The Age Old Favourite

The aromas of Basmati rice, the chicken and the saffron, really brings water in my mouth. Chicken Biryani is an age old favourite, never ceases to disappoint when made properly. After getting an allergy towards chicken (thanks to Anirban and his Mughal Darbar!), I thought, I should try some thing at home. And, the first thing that came to my was Biryani. So, here's what I tried, and the result was not very bad at all.

Ingredients:

• 500 gms chicken (small pieces)
• 300 gms Basmati Rice (the costlier, the better)
• 3 large onions (very thin slices)
• 3 green chillies
• 2 table spoon ginger garlic paste
• 1/2 cup curd
• 1 tablespoon Chicken Biryani Masala (Everest, MDH, Eastern, anything would do)
• 2 teaspoon Jayphal, Jayitree (powdered)
• 4 cardamoms, 5 cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 tablespoon ghee (you can use oil to make it healthier, ghee can be added in small quantity, like I did)
• 6 tablespoon oil
• 2 large potatoes, cut into medium pieces, say 6 or 8 each, fried (optional)
• 2 eggs, hard boiled, then fried (optional)
• Salt, to taste
• A pinch of saffron in 1/2 cup milk (if you really like the original biryani, I didn't use it. Saffron is really costly!)

Procedure:

• Wash the rice well and soak in water for 30 minutes or so.
• Boil water in a large container, add salt and add the whole cardamom, Cinnamon and cloves.
• Then add rice. Let it cook till 3/4th done. You can check by pressing the rice between fingers, if it breaks into 3 pieces, it is perfect, do not overcook.
• Drain water and place in a large plate so that the rice cools quickly. Cooling the rice is important.
• Heat oil and fry the onions till brown. Fry in high heat so that the onions are brown and crispy. You will need to constantly stir so that they don't get burnt.
• Lay the onions on kitchen towel, and you will get fried onions which break when pressed.
• Marinate the chicken with curd and salt for 1/2 to 1 hour.
• In the same oil as fried onions, add ginger garlic paste, and chopped chillies. Fry for sometime, then add the marinated chicken.
• Cook the chicken for sometime, then add the Biryani masala, red chilli powder if you like it hot.
• Also add half of the friend onions.
• Add water if necessary, but the lesser water, the better. But there should be a little gravy.
• After the chicken is cooked, take a thick bottomed, deep vessel. If not available, place the deep vessel over your iron tawa.
• Add ghee in the vessel and let it heat.
• Now add layers of the cooked things like this, first rice, then chicken, the fried potatoes, then fried onions, the topmost layer should be rice and also put some fried onions on top.
• Add the powdered jayphal and jayitree in between the layers.
• Add more ghee from the sides of the vessel.
• Add the saffron milk from top if using, otherwise add little water for the rice to cook.
• Cover the vessel and seal it with dough, or put heavy weight on top of it.
• Simmer the heat to lowest, and leave for around 40-45 minutes.
• After that, open and smell the goodness.
• Garnish with eggs and serve with raita. No need to mix thoroughly.