Biryani is a time-tested dish and the recipes have been guarded closely and passed on down the generations and always a pleasure to cook and this Boneless Chicken Biryani bursts with different flavours. Biryani is a one-pot meal made with, spices and herbs, chicken and long grained aromatic basmati rice cooked over slow heat for the paramount taste. In ancient days, Biryani was cooked for hours on a wood or coal fire which are redundant now. The closest to both is the slow cooker and that’s how I cook my Biryani.
Biryani always was a labour of love with grinding fresh spice and chopping onions, ginger garlic finely and the chicken was marinated in yoghurt and spices and then cooked with basmati rice. It was cooked on special occasions and warranted a celebration but now thanks to our whizzy blenders and rice cookers, cooking this artful recipe is a breeze.
Here is my favourite dish, an easy chicken Biryani recipe, with perfect texture and flavours cooked in the slow rice cooker.
Recipe for Boneless Chicken Biryani
INGREDIENTS:
1/2kg chicken
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 onion sliced long
1 small bunch of Mint, Coriander and 2 green chillies ground to a coarse paste
2 green chillies
1 tomato chopped
1/2 tbsp red chilli powder
2 green cardamoms
1 black cardamoms
Few cloves
1/2 inch Cinnamon stick
2 Anise-flower
A few peppercorns
2 bay leaves
4 tbsps ghee or clarified butter
1 sprig Coriander leaves to garnish
2 cups Basmati rice soaked for 15 mins
Method:
Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a pan, add the 2 green cardamoms and 2 large, few cloves, Cinnamon stick, Anise-flower, 2 bay leaves. Add the ginger-garlic paste, sauté, and then add the sliced onions and sauté until pink. Add the chicken and cook until slightly tender.
Do not overcook the chicken as it will cook with the rice and it may disintegrate if it is overcooked. Now add the slit green chillies, diced tomato, salt, red chilli powder and the coriander-mint paste.
Sauté and then add the soaked basmati rice and enough water. Transfer to a rice cooker which is easier and better as it is slow cooking like dum. ( You can’t go wrong cooking in the rice cooker as it comes down to keep warm mode once the water dries up and you can keep on browsing Insta without worrying that it would burn)
Add a little less water as the rice was pre-soaked and in the Biryani every grain in the rice should be fluffy. Once the rice is almost cooked, drizzle the ghee over the Biryani.
When you open the lid the aroma will waft through the house. Garnish with coriander and serve piping hot with onion raita.
