Chicken biryani recipe

Juicy chicken curry covered in rice and drizzled in ghee and saffron

Posted 2021-05-23

Time

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: ~3 hours

Ingredients

• 750g chicken thighs

Marinade

• 2/3 cup (150 ml) plain yoghurt (Greek works fine)
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) water
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil (or other plain oil)
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cayenne (adjust spiciness to taste)
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom - maybe about 10 pods
• 2 tsp garam masala or biryani masala
• 2 tsp coriander
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 2 tbsp paprika (not smoked)
• 1 3/4 tsp salt

Parboiled rice

• 2 tbsp salt
• 10 cloves (1/4 tsp)
• 5 dried bay leaves
• 1 star anise
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 2 1/4 cups (450g) uncooked basmati rice

Crispy onions

• 2 medium onions, halved and finely sliced
• 1 cup (250 ml) oil for frying

Saffron

• 1 tsp saffron threads (loosely packed)
• 2 tbsp warm water

Biryani

• 1 cup chopped coriander (maybe 4tbsp dried? Just use a bunch)
• 1/4 cup (60 g) ghee or unsalted butter, melted

Garnish

• Crispy onions (above)
• Chopped coriander
• Yoghurt (with mint if you fancy)

Method

Marinade

1. Mix marinade in a large pot, preferably a big pan to cook it directly in.
2. Add the chicken and coat well.
3. Marinade 20 minutes to overnight. (I left it a lot longer and it was good but not any better)

Parboiled rice

1. Bring 3 litres water to the boil.
2. Add salt and spices.
3. Add rice and bring back up to the boil.
4. Cook for 4 minutes, or until rice is just cooked but still a bit firm in the middle. Rice will taste pretty salty here, but this will disappear in the next stage of cooking.

Crispy onions

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Fry onion in batches for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Don’t burn - it’ll turn bitter.
3. Remove onto paper towel lined plate.
4. Repeat with remaining onion.

Saffron

1. Place in a bowl with the water, leave for 10 minutes.

Biryani

1. Place pot with chicken in it onto a stove over a medium heat. (or tip chicken and marinade into a big pan/wok)
2. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Remove lid. Cook for 5 minutes, turning chicken twice.
4. Remove from heat. (I usually don’t bother)
5. Turn chicken so skin side is down - it should cover most of the base of the pot.
6. Scatter over half the onion, then half the coriander.
7. Top with all the rice. Gently pat down and flatten the surface.
8. Drizzle over the saffron and ghee
9. Place lid on. Return to stove over medium heat.
10. As soon as you see steam, turn down to low and cook for 25 minutes.
11. Remove from stove, rest with lid on for 10 minutes.

To serve

1. Aim to serve it so you get nice patches of yellow rice, white rice, curry stained rice and chicken (rather than all mixed up). Just try to scoop up as much as you can in one scoop.
2. Turn out onto a bowl or platter.
3. Garnish with remaining onion and coriander, with yoghurt on the side.

Source

• Recipe Tin Eats - Biryani

Verdict

The chicken sitting at the bottom with bits of it getting slightly burnt is really good! Not quite like my partner’s grandma’s biryani - moister, oilier and with the added saffron, it’s a different style.

This recipe needs a really big pot for both the rice and the chicken - I’m using a massive stockpot and it fits easily. When the biggest pot I had was a large wok I had to halve the chicken quantity and keep the rice about the same.

Vegetable version

For a vegetable version, it recommends using about 8 cups of assorted vegetables, as well as an onion.

• For marinade: 3/4 cup yoghurt, 5/4 cups water, 1 tbsp garam masala, 1 tbsp ground coriander - don’t include vegetable oil. Use all the other spices from the recipe
• Saute the onion in vegetable oil, add vegetables when starting to colour, and the marinade.
• Bring to simmer and stew until vegetables are 50% cooked (softened but still firm), remove from heat.
• Stir in frozen peas if using
• Continue with remaining rice cooking, assembly and cooking steps as per main recipe

I found this doesn’t have the same depth of flavour as you get from the chicken version - probably needs extra spices to compensate. I’ll be on the lookout for a better vegetable biryani recipe.