Chicken biryani made effortlessly, tasted extremely delicious and flavorful…
For me, any celebration will be incomplete without biryani. In my family, Biryani has been one of the main attractions during special occasions. And my mom made the best biryani. Not just my mom, even my sister makes it so deliciously. Last year, when I’d visited India, I had a chance to taste my sister’s biryani, I was truly blown away.
I’d already shared the recipes for making so many kinds of biryani. Even though most of the ingredients and the cooking process are similar, addition of certain different ingredients or a slight twist in the cooking makes the biryani taste more flavorful and more delicious.
Often, newbies are intimidated by the long biryani preparation and cooking steps. Initially when I’d made biryani, I used to spent a lot of time chopping and grinding the ingredients, frying the chicken, cooking the rice, making the garnish etc. And, I’ll be seen exhausted by the time biryani hits the dining table. However, after tasting the biryani I get the feel that it’s worth all the effort. Biryani has never disappointed me.
Later, I realized that there are ways for making biryani effortlessly. Sharing the recipe for making a simple yet delicious biryani that everyone will rave about.
In this recipe, I had added fried onions which elevated the taste of the chicken masala greatly. The chicken was combined with all the ingredients and was allowed to marinate for 3 hours. The marinated chicken was then cooked over low heat until done. YES, you just have to do 2 things: fry the onions and mix all the ingredients with the chicken.
If you have a rice cooker, then cooking rice is just a breeze. Layer the cooked chicken masala and the rice in a pot, place it over low heat for 20 minutes. Slowly open the lid and see the magic- the aroma of the biryani will spread the entire house and everyone will flood into the dining room. It’s biryani time, enjoy!!!
For more Biryani recipes, click here.
Preparation Pictures
Marinating chicken
Cooking chicken
- Ginger, chopped- 2 inch slice
- Garlic- 4 large cloves
- Green chilies- 3 or 4
- Whole cardamom- 2
- Whole cloves- 2
- Whole cinnamon- 2 inch slice
- Chicken, bone in pieces- 12 to 15 pieces
- Onion, chopped thin and fried- 5 ( pan fry till golden brown in little oil or deep fry onions)
- Tomatoes, chopped- 2, medium
- Bay leaves- 2
- Cumin seeds- ½ tsp
- Chili powder- 1 tsp or based on your needs
- Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp
- Fennel powder- 2 tsp
- Coriander powder- 1½ tsp
- Garam masala- ½ tsp
- Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
- Yogurt- ¼ cup, not sour
- Cilantro, chopped- ¼ cup
- Fresh mint leaves, chopped- 12 leaves
- Salt- to taste
- Basmati rice- 2 cups
- Whole cardamom- 2
- Whole cloves- 2
- Bay leaves- 2
- Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp
- Salt- to taste
- Ghee- 2 tbsp (optional)
- Water- 3 cups ( for cooking in rice cooker)
- Roasted cashew nuts- ¼ cup
- Saffron, soaked in 1 tbsp milk or water- 2 pinches
- Ghee- 2 to 3 tbsp
- Half the onions and slice them vertically long and thin. You could slice it in a food processor using the slicer attachment.
- You could either pan fry the onions till golden brown color in 3 to 4 tbsp oil or deep fry.
- I pan fried the onions till golden brown, transfer the fried onions to a kitchen paper towel, keep aside.
- In a food processor: grind the ginger, garlic, chilies, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon coarsely, keep aside.
- In a large pan combine the chicken pieces, fried onion, coarsely ground ginger/garlic/chilies/spices mix and all the other ingredients mentioned above for making chicken masala.
- Cover the pan with a plastic wrap and let marinate in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours.
- After 3 hours, place the pan over medium low heat and cook covered for 30 to 40 minutes till the chicken has cooked well.
- Open the lid, combine well and cook till the gravy has thickened.
- Remove from the heat and keep covered.
- While the chicken is marinating you could cook the rice.
- In a rice cooker bowl, combine all the above mentioned ingredients for cooking rice and cook till water has absorbed well.
- Or cook the rice in a saucepan, add water accordingly and make sure not to over cook or make the rice mushy.
- In a bowl, soak saffron in 1 tbsp water or milk for 5 minutes.
- Roast cashew nuts in 1 tbsp ghee.
- In a large pan, layer half of the chicken masala as the bottom layer, top with half of the rice, sprinkle half of the soaked saffron, half of the cashew nuts and 1 tbsp ghee.
- Again layer the chicken masala and rice as the top most layer, garnish the remaining saffron, cashew nuts and ghee.
- Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and close with its lid.
- Place the pan over low heat and slow cook for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Or place it in the oven: Pre heat oven to the lowest temperature, turn off the heat and then place the biryani (taken in an oven proof pan) in the oven for 15 minutes.
- After 15 to 20 minutes of slow cooking, remove the pan from the heat and keep it covered for sometime.
- Before serving, combine the rice and chicken masala together, serve with raita, pickle, pappadam etc.
- Leftover biryani can be placed in the refrigerator, before serving warm it in the microwave, biryani tastes delicious the next day.
