how to make chicken biryani when you have no idea how to...

I recently tried my hand at biryani. You can use any meat – chicken, fish, prawns, lamb. I did it with chicken.

I used 1 small chicken which looked enough for 6 people. I cut the chicken into medium sized peices and marinated them with around 4 tbsp of biryani masala (you can get this at Lulu) (you can put more masala if you wish as long as all the chicken pieces are coated thoroughly), 2 tsp chilly powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder (haldi), 1 tsp cumin powder (jeera) and 1 tsp coriander powder (dhania), 1 tsp salt (or less if you prefer), 0.5 tsp of pepper powder and a little water. You may wish to add some yoghurt (around 2-3 tbsp) to the marinade but, as I did not have any that day I substituted for water.

For the Rice - I used 2 full cups of rice and it was enough for 6 people. You may wish to add more or less depending on the quantity of rice you need. If you use more rice then you probably need more chicken as well. Wash the rice well and drain it completely off water. I fried the washed rice with 2 tsp of oil, 1 small bay leaf, 3 cardamom pods, 3 cloves, 4 whole black pepper, 0.25 tsp of turmeric powder for colour and 0.5 tsp of salt. You can also add 1 cube of chicken stock (I did not use this as I didn’t have any). Stir for a minute or two and then add 2 cups of water (it should just cover the rice as we don’t want it to boil completely, it should only be half boiled). Don’t stir the rice around too much when you add the water as it makes it mushy. Leave it untouched and once all the water evaporates you can just run a fork through it.

For the Masala – I first fried couple of cardamom pods, 2 dried bay leaves, 0.5 tsp of whole black pepper and a couple of cloves. After a minute I added 2 onions (chopped fine); 2 tomatoes (chopped very fine); 1 tsp ginger garlic paste; 0.25 tsp salt; 0.25 tsp of chilly powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and biryani masala; 0.25 tsp of whole cumin (put this in last as it tends to burn). Fry this for a good few minutes till the tomatoes are all mashed up and oil starts to float on top. To this I added the marinated chicken and chopped up potatoes and fried for around 5 mins. Then add some water to the chicken (around quarter of a cup).

Finally – I added the half boiled rice on top of the chicken and covered it with a tight lid (I put a kettle on top of my lid just to make it stay tight) and cooked it for 15-20 mins on a very low flame.

Voila – the biryani should be ready. Garnish it with golden fried onions, boiled eggs (cut in halves) and some fresh coriander leaves.