Chole Biryani | Chickpeas Biryani | Chole Dum Biryani Recipe

Biryani or Pulav appears mostly on sundays for lunch at our place as hubby dear prefers a one pot meal for lunch .Both of us are big fans of a good dum style Biryani but the preparation process for dum Biryani is quite elaborate,hence I do it occasionally or when both of us crave for it.So most of the times I end up preparing a simple one pot kind of Biryani than the dum biryani as it is time consuming.

There are various styles of cooking Biryani like Lucknowi Biryani, Awadhi Biryani ,Calcutta style Biryani, Hyderabdi Dum Biryani,Mughlai Biryani,Kashmiri Biryani etc.I myself have never experimented much on cooking various styles of Biryani.I think its high time for me to understand the differences in their preparation process and start cooking all these delicious Biryanis to treat my family.Today I am sharing Chole Biryani which is definitely a change from the regular Vegetable Biryani, the process of cooking the Chole Biryani I adapted is very similar to the Vegetable Biryani.I usually prepare fresh Biryani masala when I prepare Dum Biryani as the aroma of freshly prepared masala takes the biryani to another level.But if you are short of time you can use either store bought Biryani masala or the home made Garam masala instead.One can follow the same procedure to prepare mixed vegetable biryani by using all mixed vegetables instead of chickpeas in the recipe.

If you are a Biryani lover,check out various Biryani Recipes in my blog:

• Baby Potato Biriyani
• Mushroom Biryani - one pot Biryani recipe
• Soya-Aval(Poha) Biriyani
• Soya Chunks Biryani
• Vegetable Dum Biriyani-with ready made paste

Also,you can check out various Rice varieties and Pulav recipes in my blog here.

Chole Dum Biryani Recipe:

Serves 3-4

Prep time:30 mins | Cooking time: 1 hr | Total time: 1 hr 30 mins

Cuisine:North Indian | Category: Main Course-Biryani

Ingredients:

for Rice:

2 cups Basmati Rice

6-7 cups Water

1 Bay Leaf

1" Cinnamon

3-4 Cloves

2 tbsp Ghee

1 tsp Salt

for Chole gravy:

2 cups cooked white Chickpeas

2 medium Onions,chopped

3 Tomatoes,finely chopped

1 tsp ground Biryani Masala( or Garam masala)

2 tbsp chopped Coriander leaves

Salt to taste

3-4 tbsp oil

to roast and grind to a powder- Biryani Masala:

2" Cinnamon

4-5 Cloves

1 tsp Coriander seeds

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

1 Cardamom

1 tsp grated Nutmeg

to grind to a paste:

5-6 Red Chillies

2 tsp Fennel seeds

6-8 Garlic cloves

1 1/2" Ginger

other Ingredients:

1/2 cup beaten Curd

1/4 cup chopped Coriander leaves

1/4 cup chopped Mint leaves

10-12 Cashew nuts

2 tbsp warm Milk

12-15 Saffron strands

2 large Onions,thinly sliced

Oil,to deep fry

2 tbsp Ghee

Method:

prior preparations:

• for Saffron milk: In 2 tbsp warm milk add slightly mashed 12-15 saffron strands and set it aside for 10 mins.
• for Caramelized Onions: Deep fry finely sliced onions in oil until they turn crispy and slightly brownish in color. Drain them onto a paper towel.
• to prepare spice powder: Dry roast all the ingredients mentioned under to roast and grind for biryani masala and grind to a fine powder.
• to prepare the spice paste: Soak red chillies and fennel seeds in hot water for  half an hour and grind them with ginger and garlic to a fine paste.
• to fry Cashewnuts: Heat 2 tsp ghee in a pan and add whole cashew nuts and fry them until they turn light brown in color and remove them and keep aside.

to prepare rice:

• Wash and soak basmati rice for 15 mins.
• In a large pot bring water to a boil add bay leaf,cinnamon and cloves,ghee,salt and soaked rice and cook until the rice is 3/4th cooked. Drain all the water and run cold water through the rice to stop any further cooking.

to prepare Chole gravy:

• Heat oil in a pan and fry onions until they turn transparent. 
• Add the ground chili-spice paste and fry until the raw smell is gone. 
• Now add finely chopped tomato and fry until it is pulpy.
• Add the cooked chickpeas,a tsp of freshly ground biryani masala and salt and 1/2 cup of water and let it simmer nicely for 8-10 mins until the chickpeas absorbs all the flavors and the mixture becomes slightly dry.
• Lastly add coriander leaves and mix well.

Putting the chole biryani together:

• Divide the cooked rice into 3 equal parts and the Chole gravy into 2 equal parts.
• Take a heavy bottom pan (I used heavy steel here) and apply generous amount of oil/ghee at the bottom of the pan and start the layering process in the following way.

1. a layer of thinly sliced onions(optional,I added it as I did not deep fry many onions for the other layers)
2. Spread one layer of chole gravy on the onions(if using) or at the bottom.
3. Spread one layer of Rice.
4. Spread 1/2 cup beaten curd,one half of the caramelized onions,1/2 tsp of freshly ground Biryani Masala, half of Saffron Milk, 2 tbsp of Coriander leaves and 2 tbsp of Mint leaves.
5. Spread one more layer of Rice.
6. Spread the rest of the chole Gravy.
7. Spread the last layer of Rice.
8. Top it with the left over caramelized onions, fried cashewnuts, 1/2 tsp ground biryani masala, saffron Milk and the remaining coriander leaves and mint leaves.

• Then add 2-3 tbsp milk and  2 tbsp of ghee from the top and cover the vessel with aluminium foil and cover it with lid and fold the foil carefully and try to seal the gap in between the vessel and the lid. Place this vessel/pot on a thick tawa and cook on medium flame for 15-20 mins or till it is completely cooked.You can alternatively bake this in oven at 170 deg C for 15-20 mins.

Serve it with Onion-tomato raita or Boondi raita with chips/papad/salad.

Notes:

1. You can follow the same procedure to prepare mixed vegetable biryani by using all mixed vegetables, you can even deep fry the vegetables if you want it more rich.
2. You can add potatoes to the chole gravy if you like it.
3. Use good quality basmati rice for more finer rice.
4. I used minimal spices while boiling the rice, you can use more spices like mace, peppercorns,star anise along with the spices I used.
5. I highly recommend to use deep fried onions as it lends a nice taste to biryani. Here I used deep fried onions just for the top layer and hence I used sauteed onions as the first layer.
6. You can use Garam masala instead of the freshly ground masala mentioned in the recipe.

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