Karachi Style Deghi Chicken Biryani – Al Rehman Biryani

Karachi style Deghi Chicken Biryani or Al Rehman Biryani is hugely popular and loved Biryani in Karachi. It is a flavorful, traditional Pakistani Chicken Biryani recipe with simple, easy-to-follow instructions and enriches mouthwatering, authentic deghi taste and aroma!

Table of Content:

1. What is Al Rehman Biryani
2. How to make Chicken Biryani-3 Steps
3. Ingredients you need
4. Karachi style chicken biryani Recipe
5. How to do biryani plating
6. Variations
7. What to serve with biryani
8. How to freeze and reheat
9. Recipe Card
10. Video
11. Pro Tips

What Is Al Rehman Biryani or Karachi style Deghi Biryani?

A global dish,Pakistani chicken biryani, which most foreigners try because they have heard a lot about its deliciousness and distinct aroma that tempts them to eat. Karachi seems to be the most popular station for biryani cravers. Biryani is a necessity for Karachiites.

Al Rehman Biryani is among the world’s most popular trending and searched dishes. It’s simple, quick, and delicious. It has its main branch in ‘Kharadar’ area, Karachi. The brains behind this successful venture is Chef Shahid Jutt. It has the special Deghi flavor to it.

Today I will share a simpler version of his recipe and all of the variations and substitutions I made!

How to make Chicken Biryani- 3 Main Steps:

Authentic Pakistani or Karachi style Chicken Biryani is delicious and simple to prepare. And also, you don’t need a ton of hard-to-find spices.

Three main Steps of making Pakistani Chicken Biryani;

• Making Biryani Masala
• Parboiling( partial boiling) of Rice
• Layering and steaming/dum

Ingredients you Need:

Karachi chicken biryani is intense in spice (and taste!) and is usually prepared with homemade biryani masala or ready-made biryani mix. Various spices and herbs combine to give it the special, spicy deghi flavor.

After much recipe testing, I could confidently post this much-loved and frequently requested recipe. Let’s have a look at a few notes on ingredients;

Oil :

In biryani use of oil is recommended instead of ghee. You can use any cooking oil or a mix of oil and ghee in 1:1. Very little oil is used here at the start of this recipe, but more oil will be added in the final dum/steam step.

Ginger garlic paste:

Freshly made ginger garlic is best to remove the raw smell of meat and flavors up the food. Store bought can also be used.

Chicken:

Medium cut chicken with bone is preferred (about 8 pieces of 1 kg chicken), clean and without skin.

Whole spices:

In Biryani, many whole spices are added, I have mentioned the quantity in the recipe, but you can omit or add them according to your availability.

Powder Spices:

You can use either spices from your pantry like red chili powder, turmeric, cumin powder, coriander powder, salt, or simply use ready-made ‘Shan’ spice mix. Your Biryani will taste amazing with either of the options. I have used Shan Biryani mix.

Chicken Cube:

Chefs usually add Chinese Salt in their foods, but I used Maggi Chicken cube because of the unavailability in my area. You can also add chicken powder.

Rice:

I used Long grain Basmati Rice here, but you can also use Sella rice as they both works well. The soaking time is different as sella rice is to be soaked for 3 hours whereas basmati rice only needs half an hour. You can read more details related rice here.

Vegetables:

For the layering of Biryani few vegetables are added. Like sliced tomatoes, chopped coriander, mint leaves, and stem off green chilies.

Fried Onions:

Homemade crispy fried onions brings out the best flavor, but still, whenever you are in a hurry, go with the store bought fried onions.

Dried Plum:

For an amazing tangy and sweet flavor, dried plums ( aloo Bukhara) are added; if it’s not available, you can skip it.

Karachi style deghi Chicken Biryani Recipe:

Karachi style deghi Chicken Biryani has a rich flavor, a grand tradition and is usually the star of the show at wedding dinners, Eids, or family gatherings. Chicken Biryani is one of the most commonly asked lunches at my house, religiously at Fridays.

Let’s move towards the recipe and start with an easy step-by-step process.

Step 1 : Making of Biryani Masala:

Start your biryani process by making the biryani masala/curry/korma. First wash your chicken properly and set aside in a strainer. On high flame, add oil, ginger garlic paste, and chicken in a large pot. then add shan Bombay biryani mix , kashmiri red chili powder and chicken cube.

Mix for a minute or two. Now add Whole spices like Cloves, Green Cardamon, Cinnamon sticks and Whole Black Pepper or you can omit or add them according to your availability.

