Chicken Biryani

Brief: This is one of the dishes I cooked for potluck meet... you will sure find a lot of variations to cook Biryani on net .. but here is how I cooked one...

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients :
3 cup Basmati Rice
1/2 Kg Chicken (Moderate Chicken pieces with bones )

Spices:
3 Red Onions (Medium Size)
1/2 Cup Plain Yogurt
Coriander (cilantro) leaves
3 Green Chillies
Ginger Garlic Paste
Red Chili Power
Turmeric
Cloves
Bay Leaves
Black Pepper
Mint ( This adds a lovely flavor)
Saffron
2-3 Black Cardamom
Cumin powder
Coriander Seed Powder
Oil
Salt
1/2 lemon
2 Spoon Ready made biryani masala

For color:
Soak the Saffron stick in 1/2 cup water for some time...

Marinate Chicken:
Clean and wash Chicken pieces well.
Grind Green Chili,ginger-garlic paste,Coriander leaves,mint leaves into paste.
Mix the above paste with yogurt turmeric, cumin powder,coriander powder, salt to taste,lemon juice,oil.
Marinate Chicken with above mixture and leave minimum for an hour.
(To Make the chicken juicy and tender marinate it over night or pierce some holes in the chicken pieces with fork and marinate it)

Fried Onions:
The fried onions in Biryani brings the special zing to it... to make the perfect crispy onion..
Cut the onion into thin long slices.. spread them on tissue paper to dry them up..leave them open till dry
Deep fry the onion slices in oil till they just begin to turn brown and sprinkle them with a little salt
(Other quick option- sprinkle onions with some cornflour and deep fry them immediately)
Keep some onions aside.

Rice:
For biryani the rice and chicken needs to be cooked together...to do so
Soak the rice in water for sometime (say by the time you marinate the chicken)
Take a big flat bottom vessel fill it with water let the water boil pour 1-2 spoon of oil in water.
Add rice to the water... add salt till water tastes salty... cook the rice in the open vessel till the rice is just less than half boiled...
Strain out the water from rice...toss a little oil so that the rice separates out

In a flat bottom vessel...put some oil
Add Clove Bay leaves, Black Cardamom,Black Pepper Add finely chopped onions...
Add little red chili powder.. Fry the onions till they turn golden brown...
Add 2 spoon ready made biryani masala and mix the marinated chicken to this
Shallow fry the chicken till half cooked
(Do not add any oil or water to this)
Now cover the chicken with some friend onions and half cooked rice again cover the rice with fried onion.
Cover the vessel and let it steam ...

Garnishing:
Once the biryani is cooked...add the saffron water to the rice for the colour... sprinkle some mint and coriander leaves.
While serving in plate you can add extra fried onions to the plate.