Chicken biryani is a very easy Indian recipe and a perfect change when you ate too much tikka massala recently. It is the first dish where I used saffron and i fell in love with it.
It surprised me how easy it is to make it and such an amazing blend of tastes it has.
Chicken biryani
Servings: 6
Cooking time: 35-40 min
Difficulty: easy
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 500-600 g of chicken
- 1 yogurt
- 1 tsp of curcuma
- 1 tsp of spicy parpika
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 tomatoes
- 3 tbsp of tomato paste
- 1 tsp of minced garlic
- 1 tsp of minced ginger
- 300 g of rice
- few stems of saffron
- a bit of milk
- fresh coriander and mint
Spices
- garam massala
- cumin seeds and cardamom pods
- powder coriander
- chili flakes
Directions
- Marinate the chicken in the yogurt and mix in the paprika and the curcuma. Season with salt and let it marinate for min 30 min to overnight.
- Cook the rice and let it cool down.
- In a big pan (ideally straight, not a wok like me) start frying some cumin seeds and cardamom pods.
- Add the onion in some sunflower oil until golden.
- Add two chopped tomatoes and press down on them so that they break down. I always peel off the skin.
- You can now add the garlic and ginger, chili flakes to taste, tomato paste and 1 tsp of powder coriander.
- Add the chicken in the mixture. Season with extra salt if necessary and stir for 3-4 min.
- Put the lid on and simmer on low fire for 5 extra min.
- Turn off the fire.
- Now you can layer the chicken and add on top of it half of your rice and make sure it’s spread evenly.
- Sprinkle on it some saffron soaked into milk, garam massala and fresh coriander and mint.
- Repeat this again with rice, saffron, garam massala and the herbs.
- Put the lid on and simmer it on low heat for 5 min.
- Leave the lid on and let it rest with no fire for 10 min.
- It is ready to be served.
