Chicken Biriyani

Chicken biryani is my all time favourite. I love making this recipe whenever I get chance especially for guests. You can even make it one day early to save you from hassle and it actually tastes better the next day. You can serve this biryani with mint yoghurt and a salad of cucumber, tomatoes and red onion chopped very finely.
Ingredients
1 chicken (cut into 8 pieces)
1 medium onion
1 cup (250ml) thick yoghurt
1 teaspoon (5ml) chilli powder
1 teaspoon (5ml) garam masala
2.5cm (1 inch) piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon (15ml) garlic paste
1 teaspoon (5ml) turmeric
3 tablespoons (60ml) vegetable oil (or butter)
6 cups basmati rice
2 teaspoons roughly chopped fresh coriander
1 teaspoon roughly chopped mint
1 tablespoon black peppercorn
2 cinamon sticks
4 cardamom pods
a pinch of saffron
3 tablespoon fried onion for garnising
some roasted chashew nuts
Fried onion for garnishing
Water according to need

Method
- Cut the chicken into 8 pieces
- Cut the onion into small pieces.
- Mix the yoghurt, chilli powder, turmeric powder , garam masala, half the ginger, half the garlic to make a paste in a bowl.
- Make some cuts in the chicken pieces and rub the paste that you just made over the pieces.
- Let the paste soak into the chicken for 30 minutes. Sometimes I keep it in the fridge for a day.
- Heat half of the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and lightly brown the onion. Add the rest of the ginger, garlic and some cinamon sticks and cardamom pods.
- Stir-fry for just for couple of minutes until you can smell the spices and then add the chicken pieces and cook until it’s tender.
- In another pan, boil some water (2 litres) with 1 teaspoon salt, some black pepper corn. Add the washed basmati and cook till it’s a bit firm then drain the rice.
- Now to assemble the chicken biryani, get some herbs such as coriander, mint chopped and some ginger root grated and fried onion. You can also add some saffron mixed with warm milk to add a beautiful golden orange colour to the dish. In a large, thick bottom pan, make a layer of rice topped with the chicken cooked previously, then sprinkle the chopped herbs, ginger, fried onion and saffron, then cover it with some more rice and sprinkle the rest of the saffron milk.
- Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover the pan with foil and its lid and leave it to cook very slowly for one hour. You can cook it in the oven at gas mark 5.
- Just before serving, mix the biryani lightly with a wooden spoon and spread the biryani in a wide dish, topped with fried onion, roasted cashew nuts (optional) and chopped corainder.
- Serve hot. I like to serve my biryani with yughurt and mint sauce . Enjoy :-)