CHICKEN BIRYANI MADE INSIDE BAMBOO, TRIPURA

         Bamboo originally a grass is a plant of enormous use. In Tripura, as of the rest of northeast, bamboo has been put to many usages. It has been used for construction purpose, building dress and decoration items and even as an edible product.

In Tripura, Bamboo has been used during old days as a replacement of cooking pots and Tripuri community has been using it for cooking rice etc. But we thought of taking it a step ahead and using it for making Chicken Biryani and believe me it turned out delicious. So in this article, we will see how to cook BAMBOO CHICKEN BIRYANI.

INGREDIENTS:

1. A Bamboo piece (At least 1 foot long with thick body, open at one end and uncut at other)

2. Banana Leaves

3. Chicken

4. Rice (good quality and soaked to semi soft)

5. Onions

6. Ginger and Garlic paste

7. Chilly, Jeera, Haldi, Aamchoor(optional) and  Garam masla paste or powder

8. Ghee

9. Salt

NOTE: I have not mentioned the amount of the Ingredients to be used as it will depends on the size of the Bamboo Piece you'll be using, so adjust accordingly.

STEPS:

             I would like to consider that the reader all ready knows how to Marinate chicken as we will not cover that in details but in short.

1. The important tool is the Bamboo where we are going to cook our Biryani and will not require any port for this . The bamboo should be freshly cut i.e its very dried up or else it will Burn up Very fast hence will not cook properly. Also the bamboo stem should be thick. We will also need fresh Banana Leaves basically for wraping the open end of the bamboo and also for serving.

2. Take around 4 to 5 pieces of chicken in a Bowl, add oil, haldi, Jera, Mirch , Aamchoor powder and Salt to it. Also add the Ginger and Garlic paste in proportion the chicken quantity.

3. Now mix every thing properly and let it stay for about 30 min.

4. Now get the Pre soaked Rice(i.e. rice soaked in salt water for 3-4hrs), check for its softness. Now take about 200-300 gm of rice in a Bowl, add ghee, salt and mix properly.

5. Its time to stuff the chicken and rice into the bamboo section. The bamboo should be washed properly inside out. First Take the marinated Chicken and stuff it in the bamboo till half of the bamboo.

6. Now take the prepared Rice and fill the half of the remaining section(not completely) with the rice.

7. Now add water to the top as this water will help in cooking the rice.

8. Put some banana leaves into the mouth of the bamboo(don't worry if water leaks). Take two pieces of banana leaves and wrap the mouth properly and tie it with Wire(as wire will not burn).

9. Its time to COOK, now take the bamboo outside and make a small fire place and start burning the bamboo.

10. It will take about 1 hour to cook completely, but one can guess by seeing the condition of the bark of the bamboo. it should to properly burnt as shown in the upper right image.

11. Now serve on a dish with Banana Leaves and Enjoy.

The dish is a bit Crunchy and natural. Do share your experience while making and having it in the comments. Have fun