A super simple Chicken Biryani which can be made by anyone, even the most amateur cooks. 

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This recipe is for all of those newbie cooks who finds making biryani very tricky. For me it was a hit or a miss situation always in the beginning. Now with lots of experience, all thanks to my biryani purist Husband…I make decently good biryani. But don’t worry, to nail this recipe you wouldn’t need any experience, just anyone can make it. It’s that easy.

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I got this recipe from my midwife who looked after me during my second delivery. She used to make amazing dishes. This Chicken Korma is one of it. I make this biryani very often nowadays. The marination should be done a day before, so that the chicken becomes super tender. So on the day you are making the biryani, there won’t be much work as you just have to cook the chicken with the marinade, no separate sautéing or slicing needed. Yes, you will have to make the fried onion, but that takes just 5 minutes or so.

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 Since this recipe is so simple, I thought of making a video for this. I thought it will be easy, but shooting a savory recipe is more laborsome than a sweet one. It was very difficult for me. But it turned satisfactorily good, I guess. But the end shots are not so great, as lunch time had passed and 2 hungry souls were waiting for food and one cranky baby was in full swing. Guys, a lot of hard work goes behind the making of each and every video. Please do give the video a like and do share it with others. And if you have not subscribed to my YouTube channel, please do it. Show some love in instagram, facebook etc…it will give me the motivation to post more recipes. 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

1 kg Chicken

For blending:

• 1 large onion
• 2 medium sized tomatoes 
• A bunch of coriander leaves
• A handful of mint leaves
• 6 green chillies
• 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste/ 6 cloves garlic plus 1 inch piece ginger

Remaining ingredients for masala:

• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• Salt to taste
• 4 tbsp yoghurt
• Fried onions (of 1 large onion)
• 3-4 tbsp oil
• 3 cloves
• 3 cardamom

For ghee rice:

• 2 cups basmati rice (soaked in water for 1 hour)
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 2 cloves
• 2 cardamom
• Cinnamon stick
• 3 3/4 cup water (adjust depending upon the type of rice you are using)
• Salt to taste 

For assembling:

• Fried onions
• Fried cashews
• Fried raisins
• Saffron soaked milk 

NOTES:

• Usually when cooking the rice, the water required is double the amount of rice. But it varies depending upon the type of rice you are using.
• Adjust the amount of green chillies according to the spice level you need. You can add 4 chillies while blending and you can chop remaining chillies and add to the masala while cooking chicken. 
• If you feel that the masala is too much, don’t add the entire masala to the rice while layering. Reserve the left over and serve it alongside the biryani and it can be used if needed.

DIRECTIONS:

To make masala:

1. To blend, add all the ingredients mentioned above into a blender. Blend well. 
2. In a bowl, add chicken and the blended mix. 
3. Add in garam masala powder, turmeric powder, salt , yoghurt, and fried onions. Mix well. Marinate overnight. 
4. The next day, in a pan pour oil, and add cardamom and cloves. 
5. Add chicken. Cook on medium high heat for 20-25 minutes, till the chicken gets cooked well and the masala reduces and thickens. 

To make ghee rice:

1. In a pan, add the ghee. Drop in the whole garam masala.
2. Once the aroma is released, add in the washed and drained rice.
   Fry the rice in ghee for a minute on high heat.
3. Pour the boiled 3 3/4 cups of water. Add salt.
4. Let it boil on high heat till the water reduces a bit. 
5. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan with lid and cook for 10 minutes. Open lid and just stir the rice carefully. At this point, if you feel that the rice is not cooked at all and needs more water, pour in 1/4 cup more of water. Close the lid again and cook for 5 more minutes. Once the rice is cooked fluff up the rice with a fork or a large spatula carefully without breaking the rice. 

To assemble:

1. In a pan, layer 1/4th of the rice. 
2. Place the prepared masala. (If you feel that the masala is too much, don’t add the entire masala)
3. Add remaining rice. 
4. Add fried onions, cashews, raisins and saffron milk.
5. Cover with lid and keep for dum on lowest heat inside the oven for 30 minutes. If you do not have an oven, just cover the vessel with foil (to ensure the steam says in), then close the lid tightly.
6. Heat a tawa on lowest flame possible, place the biryani on top and cook for 20-25 minutes. Make sure the heat is lowest both in oven and stove top or else the biryani bottom might get burnt.

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