Quote from: railway on March 10, 2006, 04:52 PM
Forget the sauce, it's the actual rice/meat recipe I'm after.

For a start, I think we need to add 'the sauce' right back into the mix. I'm almost 100% sure that chicken biryani (using that as an example) is not just chicken and rice. Now I know that by 'the sauce' you probably meant the accompanying vegetable curry side dish. But a sauce or spiced oil is the starting point for the BIR chicken biryani, too.

I saw one made recently, at a take away. The chef spent at least 5 mins making what I assume to be a sauce, complete with pre-cooked chicken. Then, almost at the end, he added cold pilau rice, mixed it in, heated it up, and the biryani dish was finished.

I keep meaning to try it myself, but haven't yet got round to it. The standard of five different chicken biryanis which I've had this year from different BIRs was disappointingly low.

Regards
George

Here's another observation of mine, even before I try to make a BIR type chicken biryani from scratch.

The other day I bought a 'mini classics' chilled food tub of chicken tikka makhani from Morrisons. 300g for ?1.29 on the packet and now reduced to 2 for ?2. Highly recommended. It's described as "chicken tikka pieces with a rich creamy tomato sauce on a bed of pilau rice." After 3.5 mins in the microwave you're advised to gently agitate and heat for another 2 mins.

Perhaps I agitated it too much because it ended up as a very moist mix of rice and sauce which struck me as pretty much like a very moist biryani. After all that's how most biryanis are made, i.e. sauce + rice. So for my second delicious 300g tub, I cooked it in the oven instead, as also 'allowed' on the packet. But I added about half a cup of partially pre-cooked basmati rice, to reduce the liquid nature of the final dish and make it even more like a biryani. The rice I added was cooked in a large volume of salted water for just 5 mins, and added until the Morrisons tub was full / level. I didn't stir in the new rice. I just added it on top. I covered it with a pyrex plate to get some sort of seal and put it in the oven for 30 mins at gas Mk4 rather than their suggested 20 mins. I also added a few drops of saffron soaked in warm milk and a couple of small pieces of butter.

The result was a very tasty " chicken tikka biryani" indeed - much better than recent biryanis I've had from any take away.

Th lesson I've learned from this little experiment is that you can't go far wrong with any mix of some curry sauce + rice if you seek to make a biryani.

Do try it.

Regards
George

Very many thanks all....I found the recipe at https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=337.0 amazing. Really authentic and easy.
BIR should be easy...it's basically stir fried rice after all!!!
Once again, many thanks

Hi, put some oil or gee in a non stick wok or frying pan.Add half an onion cut in slices add a heaped teaspoon of methi,and a teaspoon of mixed spice mixture also a teaspoon of tomato puree and half teaspoon of ginger and garlic puree combined a half teaspoon of salt.Start frying stiring about.After 4 mins add your meat The BIR use mutton cooked in spices for about 45 mins to 1 hour.Fry for about a futher 5-6 mins then add the pillau rice pre heated in a micro also 1 desert spoon of coconut powder mix thouroly add a little coreander and presto TERRY

hi blondie
try curry house cookery in the downloads section have tried it and it is very good did not precook the same way though

regards
gary