Bihari Chicken

Bihari chicken is a tasty grilled or tawa-fried dish that comes from the heart of Bihar in eastern India. People really enjoy it because the chicken is cut into thin slices and left to soak overnight in raw papaya yogurt and loads of fried onions along with bold spices. That mix gives it a smoky and slightly sour flavor. The meat becomes really soft and gets a good char on the outside yet stays nice and juicy inside. Most people eat it with roomali roti or paratha plus a squeeze of lemon and some raw onion slices on the side. You can cook this recipe easily on a barbecue over direct gas flame using a wire mesh or simply on a heavy tawa when you dont have a grill. Once you taste it you will understand why families in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh always prepare it for special dinners and family gatherings.

Ingredients

Bihari Chicken | Best Homemade Kebab Recipe

How to Make

• Cut chicken into thin long strips not thicker than your little finger
• Rub raw papaya paste all over and keep aside for half hour
• Take fried onions and crush them with your hands till fine
• In a big bowl mix yogurt ginger garlic paste all dry spices salt mustard oil and crushed onions really well
• Throw in the chicken pieces and coat everything properly
• Add lemon juice and a couple drops kewra if you like
• Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for minimum six hours best overnight
• Next day take it out and let it sit outside for thirty minutes
• Heat your tawa or grill till smoking hot
• Put the chicken pieces flat dont crowd them
• Brush ghee generously and cook on medium high flame
• Flip when one side gets dark spots keep brushing ghee
• Cook till you see nice blackish edges all over
• Take off heat and rest five minutes
• Serve hot with onion rings lemon wedges and soft paratha

Tips

• Thigh meat stays much juicier than breast so use that whenever possible
• Heat mustard oil till it smokes then cool it down before mixing that gives the real smell
• If raw papaya is not there use half teaspoon meat tenderizer powder but papaya is better
• For smoky taste heat a small piece coal drop little ghee on it and cover the marinated bowl for ten minutes
• Hanging yogurt in cloth for half hour stops the marinade from getting watery
• Some people add one spoon poppy seed paste when they want it richer I do that for parties
• On tawa splash tiny bit water if spices start burning
• Leftover pieces taste awesome cold inside a roll next day

Keema Rice Recipe | Easy Spiced Minced Meat Rice

History

Where It Really Started

Bihari chicken comes from Bihar and the neighboring parts of eastern UP. People often mix it up with Lucknow kebabs but this one is totally different. It grew up in small towns and villages where Muslim families needed something fast tasty and cheap for big gatherings. They used whatever was easily available like mustard oil raw papaya from backyard trees and leftover fried onions from yesterday biryani. The thin slicing and papaya trick made even tough desi chicken soft in hours.

Old Village Style Cooking

Fifty sixty years back nobody had gas or electric tandoor in Bihar homes. Everything cooked on wood fire or coal sigdi. Men would sit around the fire at night turning long iron skewers while women prepared marinade in huge pots. The smell of mustard oil heating up and onions frying told the whole mohalla that tomorrow is a feast day. Kids waited for the first piece that fell into the fire and got extra crispy.

Why Raw Papaya Became the Star

Almost every house in Bihar has a papaya tree growing somewhere. Butchers noticed long ago that rubbing green papaya skin on meat makes it soft really quick. So customers started asking for kebab cut meat and the butcher would grate fresh papaya right there. That habit stayed. Even today in Patna markets you see butchers doing the same thing for people buying chicken for Bihari kebab.

Fried Onions Are Not Just Flavor

In proper Bihari chicken you use almost as much fried onions as yogurt. They give sweetness and keep the meat moist when you cook on high flame. Old cooks say without enough birista the kebab becomes dry and boring. That big amount of onion paste is what separates it from every other north Indian chicken grill.

How It Left Villages and Reached Cities

From the seventies lots of people from Bihar started moving to Kolkata Delhi Mumbai for jobs. They missed home taste badly. Small push carts and tiny shops opened near factories and bus stands selling hot Bihari chicken with paratha. Because the slices are thin it cooks in minutes perfect for quick meals. Slowly the name spread and everyone started calling it Bihari chicken even if the cook was from somewhere else.

Difference From Awadhi or Hyderabadi Kebabs

Lucknow kebabs are soft creamy full of khoya and perfume. Bihari chicken is rough bold smoky and spicy. You bite and feel the texture. Kakori is delicate like thread Bihari has proper char marks and mustard oil bite. Hyderabad ones have different spices and more sourness. One bite and you know this is Bihar on your plate.

Street Side Boom in the Nineties

By nineties Delhi especially Jama Masjid and Zakir Nagar areas got flooded with Bihari chicken rolls. College kids and late night crowds made it famous. Cooks started adding green chutney and chili sauce to make it more fun. In Bihar itself it stayed pure just kebab onion lemon and rumali roti. Outside the state it turned into party starter and roll filling.

Place in Festivals and Family Life

You will still find kilos of Bihari chicken at every Eid dinner Chhath gathering and wedding walima in Bihar. Because meat is thin you can feed many people with less quantity. Whole night marination and morning grilling is a proper family event. The lane fills with smoke and smell and everybody comes out to talk and eat together.

New Things People Try Now

Some young cooks add cheese or mayonnaise for fusion rolls. Few put cashew paste to make it creamy for guests. One uncle in my family mixes little roasted besan in marinade for extra crust. But most homes still make it the same old way with just mustard oil onions and papaya. My dad says why change something that is already perfect.

Why It Travels So Well

This dish never needed fancy kitchen or expensive ingredients. Wherever Bihari families went they carried the recipe. Today you get proper Bihari chicken in London Dubai Canada wherever our people settled. Every family says their version is the best and honestly they all taste a little different depending on how dark the onions got or how long they rested the meat. That small variation makes it even more special.

It just shows you dont need much to create something people remember forever. Thin chicken good marinade hot fire and lots of love. Every time I make it the whole house smells like my nani home in Bhagalpur even when I am cooking thousands of kilometers away. Turns out slightly different each time but always delicious.

Lamb Biryani | Soft Juicy Homemade Recipe

FAQ’s

Follow our social media Accounts for updates:

Hazel