Murg Shahi Biryani

Recipe Contributor- Corporate Executive Chef Sunil Soni, Preparation Time- 30 Minutes, Cooking Time – 60 Minutes, Total Cooking Time- 1 hour 30 Minutes

Murg Shahi Biryani recipe is a traditional non-vegetarian rice dish which is a quintessential dish from the Mughlai cuisine.
The Mughlai cuisine, as we all know, belongs to the era of Mughals and was cooked in the kitchens of Maharajas and Nawabs of India.
This Indian recipe holds that tradition in true flavour in one dish altogether. The main components involved are chicken and basmati rice which are layered to give the perfect blend of flavours and saffron on top of it to enhance the fragrance even more.

Murg Shahi Biryani- Ingredients

1. Chicken Broiler – 800gms
2. Rice Basmati- 1kg
3. Cloves – 5
4. Green Cardamon-4
5. Chopped Garlic- 15gms
6. Saffron-2gms
7. Curd-30gms
8. Golden Brown Onion(Fried & Draine)- 20gms
9. Oil-25 ml

How to cook Murg Shahi Biryani

• Clean chicken and remove skin and cut it into 8 pieces, four from leg and four from the breast.
• Soak the rice for 25-30 minutes
• Take a handi/ pan. heat oil, jeera whole and let it have a crackling sound.
• Now add clove, green cardamom, chopped garlic and cook till it turns golden brown.
• Next, add the washed and cleaned chicken pieces. Cook for some time and add some water so as to cook the chicken. Later, remove the chicken from the fire.
• Boil water in a handi, add crushed green cardamom and clove in it, add soaked and drained rice. Cook them till half done and then drain.
• Take a handi and spread the half cooked chicken along with its half cooked gravy and cover it with a layer of cooked rice
• Now soak saffron in warm water and whisk it in the curd. Spread half of the mixture over the rice also spread a layer of remaining chicken and it’s gravy over it and the remaining mixture of saffron and curd.
• Cover it with a thick damp cloth and put a lid over the handi. Let it cook over very slow fire till the rice is cooked.

About Corporate Executive Chef Sunil Soni

• Chef Sunil Soni was born and brought up in New Delhi, and did his initial culinary training at Taj Hotel. Always keen on travelling and exploring different cuisines he went to Singapore early in his career and learned oriental cuisine.
• He started his own venture “Starwood Hotel in Kuwait and it became a popular place for both locals as well as Indians to eat.
• Chef Soni has always been intrigued by the royal cuisine of Awadh and revived it in USA.
  
• In the USA his biryani techniques were featured in a short film produced in collaboration with Boston University, MA.
  
• He was featured in a famous TV show ‘Phantom Gourmet’ in Boston USA. His restaurants were consistently Zagat rated for consequent years and featured in as ‘Best of Boston’ frequently.

Some of his unique creations …