Chicken Biryani

This recipe of chicken biryani is something which I used to make every weekend on my days off, and I would wait for weekends to sit & have a proper peaceful lunch of biryani with family. The best part was, in making the biryani. I would ask everyone to leave the kitchen, put on my headphones & while listening to my favorite songs, I would go about making the biryani which my family loved :) Really, there's nothing like preparing food with love for your loved ones... It's my ultimate stress buster !!!

So, here goes.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken
• half kg rice
• 4 medium size onions
• 3 medium size tomatoes
• 3 green chillies, slit
• 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 big stick cinnamon
• 4 green cardamoms
• 1 black cardamom
• 4 cloves
• 4 black peppers
• 1 tsp zeera
• 7 curry leaves
• pinch turmeric
• 1 & half tbsp saunf powder
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• half cup yoghurt
• kewra essence
• saffron color
• cashewnuts, a handful
• half cup milk
• fried potato wedges

Method:

• Firstly, wash the rice & soak it in water.
• In a wide pan, put oil. Once the oil is hot enough, add all the spices (curry leaves+cinnamon+cardamoms+cloves+pepper+zeera). Once, you get their aromatic smell, add in the onions. Cook till the onions have fried nicely & you get nice golden color.
• Add the tomatoes + salt. Cook till the tomatoes have liquidised. Now add the ginger garlic paste & fry nicely till oil separates.
• Then add all the masalas & fry till the raw smell of the spices go away. Then add the curd.
• Now, add the washed chicken + slit geen chillies, give it a nice stir. Cover & cook till chicken is done. After chicken is done, add the fried pcs. of potatoes in the chicken.
• Now, boil the rice in salted water. In the water add 2 tbsp oil. This will prevent the rice from stickin to each other or clumping. One the rice is cooked halfway, drain the water from the rice.
• On the cooked chicken masala, spread the rice evenly. Sprinkle fried onions & fried cashews. Mix the kewra just 2 drops + orange color in the milk & spread this on top of the rice. Also add few tbspns of ghee on the rice.
• Cover very properly & cook till you get a nice steam in the pan, or till the rice is perfectly cooked & fluffy.

Happy Eating :)