Chicken Dum Biryani Recipe

Chicken Dum Biryani is cooked with basmati rice and boneless chicken marinated in awesome herbs and spices. Biryani’s were originally made in the kitchens of Mughal Emperors, who of course, expected nothing but the best. Chicken Dum Biryani is one of the most famous Biryani recipe made in India and around the world. The reason it is called dum biryani because it is cooked on low heat (dum) to get all flavors out from the herbs and mix them in meat and rice.Chicken Dum Biryani

Main Ingredients :

  • 2 cups long grained basmati rice
  • 500 gm boneless chicken thighs or 750 gm chicken on bone
  • 4 cups water
  • Salt to taste

Marination Ingredients :

  • 1 cup hung curd
  • 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 4 green chillies crushed
  • 1/2 tsp white sesame seeds paste
  • 2 tbsp cashew nuts-almonds paste
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
  • 2 tbsp fresh cilantro finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp mint leaves thinly chopped
  • Salt to taste

Whole Garam Masala Ingredients :Whole Garam Masala

  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 whole Kashmiri red chillies
  • 2 green cardamoms
  • 2 cloves
  • 1-1/2 inch cinnamon stick (cut into bits)
  • 1 mace
  • 2 star anise
  • 3/4 tsp whole cumin seeds (jeera)

Other Ingredients :

  • 1 big onion (cut into slices)
  • 1 small onion coarsely chopped
  • 2 tsp fennel or saunf powder
  • 1 tsp yellow chilli powder
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
  • 1/2 cup fresh cream
  • Few saffron strands
  • 4 tbsp milk
  • 1-1/2 tbsp rose water
  • Few ginger julienne
  • 2 tbsp pure ghee
  • Some brown onions to garnishBrown Onoin on Chicken Dum Biryani

How to make Chicken Dum Biryani :

Cook the Rice :

  1. Wash the rice thoroughly in normal tap water and soak for about 30 minutes.Soaked Rice
  2. Soak the saffron in milk and set aside.
    Soaked Saffron
  3. Heat 2 cups of water in a big pan.
    Water on stove top in a pan
  4. Add salt and rose water
    Salt and Rose Water
  5. When the water starts boiling then add rice into it.
    Add Rice in Boil Water
  6. Cook the rice over medium high heat for about 10-12 minutes and then simmer the flame.
    Cook Rice on Moderate Heat
  7. When the rice are 3/4th done, then take out half of the cooked rice from the pan and remaining rice are to be set aside.Half Cooked Rice

Cook the Chicken :

  1. In a medium size bowl, mix all the marinade ingredients.Curd (Yogurt) Marinade
  2. Cut the chicken into small size pieces and add into marinade mixture.Chicken in Small Pieces
  3. Coat the chicken pieces well into the mixture, cover and set aside for about 30-40 minutes.Marinated Chicken
  4. Meanwhile, heat a big non-stick pan and melt the ghee in it.Melted Ghee in the Pan
  5. Add whole garam masala and saute for few seconds over moderate heat.Whole Garam Masala in a Pan
  6. When the spices turns into little brown then add onions.
  7. Cook the onion on a low flame and make sure that they should not change their color.Fried Onions in the Pan
  8. Stir constantly if the heat is getting too high.
  9. Put little bit of water to get a nice and glossy color of onions.Stir Fried Onions in the Pan
  10. When onions are well cooked, add marinated chicken along with its whole mixture.Marinated Chicken in a Pan
  11. Now add fennel and yellow chilli powder.
  12. Mix it well and adjust with the salt.
  13. At this moment, add 1-1/2 cups of water and leave to cook for 6-8 minutes on medium heat.Chicken being cooked in a Pan
  14. Once the chicken seems almost done, then you can mix cardamom powder along with fresh cream.
  15. Remove from the heat and allow to cool down.
  16. When the chicken cools down, take the chicken pieces out and strain the whole gravy over the pieces of chicken.
  17. Garnish with some chopped cilantro and set aside.Cooked Chicken

Lets make Chicken Dum Biryani :

