Ingredients:1 whole chicken / 2 lbs chicken,
1 kg Basmati rice /Priya rice
1 cup thinly sliced onions,
1 big onion sliced.
2 tsp ginger/garlic paste,
3 tsp chilli powder,
½ tsp turmeric,
100 g cashew nuts,
4 or 5 bay leaves,
4 or 5 cloves,
2 cm long cinnamon sticks,
3 or 4 cardamom pods,
2 star anise
1 or 2 tsp jeera,
1 cups mint leaves,
1 cup coriander leaves (cilantro),
½ tsp garam masala powder(optional),
2 tsp Biryani Powder
1 lemon,
1 ½ tsp salt (according to taste),
1 cup ghee (clarified butter/oil),
½ cup yogurt,
few strands of saffron,
Preparation:
1. Make deep holes on the chicken flesh - deep enough for spices to get absorbed but making them too deep could render the pieces smaller. Mix turmeric, chilli powder, salt, garlic garlic paste, yogurt, half-lemon's juice and you can even add any biryani Masala(i prefer Eastern Biryani powder) Thoroughly apply this paste onto the chicken flesh and let marinate for 2 hours.
2. Heat about 20 ml of oil, add onion, wait couple of minutes for onion to turn slight brown, allow fried onion to cool down, then grind this onions into a fine paste.
3. Heat 50ml of oil, Roast cumin, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaves, star anise, 1 spoon coriander powder, coriander leaves and add mint leaves. Then add ginger garlic paste fry for 2 minutes, add onion paste fry for some time, add marinated chicken and cook for about 20-30 min, add salt and red chilly powder as required. It should NOT be fully cooked at this stage, add garam masala and turn off flame when about ¾ cooked. Gravy should not be much, chicken pieces should look roasted(before adding into the roasted spices, you can even roast the marinated chicken with oil in the oven till it looks half cooked and brown in color).
3. Meanwhile, while the chicken is still cooking, prepare the biryani rice. Slightly rinse 3 cups of basmati, and add water little less than the volume of the rice itself so that its only half cooked preferably in an electric cooker. Amount of water actually depends on kind of rice at hand and your experience helps to judge it. Also add 1-2 teaspoons of salt to it. Take a few semi-cooked grains of rice and colour them with diluted saffron for garnishing.
4. You will need a utensil of about 12" (300 mm) base. Place about half of semi-cooked rice in it. Next, layer half of chicken on it again topped by a layer of rice (half of the remaining). One more layer of remaining chicken, finally with layer of rest of the rice on top ends the rice-chicken layering stage.
5. Heat oil and deep fry half the sliced onions to golden brown. Similarly fry cashew. Garnish the top layer with these two along with 10 ml oil, saffron rice grains and coriander. Lid the vessel and try making it airtight (but no pressure should build up). Put on high flame for 5 min before reducing it to low flame. The flame should NOT be at the vessel's centre, but on one side of it. Wait for 2-3 min and turn the vessel to heat other next part on its circumference. This way, keep rotating the vessel every 2-3 min for about 20 min. Every time you turn it, carefully disturb the contents by a shake/jerk so as to avoid settling of oil/ghee at the bottom.
6. Put off the flame and wait for about 10 min before opening. Before serving, mix well from the bottom. Serve with boiled egg halves. Enjoy. Rightly and carefully made, its an epicure's paradise.
Note: This recipes takes more than half an hour to cook, you should have patience to make this and you will really enjoy this..
