Chicken Biriyani

Ingredients

1.       Chicken – 1Kg

2.       Onion(medium) - 6 nos (4+2)

3.       Tomato(medium) - 1 no

4.       Green chilies – 10 nos

5.       Ginger -  2” piece

6.       Garlic pods(big) – 2 nos

7.       Curd - 1/2 cup

8.       Lemon juice - Juice of 3 lemons

9.       Ghee or oil - 1/4 cup or both mixed

10.   Basmati Rice – 1 Kg

11.   Cinnamon(Karugapatta) - 2 sticks

12.   Cloves(Grambu) - 6 nos

13.   Cardamom(Elakka) - 6 nos

14.   Salt – to taste

15.   Cashew nuts  - 100 gms

16.   Raisins – 50 gms

17.   Garam Masala – 1 table spoon

18.   Coriander Leaves – 1 bunch

19.   Yellow colour (Optional) – 2-3 drops

How to Prepare

1. Clean the chicken and cut into medium sized pieces. Wash and drain.
2. Crush Ginger, garlic and green chilli.
3. Heat Ghee / Oil in a wok. Sauté sliced Onion( 4Nos) well. Then add crushed ginger, garlic and green chilli. Sauté well.  Add masala and stir it for 2 – 3 minutes. Add chicken pieces, salt, curd, tomato, lemon juice of 2 lemon and coriander leaves. Mix well. Cover the pan and cook on low flame.
4. Heat ghee in a pan. Fry sliced onion (2 Nos), cashew and raisins separately. Sprnikle some masala powder and coriander leaves over it and mix well. Keep it aside.
5. Wash and drain rice. Boil water in a cooker (for 1 cup rice 1 1/2 cup water) with enough salt. ( Here I used Electric Rice Cooker. For this just changes it to the cook mode). Add 1 t sp ghee, 1 lemon juice, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. When the water starts to boil add washed rice and cover the cooker. Cook on low flame. Mix yellow colour with 2 tsp milk and mix this the cooked rice.
6. Arrange the cooked rice and chicken layer by layer. Sprinkle the fried items over it. Cover the cooker and cook on low flame for another 4 -5minutes. Remove from fire and serve hot. (For the rice cooker, when the cooking is over it automatically changes to warm mode).