  1. Spread an even layer of the prepared chicken over the rice left in the pan and spread some saffron mixture.Add Layers of Half Cooked Rice in Cooked Chicken
  2. Garnish the biryani with some brown onions.Brown Onions Garnishing
  3. Now make the layer of remaining rice and chicken, top with the saffron mixture, chopped cilantro and ginger julienne.Layers of other ingredients
  4. Now we have to cook this biryani on very low flame and there are two ways to cook it on dum without exploring out the steam. Here I’m showing you both ways to cover the biryani for proper cooking.
  5. Cover the pot either with an aluminum foil.Pan covered with foil
  6. Now carefully put the lid over the foil and immediately reduce the flame.Lid over the FoilOr you can make a flour dough, stick on the lid and cover the pot.Flour Dough Cover to retain heat inside
  7. Make sure the steam should not come out.
  8. Let it cook on low flame on dum (low heat) for about 6-7 minutes.
  9. Serve this delicious chicken dum biryani piping hot with few round onion slices, lemon wedges and raita of your choice.Chicken Dum Biryani

Cooking Tips :

  1. You can use any long grained rice, but I prefer “India Gate” basmati rice for the perfect biryani texture.
  2. You can add food colors such as yellow, red or orange to make your biryani look more colorful.  However, I prefer not to add any colors in my biryani because saffron, rose water and yellow chilli powder leaves its own color in the rice and make it look little bit yellowish, which looks good and natural.
  3. Chicken dum biryani tastes better with chicken on bone but I prefer cooking my biryani with boneless chicken, so that no bone get stuck in my mouth.
  4. The important aspect of making a proper Chicken Dum Biryani is to cook it on dum with a proper cover or lid. Although there are many methods to cook it on dum, like I have shown two of them. One more method is to cover the pot with aluminum foil and keep the pot on the hot griddle on low flame for 10-15 minutes, until it gets ready.Pot Covered with aluminum foil
  5. You can serve chicken dum biryani with boiled eggs as well, as shown in this image.Chicken Dum Biryani Served with Boiled Eggs

External Links :

Please leave your Comments :

If you learned something from this page today then please do leave us your feedback in comments section. Please feel free to send us your photos, comments or tips.  We love to read, what you have to say about our recipes.

19 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Surti, I appreciate your comment. But I haven’t made any video of my recipes till yet. Hopefully will do very soon.

  2. yes, you can make rice without adding rose water, but along with other ingredients, this biryani is full of fragrant and flavor because of rose water also.

  3. when i try to cook this biryani, my rice are always very sticky, can you suggest anything which will prevent this from happening…………….

  4. Hi shikha, whenever you are making biryani, boil the rice well in advance, may be 30-40 minutes before, refresh the rice with cold water after boiling and drain properly. While cooking the chicken, try to absorb water of chicken as much as you can. While mixing the chicken with rice, try to toss them lightly with wooden spatula instead of mixing a lot. I hope this will work. Most important thing is, always try to use good quality basmati rice for making any type of biryani.

  5. I am regular reader of your blog and this recipe was very helpful. I made this chicken dum biryani but my chicken was not soft like hotel.

    Can you provide any tips about how to make chicken softer ?

  6. Wow! I always wanted to cook this at home and after visiting this post I tried it in my pure clay pot which has a unique steam locker lid, so didn’t had to use the aluminum foil or the flour dough to cook on dum. My family loved it, the rice and the chicken was evenly cooked and the flavor was amazing. Most important was I did not had to worry about metal or chemicals leaching into my food. I got it from miriamsearthencookware.com (online). It does a great job in my kitchen

  7. Unfortunately there is not substitute for cream. If you really want to skip cream then use more amount of Yogurt in this.

  8. Among many Royal recipes Chicken Biryani is the Queen. Many of you are fan to the taste of Chicken Biryani.. Let us discuss below how to prepare Chicken Biryani at Home.

  9. […] Microwave Veg Biryani, etc. In Non-Vegetarian Section, there is Chicken Biryani, Egg Biryani, Chicken Dum Biryani, Mutton Biryani, Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani, etc, there is some difference in cooking all these […]

Comments are closed.