Chicken Biryani

Chicken Biryani

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 500gms Chicken meat, biryani cut
• 2 cups Long grain biryani rice
• 1 pack Shan / National biryani masala
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 2 large tomatoes, each cut into 4-4 pieces
• 1tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 3 tbsp yogurt
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 inch cinnamon
• 1 or 2 black cardamom
• 2 to 3 cloves
• 1 or 2 single strands of mace
• 1 medium bay leaf
• 5-6 whole black pepper
• 2 potatoes, each cut in 4-6 pieces
• 1 big lemon, ½ of it cut into thin slices, rest is squeezed to get juice
• 3-4 green chilies, each sliced longitudinally into two pieces (if you don’t like much spice, don’t slice them)
• ¼ cup freshly chopped mint & coriander
• ¼ tsp orange food color dissolved in ¼ cup water

Method:

• Marinate chicken in biryani masala, ginger garlic paste and yogurt for 30-60 mins.
• Fry onions till golden brown. Separate half and keep aside.
• Add marinated chicken in the pot and fry till it starts to turn white. Cover the pot and let it cook till it’s done. Chicken will cook in its own juices. If you feel need of extra water, then add some.
• In a separate pan, add a little oil and fry tomatoes. When they turn soft, add potatoes and stir-fry. Cover this pan and let the potatoes cook till they’re 90% cooked.
• Mix potatoes with chicken and stir well on medium heat and then turn the flame off.
• Boil biryani / saila rice up-to 75% with all the whole spices (cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black pepper, and bay leaf) and lemon juice. Drain the water when rice are 75% cooked.
• Now in a sauce-pan or pot, make a first thin layer of chicken and potato sauce, then second layer of rice, then third layer of mint, coriander, green chili, lemon slices & fried onions. Repeat these three layers once again.
• Add little water to emptied pan of chicken & potato sauce and gather all attached to walls of pan in this water. Sprinkle this spiced water on top here and there along with orange food color water.
• Cover the pot with its lid properly and keep it on medium-low flame first for 5-7 mins, then on very low flame for next 5-7 mins to steam.
• Mix the hot biryani layers carefully and serve immediately with raita & salad.

~ Bonne cuisine! J