'Kozhikode' or Calicut (the anglicized name) is a coastal city in the state of Kerala in India also known as the 'land of spices'. A visit to Calicut is not complete without enjoying the very famous Kozhikodan chicken biryani! There are a couple of popular restaurants like Paragon, Saagar, Bombay hotel, etc which serve this extremely delicious meal, and sometimes the wait times at peak hours can be really long. It is however totally worth the wait!
Jump to RecipeWhat type of rice can be used for making Kozhikodan Chicken Biryani?
I learned to make a version of this dish at home with inputs from friends and the internet and it tastes almost like it! The main star ingredient of this dish is the rice used which is a special 'Jeerakasala' or 'Kaima' rice and this is a tiny variety of rice that enhances the taste of this dish. However, I use the regular Basmati rice which is easily available in the stores here in the US which also tastes good and comes close in taste!
Print RecipeHow I made the Kozhikodan chicken Biryani?
This chicken biryani does not use red chilly powder and all the spice is from the green chilies and other dry spices. The traditional recipe has an off white color due to very little turmeric used. I did use turmeric in my preparation so you can see it has a yellow tinge. In my preparation, I also cook the chicken and rice separately and then layer them together. The traditional recipe calls for cooking the rice and chicken in the 'dum'(steaming in a closed container).
The final outcome of my dish is very close to the original and usually loved by everyone who has had it. Hope you enjoyed reading about this special and popular dish and will try it sometime. Please read on for the ingredients and the detailed cooking procedure :).If you enjoyed this dish you may also love another version of the Malabar Chicken Biryani from Thalassery. If you love seafood especially prawn and shrimp I would also recommend my Malabar Shrimp Biryani recipe for which I got great reviews. Happy cooking!
Kozhikodan Chicken Biriyani
A very popular dish from Kozhikode or Malabar with chicken and layered rice based on Malabar Indian cuisine
It's preferable to use Jeerakasala or Kaima rice for the authentic taste. I have however used Basmati rice. Other varieties of raw rice can be also used. It is preferred to liberally use ghee for biryani to get an authentic taste (I use a combination of ghee and oil ). Feel free to adjust the quantities and spices to your liking.
Ingredients
For Rice- 4 cups Basmati Rice
- 4 teaspoon ghee or Clarified Butter
- 4 tsp oil
- 5-6 cloves
- 3-4 stick cinnamon (small pieces)
- 2 bay leaves
- 5-6 cardamoms
- ½ an onion diced
- salt per taste
- 5 cups Water
For Chicken marination
- 11/2 pounds chicken
- 3 cups of yogurt
- 1 ½ cups coriander leaves finely chopped
- 1 cup mint leaves finely chopped
- ½ cup curry leaves finely hopped
- 3 medium tomatoes diced
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Biryani Masala (optional)
- ½ tsp Garam Masala
- 1 squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tsp poppy seed paste
- salt to taste
To powder for the marinade
- 1 ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 ½ tsp fennel seeds (perinjeerakam)
To grind for the marinade
- 1-inch ginger
- 10-12 cloves of garlic
- 10-15 green chilies
For Chicken Preparation
- 4 tbsp ghee or oil
- 3 -4 small cinnamon pieces
- 5-6 cloves
- 4-5 cardamom pieces
- 1 nutmeg (jathikka)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tomato diced
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
For Garnish
- 1 onion cut into long thin stripes
- 10 cashews
- 10 raisins
- ghee for frying
- 1 sprig of mint leaves
- coriander leaves chopped
- Boiled Egg (optional)
Directions
Chicken Marination- Wash the meat thoroughly with salt and lemon and drain the water completely.
- Powder the ingredients in the "to powder for marinade" section.
- Grind the ingredients in the "to grind for marinade" section with minimum water.
- Add the powdered spices, ground paste, and all contents in the "for chicken marination" section to the chicken.
- Mix well and marinate for about 2 to 3 hours in a refrigerator
Rice Preparation and garnishes
- Wash the rice, drain, and keep aside
- Heat a thick bottomed pan, add the ghee and oil
- Add the thinly sliced onions and fry until crisp golden brown
- Drain and keep aside.
