Chicken Biryani

Who doesn't like Chicken Biryani eh? The only down side being its too much work. Anyway, this is one of my favorite ways to make chicken Biryani. I will keep the introduction short because the recipe itself is big. Start it when you have enough time. Below would serve 6 people easily. So make sure to adjust the quantity. Another thing is that, the below picture is taken before I placed the dish in oven. i had some guests at home; so couldn't take the final version.

Marinade the below together:
Chicken: 2 lb or close to a kilo (I used bone-in and skinless)
Yogurt: 1 cup
Salt: 1 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Ginger-garlic paste: 1 tbsp

Marinade all the above for at least 4 hours. Leave this in fridge.

Get the below ready:
Basmati Rice: 4 cups (medium sized cups)
Oil: 6 tbsp or a little more
Clarified butter/Ghee: 6 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste: 1 tbsp (yes, again)
Milk: 1/2 cup
Safforn or food color

Spices you will require:
Cardamom (Elachi): 6
Nutmeg and mace: A little
Cinnamon (Chekka/Dalchini): 2 inch piece
Cloves: 8-10
Bay leaf (Biryani leaf): 4
Caraway seeds (Shah Jeera): 1 tsp

Fresh produce:
Mint leaves: a handful
Cilantro/Coriander leaves: a handful
Chili powder: 1 tbsp
Green Chilies: 4 split length wise
Tomatoes: 3 large, chopped
Coriander Powder: 1 tsp 
Salt

To garnish:
Onions: 6, chopped length wise
Cashew nuts: handful (optional, I didn't use)
Almonds and raisins: (optional, I didn't use)

Method:
Getting the garnish ready:
Heat 6 tbsp of oil in a large pan and fry onions until golden brown. Use high flame so that they turn brown. Keep them aside on paper towel to drain the oil.
If you are using cashew nuts, almonds and raisin's,fry them in a small pan in 1 tbsp of ghee. Keep this also aside. We will be using the above all to garnish.

Cooking the chicken:
Now, in the same pan in which you fried onions, add little more oil and add 3/4 of all the spices under "spices you will require" section. (The remaining 1/4 quantity we will use later). Add ginger-garlic paste and give it a quick stir. Now add the chicken marinade followed by everything under "Fresh Produce". Cook until chicken gets completely cooked and its not watery. Now add 1/3 of the fried onions to this and remove from heat.

Cooking the Rice:
Take a large pot and add rice and hot water (at least 12 cups of water for 4 cups of water) and a fist full of salt. Yes, you will need at least a fist full so that rice is slightly salty when it is cooked. Don't worry, you will not put too much. Along with the salt add all of the 1/4 of the saved spices from the above step.
You will need to cook the rice until it is 3/4 done. This would not usually take more than 10 mins.
Now drain the rice.

 

Layering the Biryani:
I am going to mention 2 ways here. We need to cook the rice completely with the steam. So we have 2 options here. Either we use oven (which is what I did) or dum-cook on flame, sealing the lid with dough. 


Pre-heat the oven to 350 D F. Take an oven-safe wide glass vessel.Mix milk and safforn/food color and keep aside.
Grease the pan with ghee. Lay a layer in the same order as below:
1. Rice, spread in the bottom.
2. Chicken, spread lightly
3. Fried onions, spread some
4. Chopped coriander leaves
5. 1 tsp of milk and saffron mix.

Repeat the process until you finish all the rice/chicken. For me the final layer came out as rice. I also sprinkled fried onions, coriander and the remaining milk and saffron.

Seal the dish with aluminum foil and make a few holes for the steam to escape. Leave the pan in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.
If you are using cooking stove for this: Seal the lid of the pot and leave it on simmer for 45 minutes.

Open the foil/lid very gently because once I hurt my fingers with the wild/escaping steam.

Finally my favorite part of making this starts...which is eating!