Receta Hariyali Murgh Dum Biryani with Murghi ka Salan and Kachumber.

Murgh/Chicken biryani....dum pukht style, is one the most famous blend of spices, meat and rice...a rich culinary tradition of Awadhi cuisine from the Dastarkhwan (the dining spread) of Nizams and from the city of nazaqaats and tehzeeb, Lucknow, Northern India.

What is called Mughlai cuisine is actually the cuisine of Moghuls or Mongols as we know with influences from Persia, Middle East, Northern India and even Punjab and Kashmir. Awadhi cuisine bears a near resemblence to Mughlai type of slow cooking of meat with addition of aromatics, dry fruits and aphrodisiacs too.

My bias nature towards royal cooking always leaves me wanting for more and more historic information about how this rich exoctic cuisine has evolved right from the time of Nawab Asf-ud-Daulah to the great India gourmet Nawab Wajid Ali Shah.

This humble biryani has fashionably matured into many variations during the royal period and is still in every household. For more on Awadhi cuisine watch out my other blog 'Indulgence' in the coming few days...have gathered quiet a few interesting facts all these years, high time I pen it down and share some knowledge.

Coming back to the biryani, I wore my khansama (chef ) cap and entered my bawarchikhana (kitchen) to cook up this chicken biryani, dum pukht style (in simple terms it means to cook the biryani in its own steam, slowly in a pot sealed with flour and water) with homemade green chutney. Traditionally the pot is buried in hot sand to mature with hot coals on top......but then click click come back to the real world.....isn't oven the best invention of all. My oven makes up for the hot sand, tandoor and even for patther ke kebabs (these kebabs are cooked over a hot stone slab).

This biryani is simple,do not get scared with the long list of ingredients and don't let the double marination put you off, just follow the recipe. The chicken is marinated twice for added flavor and is half cooked separately. The gravy in which the chicken is cooked can be served as an accompainment to the biryani as Murghi ka Salan (chicken curry). The biryani is also incomplete without a cucumber, tomato and yogurt salad -Kachumber (Diced cucumber and tomatoes, mixed in yogurt with salt )