Chicken Biryani !

This is absolutely for those ardent fans of The Chicken Biryani …yes I am one amongst you…..so, here is my version of chicken biryani..totally totally hassle free…& you can make this layered chicken biryani in ……. a pressure cooker..how cool is that ?!!!!

Chicken Biryani

Before we get into the ingredients & recipe.. i want to tell a small tip..if you are planning to make chicken biryani and you planned it well ahead, I suggest you to …marinate the chicken and keep it in the refrigerator for 5 to 6 hours or over night to get the best of it. But nothing to worry, if it is just an hour ago you planned to make chicken biryani..still no problem..just marinate & keep it in the refrigerator for 1 hour which is good enough too !

Preparation :

Part 1:

Ingredients to marinate the chicken :

Chicken - 2 lbs ( 1 kg)

Red chili powder - 2 tbl spoons

Ginger & Garlic paste - 1 table spoon

Turmeric powder - 1 tea spoon

Garam masala powder - 1 tbl spoon

Curd - 2 tbl spoons

Dhaniya / coriander powder - 1 table spoon

Coriander leaves & Green chili paste - 1 table spoon

Salt - 1 to 2 table spoons

Chicken Marination :

- Thoroughly wash the chicken in the running water and take it into a mixing bowl & add all the above ingredients to the chicken &  mix well.

- Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic cling wrap & keep it in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hr to 1 hour.

Part 2 :

Rice - 3 cups ( I took basmati rice)

Water - 4 cups

Salt - 1 tbl spoon

Ghee - 1 tbl spoon

Whole Garam masala Ingredients :

Bay Leaf - 1 (big) or 2 (small)
Cinnamon / Cassia bark stick - 1
Cloves - 4 to 5
Green / black cardamom - 2
Anis flower - 2 to 3
Cardamom - 1 or 2
Nutmeg - small piece

- Wash the rice thoroughly & add water, salt, ghee & all the whole garam masala ingredients to the rice and cook the rice. In general we add 1: 1.5 - rice : water to cook basmati rice, since we just need half cooked rice we are just cooking rice with 4 cups of water.

- Now half cooked rice with all whole garam masala ingredients and marinated chicken is ready by this time.

Part 3 :

Ingredients :

Chopped coriander leaves - 1 cup 

Chopped mint leaves - 1 cup

Roasted cashews - 1/4 cup

Saffron strands -  soaked in 1/2 cup milk

Lemon juice - 2 table spoons

Oil - 2 to 3 tbl spoons

Ghee / butter - 3 tbl spoons

Fried onions - 1 cup (optional)

Method -

- Add oil to the pressure cooker. Nicely coat the bottom & interior walls of the pressure cooker.

- Place all marinated chicken in the pressure cooker. depending on the size of the cooker, you can arrange one or more layers.

- Now add one layer of half cooked rice over the chicken in the pressure cooker.

- On the each layer of rice, top it with ghee, lemon juice, chopped coriander & mint leaves, milk (saffron soaked), cashews & fried onions..evenly.

- Repeat the these steps until you finsh layering chicken & rice. I used a 7.5 liter pressure cooker, so I just got 2 layers.

- Add any leftover marination mix on top the rice layer..it gives you a great taste to the biryani.

- No need to add any extra water to this, just close the pressure cooker with the lid & DO NOT KEEP THE WHISTLE . Yes, you read it right..we don't keep the weight.

- NOTE : we have to cook the biryani on a SLOW / LOW HEAT and it takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

- Once the chicken is cooked well you can feel the nice aroma coming out of the cooker. Once you feel it is done, turn off the heat & let all the pressure come down. Open the lid & gently mix the layers, so that Rice & chicken will be mixed together.

Now, it is time to enjoy the chicken biryani with any sides like kurma / gravy & raitha !

We enjoyed chicken biryani with Aloo kurma & raitha. Check out the Aloo kurma recipe @ the below link !

Aloo / Potato Kurma Recipe

Chicken Biryani !