we'll keep it nice and low. And we can just let these onions cook low and slow until they get nice
04:00and golden and crispy. Let's move on to step number four, the rice. One of the most important parts of
04:05biryani is using a nice aged basmati rice. We'll start by measuring out a few cups of rice into
04:10a nice big bowl of some kind that you'll be able to rinse it in. Then I'll cover this with water and
04:14give it a nice rinse. You'll want to rinse your rice off multiple times until the water runs clear.
04:19And once your water runs mostly clear, let it soak for about 30 minutes. This will ensure that each
04:23grain stays long and fluffy after you cook it. Lucky for you, this rice has already been soaked. So we can
04:28bring it over to our pot of boiling water. And into that, I'm going to add these spices, some of the same
04:32spices that we used earlier, and these are going to season our rice. Along with these, I'm also going
04:36to add a bunch of salt. Sort of like making pasta, you need to season your water so it can season your
04:41rice. And then in goes all of that soaked rice. Bring this up to a nice hard simmer and then let it
04:47go for five to seven minutes or until the rice is cooked about 75% of the way through. Make sure to
04:51watch carefully and taste as you go. While that rice cooks, I will pull off our crispy onions because
04:56those look finished. With these, I'll spread them out into some paper towels and they should continue to
05:01crisp up and set as they dry out and leak off some of that oil into the paper towel. Set those aside
05:06and move back over to our rice. Once each grain is soft on the outside and a little harder on the
05:10inside, it's done. Pour it off into a colander to strain out all that extra liquid and your rice is
05:15now finished. You'll want to make sure to pick out all the extra little bits that were in there. I'm
05:19letting it stay nice and dry on this sheet tray here. And now we move on to step number five, which is
05:23the layering process. The first step for this process is to make some saffron milk. I have some very special
05:29saffron that I'm going to crush up into this warm milk. And if you watch carefully right away, you
05:34should see that it should start to get a little yellow on the outsides of the saffron. I'll mix
05:37this up and set it off to the side to continue to bloom. And then another great thing about biryani,
05:42all of the fresh, delicious herbs. Here we have mint and cilantro. And with these, you'll just want to
05:47pick off all of the leaves. You can chop it up with a knife if you want, but I tend to just use my hands.
05:51And for the cilantro, I'll just shave off all those leaves. Like I said, now we start layering. First,
05:56with half of our crispy onions evenly around that chicken, then a nice sprinkle of that mint and
06:01cilantro. Make sure when you do this, that everything is evenly spread out. The better you
06:05spread it, the more even that flavor will be. Then over the top of that, we'll begin to add our rice.
06:09We want a very even layer here. And when you're doing this, don't forget about the corners. What's
06:13also nice about putting the rice on a sheet tray is you'll find all those extra little bits that you'll
06:17want to take out much easier. Doing this reminds me of making biryani in India with my friend Varun,
06:22who happens to be the head chef at the number one restaurant in all of India. So if you're making
06:27this recipe right now, you should know that he himself took a look at this recipe and approved
06:31it. Some people, when they make biryani, do multiple layers of different things. But a lot of people,
06:35when they make it at home, just do one layer of chicken and one layer of rice. So that's the
06:38version we're doing here. To finish the layering process, we'll go over the rice with some saffron
06:42milk. This, I think, might be my favorite part because it gives these beautiful yellow streaks. And if
06:47you leave some of the parts of the rice white, and then some of them covered with that saffron,
06:51you'll see that once it's cooked, it gives this really nice speckled pattern with the rice.
06:55After the saffron milk, we'll put the rest of our crispy onions. Then this is a trick that I learned
06:59from Chef Varun. Drizzle over just a little bit of that onion flavored oil and top it all off with
07:04more mints. And finally, some cilantro. As a last touch, we can also take a bit of that special
07:08biryani seasoning that we made and sprinkle it all across the top of our biryani as well. The final step
07:13in the layering process is called the dumb method. D-U-M. All we're going to do is make a little dough
07:19here. You can even just eyeball this. You're not going to eat this dough. And you want to add just
07:23enough water that it can all hold together. What we're really making right now is a lid that we'll
07:27cover our biryani pot with to bake. Once the dough feels like it's hydrated enough, you can go ahead
07:31and get in there with your hands. And now we can just work it like a normal dough. The reason we're
07:35making this dough lid is because it traps all that steam inside the biryani and will keep everything
07:39nice and moist. Really doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it can form a nice airtight lid,
07:44just big enough that it can drape over the sides of your biryani pot. I'm not going to tell you that
07:48this will be quick. It will take a long time. Once you think you've rolled it out enough,
07:52grab that biryani pot, bring it back in, stretch it, and be sure to pull it nice and tight. Then
07:57squeeze all around the edges to secure it. We want a nice hard seal so that none of that moisture can
08:02escape while cooking. As our final step before baking, I'll paint over a little bit of ghee all around
08:08the dough, which will give it a beautiful golden brown finish, but also make sure that that dough
08:11doesn't crack when it cooks. And finally, we are ready to bake. There's already a few large bubbles
08:16starting to form on our lid, and this is a great sign. This means that steam is building up on the
08:20inside, which should give us a very tender biryani. When your biryani looks done, be very careful. If you
08:26are really quiet, you can almost hear a few of these cracking sounds as the lid settles once it comes
08:30out of the oven. After all the hard work, it's time to cut it open. Once you've cut around the edges,
08:34open it up. Wow! That plume of steam that you just saw is probably one of the best smells you will ever
08:41experience. So now, despite how long we've just cooked this for, maybe the hardest part for me
08:45is always knowing where to take a nice scoop. I'm going to use this as my plate. And I'll scoop
08:49for some of that nice yogurt sauce that was on the bottom there. Oh, it's been all caramelized.
08:53The smell is this incredibly complex, irresistible smell. It makes you want to dive right in.
08:58It's my first taste. Oh my gosh. Seasoned to perfection, but also fall apart tender. I can't
09:04believe how good the chicken is. It's actually even better than I thought it would be. It's so,
09:08so soft, flaky, and still very tender. It's perfectly cooked. And then for the rice and
09:12the rest of my biryani, I'll finish it with just a bit of this onion raita. Just a simple yogurt,
09:18onion, a few herbs, a little bit of that biryani spice blend that we made.
09:24Had to take the plate with me.
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