- Add the cashews and raisins, brown it as well
- Drain and keep aside.
- The thin fried onions, cashews, and raisins will be used for garnishing.
- In the remaining ghee and oil, add the spices under the "For rice" section
- Next, add the diced onions and sautée
- After 2 mins add the washed rice
- Fry for about 5 to 7 mins until the rice turns opaque
- Add the salt and water and cook until done in a rice cooker
- Wait for the steam to be released and rice to be cooled.
Chicken Preparation
- Next, for the preparation of the Chicken, pour ghee and oil into a large deep bottomed pan
- Add onions and sautée it for 10 mins
- Add tomatoes and ginger garlic paste,sautée for another 5 mins
- Next, add the marinated chicken and fry it for a while
- Cook until the chicken is well done.
- Add some chopped coriander leaves and squeeze a little lemon.
Layering biryani and garnishing
- The next process is layering of the biryani, transfer the cooked rice into a serving bowl and garnish with fried onions, cashews, raisins, chopped mint, and coriander leaves
- Then add a layer of the chicken gravy and repeat layering with rice, chicken, and again layer with garnish onions, nuts, raisins, mint, and coriander leaves.
- Gently mix so the gravy is evenly mixed into the rice.
- Squeeze half a lemon if you like (optional).
- Finally garnish with chopped coriander leaves, boiled egg, and the remaining garnishes.
- Kozhikodan Chicken Biryani is ready to be served.
- Accompaniments that are usually served with this dish are fritters (pappad), yogurt salad, coconut chutney, and pickle. Enjoy 🙂
Kozhikodan Chicken Biryani is a very popular and delicious biryani (rice and chicken dish ) from Kozhikode, the Malabar region of Kerala , cooked with aromatic spices separately and then assembled by layering rice , chicken gravy, along with fried onions and nuts.
- 4 cups Basmati Rice
- 4 tsp Ghee or Clarified Butter
- 4 tsp Oil
- 5-6 Cloves
- 3-4 Cinnamon (small pieces)
- 2 Bay leaves
- 5-6 Cardamoms
- ½ Onion diced
- 2 tsp Salt or to taste
- 5 cups Water
- 1 ½ pounds Chicken
- 3 cups Yogurt
- 1 ½ cups Coriander leaves finely chopped
- 1 cup Mint leaves finely chopped
- 3 medium Tomatoes chopped
- 1 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Biryani Masala (optional)
- ½ tsp Garam Masala
- 1 medium Lemon juice
- 2 tsp Poppy seeds paste
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 ½ tsp fennel seeds (perinjeerakam)
- 1 inch ginger
- 10-12 cloves garlic
- 10-15 green chillies
- 4 tbsp ghee or oil
- 3-4 cinnamon pieces
- 5-6 cloves
- 4-5 cardamom
- 1 nutmeg
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tomato diced
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 onion cut into long thin stripes
- 10 cashews
- 10 raisins
- 4 tbsp ghee
- 1 sprig mint leaves chopped
- 1 cup coriander leaves chopped
- 4 boiled eggs optional
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Wash the meat thoroughly with salt and lemon and drain water completely.
-
Powder the ingredients in the "to powder for marinade" section .
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Grind the ingredients in the "to grind for marinade" section with minimum water .
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Add the powdered spices, ground paste and all contents in the "for chicken marination" section to the chicken.
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Mix well and marinate for about 2 to 3 hours in a referigrator
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Wash the rice, drain and keep aside
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Heat a thick bottomed pan , add the ghee and oil
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Add the thin sliced onions and fry until crisp golden brown
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Drain and keep aside.
-
Add the cashews and raisins ,brown it as well
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Drain and keep aside.
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The thin fried onions, cashews and raisins will be used for garnishing.
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In the remaining ghee and oil, add the spices under the "For Biryani rice" section
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Next add the diced onions and sautée
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After 2 mins add the washed rice
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Fry for about 5 to 7 mins until the rice turns opaque
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Add the salt and water and cook until done in a rice cooker
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Wait for the steam to be released and rice to be cooled.
