Chicken Biryani

We loved this at the Himalayan restaurant in King George. So it seemed like a natural challenge. But be prepared…it took 2 hours to cook. But it was worth it. Lots of leftovers.

Not owning a biryani pot, so we used my dutch oven. It works fine for this.

The night before we mixed some biryani seasoning (you can make your own, but it is complex and I don’t own most of the seasonings, so we got some from Amazon) with some yogurt and green chilies (lacking proper asian green chilis). We just used minced garlic and some ginger paste.

2 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks

1 cup plain, unsweetened yogurt

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tbsp kashmiri chili powder (I used chili powder)

1 tbsp biryani spice mixture

2 tsp kosher salt

½ tsp turmeric

2 green chilies, slit down the center

We put on some gloves and mixed the yogurt with the seasonings and then tossed in 4 chicken thighs and 5 drum sticks. This went into the fridge for the night.

Then we heated up some vegetable oil in the dutch oven on the stove and slowly added the chicken, skin side down. We cooked this for 30 minutes. Meanwhile I washed 3 cups of basmati rice till it ran clear, soaked it for about 10 minutes and then boiled it with a cinnamon stick, about a tablespoon of oil, a tablespoon of the biryani seasoning and a tablespoon of kosher salt. We let this simmer for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, we simmered some thin-shaved onions in oil till they were crispy brown and set them aside on a paper towel/plate.

And we heated about 1/4 cup of milk and put in a healthy pinch of saffron to make a saffron milk.

Then construction began.

Take the dutch oven with the chicken. Layer on half the onions and a handful of cilantro. Mint can go on too, but I don’t like mint. Then layer on the cooked rice (removing the cinnamon sticks).

Pour on your saffron milk in thin stripes. Add the rest of the onions and cilantro.

Classically, this would have a pastry layer to wrap the top. But at this point it was time to get down to business. We put the lid on and this went into a pre-heated 400° oven for 20 minutes, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile we made a green sauce with olive oil, cilantro, cumin, ginger, lemon juice jand salt in the food processor. We used this on top of our meal, and with some air fried some naan.

The result was incredible! This will be a regular favorite!