Chicken Biryani

Ingredients

Chicken – 1 kg

Rice – 750 gm

Yoghurt – 250 gm

Ginger and garlic paste – 1 ½ tbl.sp

Onion – 250 gm

Turmeric – 1 tsp

Black pepper – 8

Cloves – 8

Coriander powder – 1 tsp

Cinnamon – 1 inch piece

Shahi jeera or  black cumin seed – 1 tsp

Cumin seed white – 1 tsp

Black cardamom - 4

Eggs – 4

Almonds – 50 gm

Raisins – 50 gm

Kewra essence – 2 tsp

Kesar – 1 tsp

Oil or ghee – 250 gm

Salt, chilli as per taste

Coriander leaves and mint leaves – 1 cup

Method

Clean and wash chicken and cut into medium or big pieces as required.  Wash and soak rice in water for half an hour. Boil egg and cut in round pieces. Soak almond in water for 2 to 3 hours and then slice it. Fry raisins in ghee or butter.

Chop onions and fry in oil till golden brown. Allow it to cool. When cool, make a paste of it. Except cloves and cinnamon, grind all the spices to a fine powder.

Heat oil and add cloves and cinnamon to it then add chicken pieces and let it cook. Add salt and yogurt to it, and then add ginger garlic paste, spices powder, coriander powder and turmeric. Cook on a low flame, and then add onion paste and chilli. Keep on stirring it in between and when the gravy gets dried up, add little water to it.

In another vessel, keep water for boiling; add mint leaves, salt, spice powder or whole cardamom 2, cinnamon 1 and cloves 4 to it and 1 tsp of oil, to prevent rice from sticking.

When the water starts boiling, add rice to it and let it cook, till it is half cooked. Remove from fire. Put this rice in a strainer to remove excess water. Spread little rice in a vessel, then on it make a layer of chicken pieces and masala on it, then again a layer of rice and then a layer of chicken masala. In the end add coriander and mint leaves to it and also kesar and kewra essence.

Keep this biryani on top of a flat pan and let it cook for few minutes on a low flame. Cover the lid tightly. When cooked, add round pieces of egg, sliced almonds and fried raisins to it.