Chicken Briyani

 For Biryani masal pwd:

8 cloves

1″ cinnamon stick

4 cardamom

3/4 tsp shah jeera

12 pepper corns

For marination:

1 cup thick curd/yogurt, 2 fried onion, green chillis,ginger garlic paste,red chilli powder, turmeric pwd, coriander powder, chopped coriander leaves

pudina leaves,juice of 1 lemon, salt.Mix all the ingredients to 800gms chicken and add briyani masala.

Keep aside for 1/2 hrs

After half hour. Heat about 100 ml of oil add onions(2). Wait a couple of minutes to add mint leaves. When onions turn slight brown, add marinated chicken and cook for about 20-30 min. It should NOT be fully cooked at this stage; add garam masala  and turn off flame when about ¾ cooked. Gravy should not be much, chicken pieces should look roasted.

 Meanwhile, while the chicken is still cooking, prepare the biryani rice.

 Slightly rinse 4 cups of basmati, and add water little less than the volume of the rice itself so that its only half cooked . Also add 1-2 teaspoons of salt to it. Take a few semi-cooked grains of rice and colour them with diluted saffron for garnishing.

Heat oil and deep fry half the sliced onions to golden brown.and keep aside .

Now You will need a utensil of about 10"  base. Place about half of semi-cooked rice in it. Next, layer half of chicken on it again topped by a layer of rice  with fried onion . some pudina leaves chooped and some garam masala. One more layer of remaining chicken, finally with layer of rest of the rice on top ends Garnish the top layer  again with fried onion ,pudia leaves and garam masala,saffron rice ,100 ml ghee

Lid the vessel and try making it airtight . Put on high flame for 5 min before reducing it to low flame.and keep for next 10/15 Min's

Put off the flame and wait for about 10 min before opening. Before serving, mix the medley from the bottom. . Enjoy.

I like to eat my briyani with curd salad .....

Make at home and comment if you like.

love

Aaisha.