Chicken Biryani

Ingredients

Basmati rice – 500 g

Chicken – 500 g
Tomatos – 3
Fried onions – 3
Yogurt (curd) – 250 g
Biryani masala – 2 tbs
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala powder – 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Green chilies – 4

Star anise (Anasphal – Badam phool) – 1
Cinnamon stick (Dal Chini) – 1 inch
Bay leaves (Tej patta) – a few
Black paper (Kali Mirch) – 5
Black cardamom (Badi Ilaichi) – 1
Green cardamom (Choti Ilaichi) – 2
Cloves (Loung) – 5
Mace (Jayatri) – 1

Oil for cooking
Mint leaves
Coriander leaves
Pure ghee 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbs
Kewra essense

Fried Onions

• Slice the onions lengthwise to a thickness of about a 2 millimeters, not very fine
• Dry them out on newspaper or under the fan
• Heat oil in a pan and simmer it down when it is hot and fry the onions in parts
• Repeat till all of them are fried and set aside

Boiled rice

• Soak the basmati rice for 15 minutes
• Rinse and wash the rice
• In a bowl bring 3.5 to 4 times the water to boil
• Add some cooking oil and salt
• Add the soaked rice
• Cook this till it is about 70 percent done, not completely cooked
• Use a wide spoon to take the rice out to strainer and drain all the water out
• The rice should all stay separated.

Marinate Chicken

• Wash the chicken pieces well and make cuts so that the marination is deep inside
• Dice the tomatoes
• Whip the curd well so that there are no lumps
• To the chicken, add
  • Ginger, garlic paste
  • Diced tomatoes
  • Curd
  • All the powder masalas
  • Green chillies
  • Salt
  • A third portion of the fried onions
  • Chopped mint leaves
  • Chopped Coriander leaves
• Mix these well and set aside for 1.5 to 3 hours covered with a lid

Biryani

• In a pan, heat oil and add part of ghee
• Add all the whole masala to the heated oil
• Fry them well so that the aroma is smelt
• Add the marinated chicken in portions
• Mix it well while the flame is high
• Close the pan with lid and let the chicken cook in low flame for 12-15 mins till the chicken is tender. Keep stirring it a few times so that it doesn’t burn and stick to the bottom of the pan
• Switch the cooked chicken to a larger vessel or use the same one if it’s bigger
• Add a small portion of fried onions keeping some for final garnishing
• Add little chopped mint leaves, you’ll keep some for final garnishing
• Spread the cooked rice on top of this evenly layered. Ensure that the grains are not broken and tenderly spread
• Garnish with the oil that was used to fry the onions
• Add a little kewra essence
• Add more chopped mint, coriander leaves and fried onions
• Add two spoons of ghee
• Cook on high flame for 2 minutes and close the pan with a lid and cook for 10 mins on simmer
• The biryani is now ready to be served.