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This $29.90 bucket looks good, but does it taste good?
Perhaps taking a leaf from the idea of fried chicken in a bucket is this bucket of… chicken biryani. It’s a fun creation that should thrill carb fiends. Each pail, about the size of a KFC tub, is meant to feed around four people. It’s generously layered with yellow-orange basmati grains and rotisserie oven-cooked “Pakistani grilled chicken” that looks like a version of the more popular tandoori chicken.
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
The eye-catching plus-sized meal is offered by Indian-Muslim hawker stall chain KhairunMiyah, which has five outlets islandwide. However, the biryani buckets are only sold at their Yishun and Bugis outlets. The Bugis branch serves the rice with tandoori chicken for $30, while this Pakistani chicken version ($29.90) is found at the Yishun stall. It’s all halal and ideal for iftar this Ramadan.
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8days.sg bought our biryani bucket from the Yishun branch, a stall housed in an old kopitiam. A poster claims it has “Singapore’s first live grilled chicken”. No, the birds aren’t cooked alive nor are they slaughtered onsite, thank goodness. It’s basically a strange way of saying that the stall boasts a rotisserie oven. KhairunMiyah’s Bugis outlet doesn’t have a rotisserie but a tandoor oven. FYI: This dish is officially called 'Grill Chicken Biryani Combo' on the menu, but most people order it by saying “biryani bucket”.
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Ours came packed to the brim with rice, one whole smallish bird (1kg) roughly hacked into unwieldy quarters and four hard-boiled eggs, plus sides of curry gravy, pickles, mint chutney and, jarringly, mayonnaise.
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What is Pakistani grilled chicken?
So, what exactly is Pakistani grilled chicken? KhairunMiyah’s owner, Izzur Rahman Bijili, 33, tells 8days.sg that “the spices used are completely different from tandoori chicken”. The grilled chicken is marinated with ingredients like capsicum and chaat masala, before being cooked in a rotisserie oven for 45 minutes, while their tandoori chicken is prepared with a different blend of masala spices, plus coriander, green and red chilli, then cooked in a tandoor (a cylindrical charcoal clay oven).
Biryani Bucket ($29.90) taste test
The rice
We brought our bucket to the 8days.sg office to see how much our team could finish in one sitting.
“The rice is quite nice actually, if a little too soft,” says our food editor as she scoops up a mouthful. The long basmati grains are stained from turmeric (no saffron at these prices), and are prepped with ginger, garlic, cinnamon and coriander. Fairly fragrant and flavourful, despite not being cooked together with the meat, dum-style. “In fact, the rice is the best part about this bucket,” she goes on to add disappointedly, after struggling to tear off a piece of meat from a hunk of tough chook.
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The chicken
“Oh, I was expecting a lot more flavour from the chicken,” corroborates another colleague. “But I’m a fan tong (a mandarin slang to describe someone who loves eating rice), so I would eat the rice,” he adds.
To be fair, the grilled chicken was quite tender in some parts — but unpleasantly dry in others. It was also rather bland compared to punchier tandoori chicken. Its dominant flavour seemed like mild chilli powder; moreover, it was under-salted.
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The condiments
As our colleague drizzles some of the accompanying curry (not normally served with traditional biryani) onto the rice, he quickly remarks: “Is it just me, or is the curry tasteless?” It wasn’t just him.
If we had to choose something to moisten the chicken, we suppose we’d go for the slightly more tasty mint chutney. Though its colour is an unappealing greyish-green and it’s way too watery, it helps to inject a faintly herby, tangy layer to the under-seasoned meat.
Meanwhile, the eggs, usually a welcome pairing with biryani, are over-boiled. A writer picks out the yolks and eats only the whites “because the yolks are too dry,” she explains. The pickles — mostly cukes and onions — are sour and unremarkable.
Skip the mayo, which another editor declares tastes “like imitation mayonnaise”.
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Five of us tucked into the biryani bucket at teatime, after an early lunch. We barely made a dent. On an empty stomach, we estimate this could satisfy anywhere between three hungry dudes to six small eaters.
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Bottom line
Generous portions, decent rice, not-great chicken and everything else. If you’re going to spring for a bucket of this biryani, perhaps the tandoori-style option at KhairunMiyah’s Bugis outlet will fare better. If all else fails, well, there’s always fried chicken.
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The details
KhairunMiyah’s biryani buckets are available at Broadway Coffeeshop, 414 Yishun Ring Rd, S760414 & #01-235 296B Queen St, S180269. Open daily 6am - 10pm (Yishun), 6.30am - 9pm (Bugis). More info via their Facebook.
Photos: Pyron Tan, Gwyn Lim
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
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