For the love of Biriyani

I Love Biriyani, any kind, veg or non-veg :) well, who does not? It’s one of those universally loved food. My love affair with biriyani has been lifelong thanks to my mom. My mom is a great cook, her awesome biriyani are always a great hit with everyone. And when I got married, I found out my mother-in-law makes great biriyani too. Both my mother and MIL make awesome biryani with just a pressure cooker. I kind of don’t attempt making biriyani when either of them is around. I make biriyani too with a pressure cooker or the automatic rice cooker; they taste good, like homemade, nothing to brag about or feature until now :). LOL. Thanks to my new friend Subha who shared a recipe with me recently and was totally thrilled to see how simple it was. Every time I googled for dum biriyani, it called for huge vessels with lid that are oven safe (which I don't have) and then the double work of cooking the gravy separate and the rice separate, layering it. Phew! Just reading it I would give up. Cos for me biriyani is a one pot cooking thing, easy and simple. 

Well back to the feature biriyani, The Chicken dum biriyani. You can find the recipe in the link. I just made very little changes to the recipe. I added the whole spices (the cloves, cinnamon sticks etc.) and black jeera (caraway seeds) to the rice while cooking; I saw this in another video. I also did not add whole black pepper corns, cumin powder or seeds and garam masala in the chicken marinade. Instead I added some biriyani masala I had at home. Used red food coloring dissolved in water instead if saffron. I did not have fried onions too, so I sautéed some thin slices (grated) onions till dark brown and used them.