If your family prefers Biryani with potatoes, add potatoes now (cut into chunks), mix well, add two cups of water, and cook covered for 10-15 minutes on low-medium flame or until the potatoes are near to cooked (70% cooked). Then turn off the flame.

Step 2: Parboiling ( partial boiling) of the Rice:

Meanwhile the chicken is cooking; in another large pot, add water and bring it to boil.

Once the water boils up, add salt, rice (pre-soaked for 30 minutes) and oil. Cook the rice for 6 minutes or until it gets half cooked (par boiled), it should have a bite. Then strain the rice.

Don’t let the rice cool off once they are boiled and strained. Use them immediately for steaming (DUM) , make sure your chicken curry is ready before the rice boiling step. Otherwise the rice would begin to curl .

Step 3: Layering and Steaming/Dum:

Meanwhile, the rice is being boiled; in a bowl, add chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves, fried onions, dried plums, stem-off green chilies and thinly sliced tomatoes and toss them all together well.

Now comes the layering part. Add a layer of all the mixed/tossed ingredients on top of the chicken and increase flame to high. Sprinkle food color (I use Orange-Red), whole spice powder (garam masala), kewra water and biryani essence (optional) on top.

Now put the final layer of the par-boiled rice. Add half cup of oil on top. Cover the lid and cook on high flame for 5 minutes.

Then remove the lid and cook for 5 more minutes on the same high flame. Now turn the flame to lowest and cover the lid properly with foil or cloth for steam (dum) for 5 – 10 minutes.

How to plate biryani ?

Once Biryani is ready, its time for plating. Deghi Biryani is not supposed to be mixed up once ready. Instead you have to work your way from bottom of the Degh/Pot to the top. Start plating by taking out masala rice from the bottom. Then subsequently, take out white rice, chicken and potato. Be gentle and try not to break the rice.

Also, try to use rice serving spoon, professional skimmer spoon or a plate to mix and serve biryani

Variations of this recipe:

Here is the list of all the changes that i made to the Chef’s recipe; see the columns below for all the alterations and substitutions from the main recipe ;

What to serve with Chicken Biryani?

Biryani is a complete dish that can be served with just a raita or Garlic Chutney. Chicken biryani is a meal that contains both carbohydrates and protein, so you’ll only need a vegetable salad.

If you’re hosting a party/ dawat, along with Biryani, you can keep sides like Chicken Bread Rolls or Spicy Cream Cheese Samosas.

And to satisfy everyone’s sweet cravings, you can serve the royal desi dessert Shahi tukray or an english Lotus Biscoff dessert.

How can we make Biryani in advance?

When you plan to make this Biryani for a gathering/dawat, you can do the biryani masala step in advance or a day before and refrigerate it, and then on the main day, just reheat the premade biryani masala and do the rice step , layering and dum step and serve your freshly made Biryani.

How to freeze and reheat biryani?

You can easily freeze your prepared or leftover Biryani in an airtight container or zip-lock bag for up-to 2 weeks. When you are ready to use, just keep it at room temperature for a few hours; once its thawed, shift into a large pot, sprinkle some water over it, and keep it on very low heat until its steaming hot.

Other Dinner recipes you will love

• Seekh Kabab
• Chicken Korma
• Chicken Tikka

Chef Shahid Jutt deserves credit for this recipe. To see the procedure, I viewed his YouTube tutorial video. Sharing his video below, you can also try his authentic version of Al Rehman Biryani.

Pro Tips:

• Try to use larger pots and pans for making and steaming biryani, so that no breaking of chicken or rice occurs while plating.
• Use rice serving spoon, professional skimmer spoon or a plate to mix and serve biryani.
• If you are boiling potatoes separately, add a pinch of orange food color, to make them look more attractive. Then layer them in the chicken curry or either top them over rice layer just before the final dum/steam.
• If you are using Basmati rice, don’t full done them while boiling; otherwise, they will become mushy after dum/steam.
• Also, don’t over cook the chicken while making the biryani masala; otherwise, it will break after dum/ steam.
• Close the lid for dum tightly and seal it with the foil or cloth.
• Don’t let the rice cool off once they are boiled and strained. Use them immediately for steaming (DUM) once chicken is ready .Otherwise the rice would begin to curl .
• When making this biryani for a gathering, you can do the biryani masala step a day before and the rice, the dum steps on the final day.

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