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Next for the preparation of the Chicken , pour ghee and oil in a large deep bottomed pan
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Add onions and sautée it for 10 mins
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Add tomatoes and ginger garlic paste ,sautée for another 5 mins
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Next add the marinated chicken and fry it for a while
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Cook until the chicken is well done.
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Add some chopped coriander leaves and squeeze a little lemon.
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For layering , transfer the cooked rice into a serving bowl and garnish with fried onions, cashews ,raisins, chopped mint and coriander leaves
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Then add a layer of the chicken gravy and repeat layering with rice, chicken and again layer with garnish onions , nuts ,raisins, mint and coriander leaves.
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Gently mix so the gravy is evenly mixed into the rice.
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Squeeze half a lemon if you like (optional).
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Finally garnish with chopped coriander leaves, boiled egg, and the remaining garnishes.
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Kozhikodan Chicken Biryani is ready to be served.
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Accompaniments that are usually served with this dish are fritters (pappad), yogurt salad, coconut chutney and pickle . Enjoy 🙂
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Kozhikodan Chicken biryani with Jeeraka shala or Kaima rice
Updated Sep 24, 2020: I was able to find 'Jeerakashala' rice in the Indian grocery store here. It closely resembles the 'Kaima' rice that is used in this recipe back home. I used the exact same recipe as above and made this dish. Here is an updated picture of the biryani made with the 'Jeerakashala rice' below.
As you can see, from the picture, the rice is a different type of variety. The ratio of rice and water for this recipe, when cooking in an instant pot is 6:10 or 3:5. The cup I use is the one that comes with a rice cooker which is approximately 180 ml. The fragrance of the 'Jeerakashala' rice along with the spices, really stands out and is awesome. If you get a chance to find this type of rice, I would highly recommend you try this recipe using that for exact taste.
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Hmmm yummmy
Thank you so much Deepa!
How delicious your biryani looks! I am making a note of it so that I shall try it when I am back home, Nisha. xx
Thank you so much Dippy! I'm sure you will definitely love the Malabar version of Chicken Biryani and would love to hear how it turned out 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your stay and have a safe trip back!
I will and thanks my girl. I love Malabar everything, including the parottas 🙂 xx
Yes indeed Malabar dishes are to die for 🙂 very delicious, parottas are a favorite among many!
Mouth watering this looks! Must try! <3
Thank you so much Mallika! Hope you will try it some time , it is very delicious!
Biryani is ❤
Thank you so much Jyo!
Perfect for this season ✌✌
Yes perfect for this cold snowy weather here as well!
I absolutely love a good biryanii. Can’t get my husband past curry in a gravy of some sort though.
Thank you for the comments! Happy to hear you love a good biryani. I love curries and gravies as well ,this biryani definitely has it's own unique taste and flavor and am sure he will love it!
Looks so delicious! 😍😋😋
Thank you so much ,this biryani has a unique blend of spices which makes it really different and delicious!
Abolutely delicious. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Thank you so much Jyoti!
The Biryani at Calicut is indeed yum. During my trip in December, I happened to have the vegetarian version of biryani (which is more like a pulav) but the flavours of masalas were simply great.
oh! Thats wonderful Vidya to hear that you visited Calicut and loved the Vegetarian biryani's flavor and taste! Thank you for the comments!
Yum! That looks so tasty! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Thank you so much Anya! It is indeed a very delicious dish .
That looks so good!
Thank you so much Diane! It's a very popular and delicious dish!
Looks very scrumptious and filling. A perfect all-in-one meal with great mix of ingredients. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Thank you so much Lily, much appreciated!
The aroma of biryani while it is being cooked is fantastic. I never tasted Biryani from kerala. I would love to try this recipe out.
Thank you so much Lisha, It is definitely worth the try you will absolutely love it, and yes the aroma is just awesome!
Did I miss your invite...The chicken Biriyani looks lip smacking and I loved your kitchen back splash too
Thanks so much dear .Glad to hear that you love the recipe . I love the back splash as well 🙂
I have never put cinnamon in my rice....great idea!
Many Thanks Diane! Cinnamon gives a nice fragrance to the biryani.
Oh wow this looks really amazing! I love all the different spices. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thank you so much Tera! Yes indeed this recipe does have many different spices, appreciate your comments!
