Majboos / Chicken Majboos

Majboos - A less spicy Arabic style chicken rice / biryani. No added Maggi stock cube. Basic recipe from Vanitha magazine Feb 1 - 15, 2013 and Restaurant  Rolexio , Eranakulam, Kerala !! This biryani is totally different from Indian biryanis. Please do not compare with Hyderabadi biryani / Dum Biryani / Kozhikkod biryani ..

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the chicken:

750 g chicken, cut into medium pieces (with or without skin)

½ teaspoon red chilli powder

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon salt

Wash and clean chicken pieces. Drain out water thoroughly. In a bowl, marinate chicken pieces with above ingredients evenly. Cover and keep aside for half an hour.

Other ingredients for chicken stock:

Please use same measuring cup to measure rice,  water and chicken stock.

2 onions, finely chopped

1 teaspoon chopped ginger

6 cloves garlic

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 cardamom

2 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1 small piece dried lemon

¾  teaspoon salt (or to taste)

5 cups water / 1 litre

Method

In a bowl or sauce pan, mix all the ingredients together. Add  marinated chicken pieces. Cover and cook on a medium to low heat for 30 – 40 minutes until done / chicken well cooked / there is reduction in chicken stock. Keep aside to cool for fifteen minutes and strain the chicken stock with the help of a clean iron sieve. Measure the chicken stock.  It should be 4 – 4 ½ cups. This is the main ingredient in which we are going to cook the rice. Remove the cooked chicken pieces and dried lemon. Keep aside separately.  Do not use cooked tomato, onion, spices, garlic, ginger.

For the cooked chicken:

3 tablespoon oil (please do not use coconut oil)

Heat oil in a karahi / pan. Reduce the heat to medium and gently fry cooked chicken pieces in batches (4 – 5 pieces at time) until golden color on a both the sides. Keep aside.

For the rice:

Normally 2 cups water requires for 1 cup basmati rice. 1 ½ cup water requires for 1 cup Zeera Samba / Jeerakasala rice and 3 cups water requires for 1 cup ponni rice (silky raw rice).

2 cups  / 400 ml good quality basmati rice ( Indian standard measuring cup of 200 ml / 8 oz capacity) Here I used Kohinoor brand  extra long grain basmati rice.  Wash and clean rice. Drain out water completely. No need to soak in water.

4 cups / 800 ml chicken stock

½  teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Dried lemon from the chicken stock

Method

In a non stick pan or wide karahi, boil  chicken stock , dried lemon and salt to taste. Cover and cook on a medium heat for 8 minutes / until boils. When it starts boiling nicely, add drained rice. Mix well. Cover again and cook on a medium to low heat for 15 – 18 minutes until done / rice cooked well / water dries up.

Final presentation:

Serve rice (majboos) with shallow fried chicken / raita …

For Raita:

Serves: 4

Ingredients

250 ml medium thick curd

1 big (1 big or 2 small size) onion, chopped

1 big (1 big or 2 small size) tomato, chopped

2 tablespoon mint and coriander leaves

½ teaspoon salt

Method

In a bowl or serving bowl, mix medium thick yogurt / curd with above ingredients. Serve as a side dish with majboos.