Tender chicken in a richly spiced sauce layered up with fragrant flavour packed
rice and finished with toasted almonds and
fried onions. This chicken biryani is stunning.
[Soft music playing]
Hi I'm Nicky, welcome back to our kitchen where we show you how to make delicious
family-friendly recipes. This chicken biryani
is one of those special dishes that, with a little bit of care and attention,
will turn out absolutely amazing. We're going to start by marinading the chicken.
I've got 575 grams or a pound and a quarter of chicken thigh fillets here
that have been sliced in half, to that we're going to add 180 ml or three
quarters of a cup of full fat natural yogurt, two
tablespoons of vegetable oil,
four minced cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of minced ginger,
2 tablespoons of tomato puree, a quarter of a teaspoon each of
asafetida powder and ground cinnamon, half a teaspoon each
of turmeric and fenugreek, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin one and a
quarter teaspoons of salt, two teaspoons each of ground coriander,
garam masala, and mild chili powder, three cardamom pods
two mild green chilies that have been roughly chopped,
and one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice.
Stir it all together to coat now cover the chicken and place in the
refrigerator for at least two hours or up to overnight.
Now we want to add a litre and a half of water to a saucepan.
Add in two teaspoons of salt, five cloves, one teaspoon of cumin seeds,
five bay leaves and two cardamom pods. Turn up the heat and bring it to the
boil.
Now add in 450 grams or two and a quarter cups
of white basmati rice, stir once bring back to the boil then turn down
the heat and simmer without a lid for five minutes.
This is going to be just enough to par cook the rice and get the first layers
of flavour in there, we're going to continue cooking the rice
with the chicken later.
After five minutes of cooking
drain the rice in a sieve.
Now we want to put that rice to one side and then we can start on the fried
onions. So we want to heat four tablespoons of
oil over a medium heat in a large cast iron pan.
Add two sliced onions and cook for around 10 to 15 minutes.
Now you want to cook them stirring occasionally until they're a lovely dark
brown colour, but be sure to keep an eye on them
because you don't want them to burn, if they burn they'll taste bitter and we
don't want that.
Scoop the onions out of the pan using a slotted spoon and place on a plate
reserved for later.
Now take the marinated chicken out of the refrigerator and add to the pan with
the oil from the onions.
Add three tablespoons of water and cook over a medium heat for about two minutes,
stirring a couple of times just to very lightly seal the chicken.
Now place three tablespoons of chopped fresh coriander or cilantro
and a tablespoon of chopped mint on top of the chicken.
Next spoon the rice on top of the chicken and the fresh herbs and flatten
it out slightly to cover the chicken.
Mix one teaspoon of saffron and three tablespoons of milk together in a small
bowl and let it sit for a minute.
And pour the milk and saffron mixture over the rice.
Now drizzle over three tablespoons of melted ghee,
you can use unsalted butter if you haven't got any ghee.
Spoon on those fried onions from earlier and sprinkle on two tablespoons of
toasted almonds.
Place a lid on the pan but allow just a tiny gap. As soon as you see a tiny bit
of steam coming from that gap then you want to place the lid on fully
turn down the heat to low and cook it for 20 minutes then turn off
the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes honestly
this is going to be so delicious.
Once it's cooked remove the
lid and top with a little more fresh coriander and then serve.
And that's how you make my chicken biryani, the rice gets steamed while the
chicken's cooking to develop lovely layers of flavour it makes a
perfect Friday night meal for the whole family.
Really hope you've enjoyed that recipe if you did please like and subscribe
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every week, see you next time.
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