Yum! I love Indian dishes and this looks so delicious! Thank you for sharing your recipe with us.
Wonderful to hear that Leah, am so glad that you loved this share .It is indeed delish. Thank you so much!
Wow, looking at the ingredients, this must be super flavorful. Love it!
Thank you so much Nart! Yes the spices and ingredients in it make this dish unique and very flavorful. It is much different from the Biryanis in other parts of India.
I have never heard of this before. But, this sounds amazing and looks yummy!
Thank you so much Larena , it sure is an amazing dish
I love biryani recipes! This looks pretty darn good and I think I will have to try it soon.
Thank you so much for the lovely feedback ! I'm pretty sure you will love it .
Mmm that marinated chicken sounds SO flavorful and delicious!!
Thank you so much! Yes it does , sometimes I save a little bit of the gravy to go with naan or rotis (bread) .It tastes really awesome.
The ingredients look so good and that sauce it so tempting - I'll be it is just delicious stirred into the rice.
Yes! exactly Beth, the sauce especially the combination of fennel, mint ,yogurt , spices and ginger garlic in it, is what makes it so different .It blends well with the rice and gives that unique flavor. Thank you so much!
Can you help with the volume, of 1 CUP you have used
Sure, the cup used here is the "rice cooker cup" that is equivalent to 180 ml and not the US cup. Normally they say for 1 cup of Jeerakasala rice 1.5 cups of water is enough. But I noticed it needs a little more than that.I cook in an instant pot so for 3 cups about 4 3/4 to 5 cups of water is good enough. I normally make in bulk so my standard is 6 cups of rice and for that, I use about 9 3/4 to 10 cups of water. The Jeeraka shala rice can get mushed up if using too much water and using less will leave it uncooked. After a couple of attempts experimenting, this is what worked for me the best. If you are using basmati rice for 2 cups of rice double the water will be good .Hope this helps.
I usually order Chicken Biryani at the Indian restaurant at the top of our street, but I have never made it at home. I will have to try your delicious recipe!
Wonderful to hear you love it . Yes indeed homemade versions are very delicious .Enjoy!
ooh biryani is so good! I've been trying to make a keto version with riced cauliflower, so far not much success. But I'll try your spices and see if that turns out better!
Thank you so much, good luck with it !
That looks delicious although I'm not into chicken too much. I love rice dishes, just the same. I hope this would also work well with salmon. What do you thinnk?
I have not tried it with salmon, but do check out my recipe for Malabar shrimp biryani under rice dishes and that would be a great biryani recipe with fish. Thank you for stopping by and comments!
I love chicken biryani, but I've never tried making it. Thanks for this recipe. It looks very massive, but I'll try to gather the ingredients.
Yes I agree it has some effort into making it but well worth it 🙂 Happy cooking! Thanks for stopping by.
This looks amazing. I love chicken biryani but I am not sure I could make it myself!!
Thank you so much. It looks like a lot of work but it's doable and the result is yum , so hope you will try it out 🙂
Wow! This looks delicious. It has been a while since we had chicken biriyani. Thank you for the recipe and the tip about the rice. Will try to find Kaima or Jeerakasala.
You are very welcome and Thanks for the wonderful comments!
I love biryani but never heard of this recipe. This recipe looks super delicious and I would love to try it, bookmarking for later!
This recipe is from God's own country Kerala and very popular there , hope you enjoy making it as well. Thank you so much!
looks absolutely delicious! nom nom nom! I would definitely enjoy eating it. I love biryani rice in any form
Thank you so much for the wonderful comments!
I love Indian food but have never made Kozhikodan Biryani at home. I can't wait to try this!
I've never heard of this before, and I loved it. So homey, warm and delicious.
Everything about this biryani sounds delicious. I love how there are so many varieties of biryani according to taste and region.
I love cinnamon with chicken. This recipe was delicious.
So flavorful!
This is making my tummy growl!
We enjoy this chicken biryani. It's so deep in flavors and comforting as well
Wow, this looks amazing. I love biryani, going to making it this weekend.
Love how you have explained the entire process. Thanks
Thanks for the recipe! It’s so delicious!
I love a good biryani, and this one looks fantastic