Chicken Biriyani

A popular rice dish served duirng special occasions, holidays and parties. Traditional preparation involves use of meat/vegetables marinated with yogurt, spice powders and cooked along with layered rice by following a challenging baking process called Dum. But the process can be made simple by using a pressure cooker or rice cooker. (CHICKEN BIRYANI / KOZHI BRIYANI)

Ingredients:
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Chicken – 500 g
Salt – ½ teaspoon
Curd – 1 tablespoon
Turmeric powder – 1/ 2 teaspoon
chili powder - 1/2 tsp
ginger garlic paste 1 tsp
Marinate chicken with above ingredients for half an hour .

Basmati rice – 2 cup
Onion -3 ( finely sliced )
Tomato – 2 ( finely chopped )

Masala ingredients

ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Chilli powder – ½ teaspoon
Green chilli – 2
Coriander leaves ( chopped )- 1/4 cup
Mint leaves ( chopped ) – 1/2 cup

Make a smooth paste of ginger , garlic , green chilli and chilli powder. Finally add chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves. Just crush it.

Whole spices :

Cardamom – 2( broken )
Cloves -4
Cinnamon – 4 ( 1 – inch piece )
Star anise – 2
bay leaves - 2
Cashew nuts ( broken ) – 10

Cooking oil – 2 tsp
Ghee – 2 tbsp

Method

1. Soak basmati rice for half an hour in water .
2. Heat ghee and oil in a cooker on a slow flame. Add whole spices and sauté well. Add broken cashew nuts and raisins. Shallow fry till get a nice aroma of spices and golden colour of nuts. Add finely sliced onion and fry on a medium flame till get golden colour. Add masala paste and sauté for 5- 8 minutes. Add chopped tomato and sauté well for 3- 4 minutes.
3. Add marinated chicken pieces , salt to taste . Cover with a lid and cook till done ( cooking time approximately 15 – 20 minutes ). When done you may get 1cup of gravy. now add 2cups of water and 1/2 cup of yogurt and bring the mixture to boil.
4. Add rice and close the pressure cooker and cook at simmer for 7 min with weight on.

incase of a rice cooker do all the sauteing in a kadai and then tranfer the gravy to the rice cooker. Add rice once the mixture boils and cook till done.

5. once the steam comes down tranfer the biriyani to a wide serving dish gently without breaking the rice.

Serve with boiled eggs and raita