How to make chicken biryani

Although we enjoy the satisfaction of plating up a delicious meal, all of the actual work leading up to it can be less appealing.

Which means that when it comes to scouring a cookbook, we'll instantly be drawn to the words "one pot". Avoiding the high likeliness that we might mess one of the elements up, we spoke to head chef Abdul Yaseen at Cinnamon Kitchen who shared with us his unbeatable recipe for a chicken biryani.

Ingredients

500g basmati rice

Spices for boiling rice

3 green cardamom

2 bay leaf

2 black cardamom

4 cloves

1 piece/blade of mace

1 tbsp cumin seeds

3tbsp salt

2ltr water for boiling

The Marinade

1 kg black leg chicken thighs, diced

1/2 tsp ginger paste

1/2 tsp garlic paste

1 tbsp ground chilli

1 tsp ground garam masala

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 small bunch mint leaves, chopped

2 medium sized onions, sliced and fried till golden

4 green chilli slit

1/2 of nutmeg grated

1/2 lemon juice extracted

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp salt

100ml natural yoghurt

Other ingredients

50 ml milk

1/2g saffron

50g ghee

Marinate the chicken using all the ingredients for the marinade and leave it aside for 30 minutes or for better results 3-4 hours.

Wash and soak the basmati for 30 minutes before boiling the rice.

Take a pot and boil the water with the whole spices and salt, when the water is boiling rigorously add the strained rice and boil for 10-12 minutes, or till the rice is half cooked. This step is tricky which might make or ruin the Biryani.

Meanwhile when the rice is boiling place the marinated meat in the casserole and soak the saffron in warm milk.

Strain the half boiled rice and layer it on the meat and sprinkle the ghee and soaked saffron on the rice and cover the casserole with a lid and seal the sides with aluminium foil leaving a small gap for steam to escape.

Put the casserole on high flame for 8-10 minutes when the you see the steam through the gap provided put the flame on low gas marking and cook the Biryani for about 20-25 minutes.

To serve

Leave the casserole aside for 5 minutes after taking away from the flame and now open the lid and you are ready with the aromatic Biryani which is best accompanied with spiced onion yoghurt.

(Image: Rex Features)