Pathani Chicken Biryani

Total Time: 1 hr 5 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 3
• 500 g chicken
• 2 potatoes, cut into 4 pieces
• 1 kg basmati rice, soaked for 1 hour
• 4 onions, sliced
• 1 teaspoon dhaniya powder (coriander)
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 tablespoons ginger paste
• 2 tablespoons garlic paste
• 4 -5 tomatoes, pureed
• 100 g yogurt
• 4 cloves
• 1 big cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cardamom pods
• 8 black bell peppers (kali mirch)
• 1 teaspoon black cumin seeds (shah zeera)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tomato, sliced
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped mint leaves
• salt
• 4 tablespoons oil or 4 tablespoons dadla ghee
• 2 pinches orange food coloring

Recipe

• 1 marinate chicken for 4 hrs with ginger-garlic paste, yogurt, dhaniya powder, cumin powder and chilli powder, lemon juice and salt.
• 2 heat the ghee in a deep wok/kadhai/handi. dalda ghee gives better aroma than oil, so it is more preferable.
• 3 throw in shah zeera, cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon stick.
• 4 as the garam masalam begins to crackle, add sliced onions and fry till golden brown.
• 5 take out a big spoonful of the golden onions and keep it aside.
• 6 add the marinated chicken to the onions in the kadhai and fry for 5 minutes.
• 7 then add pureed tomatoes and fry till oil separates, stirring occasionally.
• 8 cook rice till it is only 3/4th cooked.
• 9 take a small part of the 3/4th cooked rice and mix it with the food colouring.
• 10 in a large vessel, make layers of rice and the cooked chicken.
• 11 spread in the coloured rice, coriander-mint leaves and the separated brown onions.
• 12 sprinkle little water on the top rice layer and cover and cook on low flame, till the rice is fully done.
• 13 you can put some burning coal over the lid of the vessel, so that the biryani is cooked from both the sides, top and bottom.
• 14 serve hot.