Chicken Briani Recipe

Instructions

• Chop and deep fry 3/4 of onions (Can be fried night before and keep in refrigerator to save time). Tip: While frying add a pinch of salt to make it more crispy
• Drain, spread the fried onions on a plate and keep aside
• Peel, cut potatoes in halves and fork
• Add salt and food colouring
• Deep fry on high heat. Tip: Potatoes should be well fried as compared to chicken
• Blend the remaining 1/4 of onions, adding a little water and keep aside
• Marinate the chicken with salt and 2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
• Quick fry the chicken (optional) - Do not over fry. Tip: Frying the chicken prevent it from falling apart while cooking
• Wash and soak rice. Tip: use high quality long grain rice and soak for atleast 30 minutes
• In the cooking pot, pour the onion paste
• Add 5 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
• Add 4 tbsp of Biryani spices
• Add 1/2 of fried onions
• Carefully, place the chicken and potatoes
• Add 2 cups of water
• Add green chillies
• Add the chopped mint and coriander leaves
• Add 1 cup of yogurt and salt to taste
• Tip: Hold the pot, move to mix to prevent chicken and potatoes from coming into pieces
• Boil water in another pot for rice
• Add salt to taste
• Pour the soaked rice
• Add anise seeds, cardamom and cinnamon
• Tip: Do not overboil or underboil rice. To check if the rice is done, press one, if it breaks easily then it is cooked just right
• When water starts to boil again, use a slotted spoon to transfer the rice to the cooking pot by layers adding fried onions in between
• Tip: Transfering in little quantity make sure that rice on top are better boiled than bottom
• Pour a little food colour mixed with water
• Top with butter ghee and rest of fried onions
• Cover and let cook on dum (low heat) for 20 minutes
• Use a load on top of the pot
• Tip: if you are using a big pot (like in this video) on a gas cooker, move around the pot on the gas to make sure the heat is distributed evenly
• Use a long cutlery (e.g a fork) to penetrate into the Biryani to check if the spices have dried
• Serve with chutney, tomato salsa, cucumber and carrot salad and pickles