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Here\u2019s a rich, aromatic restaurant-style chicken biryani<\/strong> that\u2019s very achievable at home. The key is marinating the chicken, cooking the rice only about 70% before layering, and finishing everything gently on dum<\/em>.<\/p>\n Serves:<\/strong> 5\u20136 Chicken marinade<\/strong><\/p>\n Rice<\/strong><\/p>\n For the biryani<\/strong><\/p>\n Combine the yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, spices, lemon, mint and coriander. Add the chicken and coat thoroughly.<\/p>\n Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours<\/strong>. Overnight is even better.<\/p>\n Heat the oil and 4 tablespoons of ghee over medium heat. Fry the sliced onions until deep golden brown<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Don’t take them all the way to dark brown in the pan\u2014they continue darkening after removal.<\/p>\n Remove roughly half and drain on paper towel. These crispy onions (birista<\/em>) will go between the layers.<\/p>\n To the remaining onions and fat, add the green chillies and tomatoes. Cook for about 5 minutes<\/strong> until the tomatoes soften.<\/p>\n Add the marinated chicken.<\/p>\n Cook over medium-high heat for about 8 minutes<\/strong>, then reduce to medium and cook another 10\u201312 minutes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n You want the chicken partially cooked<\/strong> with a fairly thick gravy. If there’s lots of liquid, cook uncovered for a few minutes to reduce it.<\/p>\n Wash the rice several times until the water is mostly clear, then soak it for 30 minutes<\/strong> and drain.<\/p>\n Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the salt, bay leaves, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and cumin.<\/p>\n Add the rice and boil until it’s about 70% cooked<\/strong>, usually around 5\u20137 minutes<\/strong> depending on the rice.<\/p>\n Test a grain: the outside should be soft but there should still be a noticeable firm centre.<\/p>\n Drain immediately.<\/strong> This step is important\u2014fully cooked rice at this stage usually means mushy biryani later.<\/p>\n Keep the chicken and its gravy in a heavy-bottomed pot.<\/p>\n Spread half the rice<\/strong> over the chicken.<\/p>\n Scatter over half of the:<\/p>\n Add the remaining rice and repeat.<\/p>\n Warm the milk and soak the saffron in it for about 5 minutes. Drizzle the saffron milk over the rice.<\/p>\n Sprinkle over \u00bd teaspoon garam masala and drizzle with 1 tablespoon melted ghee<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Don’t stir the layers.<\/p>\n Cover the pot very tightly<\/strong> with a lid. You can put a sheet of foil beneath the lid to help trap the steam.<\/p>\n Cook: If your pot has a thin base, put a heavy frying pan or tawa<\/em> underneath it so the chicken doesn’t scorch.<\/p>\n Turn off the heat and leave it covered for another 10\u201315 minutes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Open the lid and gently lift the biryani from the bottom upward<\/strong> rather than vigorously mixing it. You want some white, saffron-yellow and masala-coated grains rather than uniformly coloured rice.<\/p>\n Serve immediately with cucumber raita<\/strong>, lemon wedges and extra coriander or mint.<\/p>\n Use aged basmati<\/strong> if you can find it; it produces longer, more separate grains. Bone-in chicken also gives substantially better flavour than breast meat.<\/p>\n Most importantly, don’t overcook the rice before layering. It’s supposed to look slightly underdone when you drain it\u2014the trapped steam finishes cooking it during the dum stage.<\/p>\n And don’t skimp on the fried onions, fresh mint and ghee<\/strong>. That combination is responsible for much of the characteristic biryani aroma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s a rich, aromatic restaurant-style chicken biryani that\u2019s very achievable at home. The key is marinating the chicken, cooking the rice only about 70% before layering, and finishing everything gently on dum. \ud83c\udf57 Chicken Biryani Serves: 5\u20136Prep: 30 minutes + marinatingCooking: ~60 minutes Ingredients Chicken marinade 1 kg chicken, bone-in pieces 1 cup plain full-fat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-swoosh0018"],"yoast_head":"\n\ud83c\udf57 Chicken Biryani<\/h2>\n
Prep:<\/strong> 30 minutes + marinating
Cooking:<\/strong> ~60 minutes<\/p>\nIngredients<\/h3>\n
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1. Marinate the chicken<\/h3>\n
2. Make crispy onions<\/h3>\n
3. Cook the chicken<\/h3>\n
4. Prepare the basmati<\/h3>\n
5. Layer the biryani<\/h3>\n
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6. Dum cook<\/h3>\n
\n5 minutes over medium heat \u2192 20\u201325 minutes over the lowest possible heat.<\/strong><\/p>\n7. Serve<\/h3>\n
Three things that make the biggest difference<\/h3>\n