Charcoal Dum Biryani

How’s everyone enjoying the Summer? Ni and I moved countries in the dead of Winter, so my perception of it has been long and unending and my desperation for sunny days was reaching its peak (My husband, however, cannot wait for the leaves to turn and for the ground to be covered in white.) And the fact that Canada didn’t have a Spring this year was of no help. Winter just rolled into Summer and brought with it the pandemic. I’m just thankful that we got a chance to furnish the house before all the stores shut down. 

Like most people who’ve moved to a new place, Ni and I wanted to explore everything around us. We wanted to see if Canada’s covered bridges were as pretty as New Hampshire’s or if the trails were as beautiful as the ones we’d discovered behind our college. And even now, when the restrictions have been lifted, Canada has opened up in phases, people have gone back to sitting outside on the patio in restaurants, but we are too worried about crowds to go anywhere. We attempted going down to the boardwalk just 10 minutes away from our house, but turned right back when we saw people walking about. More numbers than we’d like per square meter. The best option seemed to be driving in the car with our heads out of the window. Maybe we all had lessons to take from Dakota.

After a few weekends of making apprehensive plans and cancelling them, Ni and I finally decided to call an end to Summer outside and opened up to the idea of ‘Summers in the backyard’. Sitting out on the front porch to read the news, spending the weekend lying on the grass reading, moonlight dinners, chasing comets, and my personal favourite- grilling.

Ni and I were introduced to grilling back in our college days when the old farmhouse we had rented came with an electric barbecue grill. Each weekend, our friends would drive up from Boston and we’d spend the whole time grilling anything and everything we could get our hands on. Cauliflower, paneer, onions, peppers, potatoes, chicken, shrimp, pineapples, watermelons, peaches, zucchini, asparagus, and I’m pretty sure that there was even an attempt at grilling tomatoes. This time around, however, we picked up a tiny charcoal grill.

I’m in love.

And yes, I sing to it passionately every once in a while. 

My mom has told me many stories of my grandfather cooking on charcoal and how it elevated the taste of everything. A simple roti had so much flavour that you didn’t even need a curry, you just tore it apart with your hands and ate it as is. Recently she was recollecting the story again when I told her about our latest acquisition and she let out a longing sigh. 

“You should make chapatis on the grill,” she said. But I had a better idea. 

DUM BIRYANI. 

Another one of my grandfather’s favourite meals to make. Although I’ve never seen his process, my mom told me that the best method is to cook it using charcoal, both on top and bottom. Plus, Ni’s cousin had given us a Tagine (a Moroccan clay pot) for our wedding and I hadn’t had the chance to use it yet, on account of not having a gas stove. In fact, even in my previous post about dum biryani, you can see me complaining about how I wish I had a clay pot.

This is one of my favourite recipes. It is elaborate in terms of steps, but super simple in terms of proficiency. For this chicken dum biryani, I like bone-in, skin-on thighs. This is one of the softer cuts and having the bone-in lends a lot to the taste. The skin keeps the meat nice and juicy and prevents it from coming into contact with direct heat. The first step is to marinate the chicken. The more time you get in there, the more time the meat has to tenderise. Ideally, overnight. The garam masala for the marinade is freshly dry roasted spices pulverized to a powder, so we start there. I love this stage. My whole kitchen starts smelling like a spice forest in Kerala. Add the powder to thick curd (or greek yogurt) along with the other powdered spices, broken chilis, ginger-garlic paste and minced herbs. Apply this to the chicken, get under that skin, make sure each nook and cranny is covered. Close and allow it to marinate in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight if you can.

An hour before you start the cook, get your prep going. Remove the chicken from the fridge so that it can come down to room temperature. Soak the basmati, set that aside and start on the onions. I try to use red onions for biryani because I think they are the sweetest variety. Slice them up real thin and fry them until they are golden. Set them to drain on a paper towel while you fry the cashews. Heat a small cup of milk and add the saffron to it. The heat allows the flavour to infuse into the milk which can then be equally distributed into the pot. Chop the herbs and set them aside as well. For cooking the rice, I use the stove top method as it allows me more control, but you can use the pressure cooker as well. Cook it a touch al-dente as it is going to cook once again. Once cooked, spread it out on a plate so that it cools down completely and is not sticky. The last thing you’d want is a clump of biryani. 

It’s at this stage that I move to the charcoal grill. I place the bottom part of the tagine on the grill, let it pick up some heat, and then lay the chicken down, skin-side down. Cook for about 10 minutes on medium heat. After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to minimum (in the case of a grill, spread the coal to the edges,) and start the assembly. Layer the chicken with the cooled basmati rice and garnish with the fried onions, nuts, mint, coriander, rose essence, and saffron milk. Close the pot and lay some hot charcoal pieces on top of the tagine. If you are cooking this on a stove top, my mom recommends closing the pot with a steel plate and placing some hot coals on top to cook the biryani from both ends. Cook for 30 minutes. Serve hot with raita and salna. 

I can see why this technique of cooking with charcoal was one of my grandfather’s favourites. The amount of flavour infused into that biryani was incredible. The taste of char on the chicken, the sweet-smokiness of the onions, nuttiness of the cashews, the spice infused rice. Oh boy! 

Dum biryani, anyone? 

AuthorPriyanka SivaramakrishnanDifficultyIntermediate

You can find the recipe for the Brinjal Salna here.