There are several Pakistani & Indian foods which are famous worldwide, biryani being one of them. There are many variations of Biryanis- chicken biryani, mutton biryani, pea’s biryani, vegetable biryani. While most of the people in the world are vegetarians, the mix vegetable biryani is very famous amid the lot. Here is the easy preparation, cook and enjoy.
In the Mughal food traditions, biryani means rice made together with lamb meat but now chicken biryani has also become one of the most popular type of biryani. Even chicken biryani has too several variations and this is the purpose that I am writing the whole article to this delightful dish.
Biryani is a fragrant rice dish prepared from a mix of Spices, Nuts, Cream, Yogurt, long-grained Basmati rice and Meat. This dish is an example off fine culinary art, hence it is cooked with perfection. The name is derived from the Farsi word Birian, which is frying of the rice in oil before washing. This procedure of rice frying makes the rice slightly nutty and it imparts a pleasant taste. Based on the name, and the cooking style the dish originated in Persia or Arabia. Along with huge number of pasttales, biryani is associated with some legends as well. One has it that Timor ‘the Lame’ brought it down from Kazakhstan via Afghanistan to north India. According to another fable, Mumtaz Mahal created this dish as a wholesome meal to feed the Mughal emperor’s army. Gradually this well-liked dish has started leaving its footprint in almos tall Indian cuisines, such as Awadi, Lucknavi and Bengali cuisines. The popularity of chicken biryani is still dominant in the country as well as in global cuisines and various modern cooking styles are incorporated to make the recipe more palatable.
Biryani is a complete dish in itself and is quite juicy to have. At few places, it is served with curd salan or mirchi salan. A number of taste and preparation variations are possible for biryani and these variations are commonly available in different restaurants. Few cities in India like Hyderabad and Lucknow are known for their special tasty biryani named after these cities (e.g., Hyderabadi Biryani and Lucknowi Biryani), and this specialty dish is available at almost every restaurant in both these cities. Biryani is not only common and favorite dish for people residing in these cities but even the visitors to these cities make sure to enjoy this specialty, whenever in the town.
Though the procedure of making Chicken biryani is time-consuming but the resultant dish is every time wonderful. The secret of preparing a wonderful chicken biryani is all in the spices. I personally recommend using Basmati rice. It’s thin and a fine grain rice which can be used for a variety of purposes.
Number of ready to eat or ready spice mixes (biryani masalas) have been introduced in the market to help customers prepare biryani at home. Both these preparations have their advantages as well as disadvantages:
– Ready to eat foods are very handy preparations but are generally perceived as stale foods and even their taste is far from original / real taste of foods.
– Ready Biryani masala definitely is a solution to lack of cooking expertise and can help to ensure taste biryani preparation at home but does not provide quick and easy method of preparation. One also needs many other ingredients for addition in biryani while using the ready biryani masala.
Out of the above two option available, ready biryani masala mix is more preferred in Pakistan to prepare tasty and fresh biryani at home. Third choice for easy preparation of tasty biryani at home, which has recently been introduced in the market, is ready to cook biryani preparations. These ready to cook food products have instant, one-step method of preparation and they contain dehydrated fresh ingredients packaged as ready-mix. The simple method of preparation and on-time cooking of ready to cook foods gives the consumer a satisfaction of preparing fresh dish instantly.
