Chicken Dum Biryani: Authentic Layered Recipe (Tested 12×)

Ingredients

For the chicken marinade

1 kg kg bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks (skin off)
250 g g full-fat plain yogurt
2 tbsp tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2 tbsp tbsp biryani masala
1 tsp tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1 tsp tsp turmeric
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tbsp tbsp neutral oil
1½ tsp tsp salt

For the rice

500 g g aged basmati (rinsed and soaked 30 min)
2.5 L L water
2 tbsp tbsp salt
4 green cardamom
2 black cardamom
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp tbsp neutral oil

For layering and finishing

3 large onions (thinly sliced)
Pinch of saffron
3 tbsp tbsp warm milk
3 tbsp tbsp ghee (melted)
Handful each mint and coriander
1 tbsp tbsp rose or kewra water (optional)

Instructions

Marinate the chicken

Combine every marinade ingredient with the chicken in a glass bowl. Massage it in with your hands — you want the yogurt worked into every crease. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours. Overnight is dramatically better.

Fry the birista

Slice three large onions as thinly as your patience allows. Heat 2 cm of oil in a wide pan and stir every minute. They'll go from translucent to pale gold to deep mahogany over 18 minutes. Pull them out at maple-syrup colour — they keep darkening on the paper towel.

Parboil the basmati

Bring 2.5 L of water to a hard boil with the salt and whole spices. Add the drained soaked rice. Set a timer for six minutes. At five minutes, press a grain between your fingers: it should bend and break with a tiny white core. Drain immediately. Do not rinse.

Layer the biryani

In a heavy pot, spread the marinated chicken in one even layer. Scatter a third of the birista and half the herbs. Mound the parboiled rice gently on top — do not press. Drizzle the saffron milk in stripes, then the ghee, then the remaining birista, herbs and rose water.

Dum cook

Cover with a tight lid. If it's not heavy, seal the rim with a rope of flour-water dough. Set over high heat for 3 minutes to build steam, then drop to the lowest possible flame for 25 minutes. Kill the heat, rest 10 minutes without opening. Scoop from the side to lift chicken up with the rice.