Chicken biryani favorites?

Sorry, I know this has already been discussed but putting "chicken biryani" into search key terms pulls up every imaginable thread, including a lengthy discussion of Honey 1, and none of them have chicken biryani in the title.

Through a google search, some Pakistani(?) guy on the Indiatravelforum blog states that, "The best biryani, apart from my own ) would be Gareeb Nawaz on Devon Avenue in Chicago. $4 for lamb and $3 for chicken and lots of it. The best biryani is of course Muslim style biryani."

Is this a favorite on the board? I've been getting my biryani from Usmania which is good but often just a tad too dry. Since we're not going to eat goat today (my favorite goat dishes are from Usmania) we thought we should just target biryani...

Any suggestions please? places that would be open today?

The trouble is, when you search "chicken biryani" you get every thread that contains a reference to chicken, unless you check the box that says "Search for all terms," which limits it to threads containing BOTH terms. That produces a more manageable list.

Which is not to say that people shouldn't answer your question right here right now!

I like the lamb biryani at Ghareeb Nawaz a lot. I haven't yet found anything better in the Chicago area. Their chicken biryani is also good, but the lamb biryani is better.

Mike G wrote:The trouble is, when you search "chicken biryani" you get every thread that contains a reference to chicken, unless you check the box that says "Search for all terms," which limits it to threads containing BOTH terms. That produces a more manageable list.

As a brief aside, I have had much (much) better results searching LTH with Google than with the forum software. Just type this in (site:lthforum.com "chicken biryani")

I use a shareware Mac OS X utility called LaunchBar that let's me call up that same "LTH search via google" in five keystrokes. Makes things so much easier.

I spent about five minutes investigating trying how to plug something like that into the search box that is built-in to Firefox, but as best I can tell, that one doesn't work the same way.

germuska wrote:I spent about five minutes investigating trying how to plug something like that into the search box that is built-in to Firefox, but as best I can tell, that one doesn't work the same way.

Check this out

jow wrote:I like the lamb biryani at Ghareeb Nawaz a lot. I haven't yet found anything better in the Chicago area. Their chicken biryani is also good, but the lamb biryani is better.

I will second the praise for Ghareeb Nawaz; any biryani they make is the best value in Chicago. The only downside is sometimes later at night, they run out of items or ingrediants, and if they don't have it you can't get it made. A few times I asked for lamb /anything/ and been told: all done. But I can promise you that anything you do get there is stunning for the price. Even their weird "gyro" is kind of silky with just the right little bit of gravy on it.

A couple of oddities on the difference there between takeout and eat-in. The takeout paratha comes wrapped, like a burrito--while if you eat in, the filling is on a platter and served with the nan and onions on the side. And I am pretty sure the amount of biryani is greater if you get it on the platter to eat-in. It fills the entire serving platter! [while the takeout is a more normal sized aluminum pie-pan serving].

Also to be noted: Ghareeb Nawaz has pretty good fried chicken at a mere 50 cents a piece, and for those craving a "non-traditional" breakfast, they have an omellete wrapped in nan [egg paratha] for $1.

There are a number of biryani posts on the board from c8w you may want to look through, though he's of the opinion that real biryani should be goat biryani.

zim wrote:There are a number of biryani posts on the board from c8w you may want to look through, though he's of the opinion that real biryani should be goat biryani.

Because of the many spellings, I may have missed it, but we haven't done much talking about Pullao on this board. Pullao is essentially the next step up from Biryani, but in the same vein. More layers of flavor, much more complicated process, and to me, far tastier.

I know Khan prepares it on occasion (at least at the old place), although I don't know if anyone makes it regularly.

Any votes for baba palace? It's pretty accessible for people who live downtown...

I really like Bismillah (6301 Ridge). They do a very good biriyani but an even better (to me) frontier chicken rice. Outstanding value too.

zim wrote:There are a number of biryani posts on the board from c8w you may want to look through, though he's of the opinion that real biryani should be goat biryani.

Indeed there have Had another goat biryani at Usmaniya's the other day,
and still think its the best in town - they were mentioned above, but Iam
not sure what their chicken biryani is like, never tried it (and probably
never will Also a pretty good value IMHO - it is about twice the
price of Gareeb Nawaz, but on takeout you get almost twice as much
food (and a better meat-to-rice ratio) than at GN.

Because of the many spellings, I may have missed it, but we haven't done much talking about Pullao on this board. Pullao is essentially the next step up from Biryani, but in the same vein. More layers of flavor, much more complicated process, and to me, far tastier.

I know Khan prepares it on occasion (at least at the old place), although I don't know if anyone makes it regularly

I like pulao a great deal, and have had literally dozens of them in my
life... but it would be very much second on my list of preferences
after biryani - I would especially object to the idea that it has more
layers of flavours and/or that its tastier Excellent in itself, very
much worth having - but not a biryani

I think some places do it as a special - I believe Bismillah on Ridge has
it as a special sometimes as well.

c8w

kuhdo wrote:I really like Bismillah (6301 Ridge). They do a very good biriyani but an even better (to me) frontier chicken rice. Outstanding value too.

Been to Bismillah, the last time a couple of weeks ago - it has a pretty decent
biryani (special on Fridays I think). But again I personally preferred Usmaniya's
version by far.

Also, Iam not sure Id rate Bismillah *such* a great value - their carryout
biryani was about 7 bucks IIRC, and a far less quantity of food (and IMHO
not quite as good in terms of quality either) as Usmaniya's 8 buck
biryani. In terms of value Bismillah wouldnt be anywhere on the scale
with Gareeb Nawaz, for example (they offer about as much food for
almost half the price - I think its 4 bucks at GN still?)

Oh, and as mentioned elsewhere in this thread - the GN egg-paratha
every morning is an excellent value for a quick carryout breakfast,
99 cents IIRC and not bad at all.

c8w

I usually find Usmania's food to be excellent, so it's not surprising they would do a good Biryani (tho I've never had it there). I certainly don't think the Biryani is Bismillah's strongest dish, but it's better than most. Try the Frontier Chicken or Chicken Shashlik to see this place at it's best.

I have noticed that portion size can be a little inconsistent at Bismillah...seems to depend at least somewhat on who the cook/server is (and more than likely on who is being served). The younger guy (?? son) is much more generous (at least with my gringo self) than the older man (??dad).

The above comments about relative value are interesting. Perhaps when compared to GN Bismillah does't seem to offer anything special in terms of value... But I live in Lincoln Park where even a lousy restaurant meal (and there are many to be had) is likely to cost upwards of $100 for a family of four ( not to mention it being home of the $7 loaf of bread;$14/lb potato salad; $6 latte and $6.99 bunch of basil). Compared to that...Bismillah still seems like a good deal to me.