Chicken Biryani

I wrote an article for CRUSH online magazine a little while ago, I talked about food and acting (surprise surprise I know) and how the two are related. Being on stage suffice to say I equated somehow to Chicken Biryani! If you haven't been exposed to CRUSH yet you should really give it a bash - it's a great magazine and it's free - fun articles and great recipes.

But enough about that - here is my recipe for Chicken Biryani; it's a little bit of an effort but once all the components are together you are 'A' for 'away'.

Chicken Biryani

Ingredients: (serves 8)

• 500g skinless, deboned chicken thighs (NOT breasts, they will dry out)
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 6 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger (minced)

SPICES: 

(If you don’t want to buy all these spices separately I would suggest buying a packet of ‘biryani mix’ at the spice counter – they are pretty good – you can halve the contents, grinding half to a powder for the chicken and adding the other half whole to the rice.)

• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp coriander
• 3 large/6 small bay leaves
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 4 sticks cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom pods

• 2 LARGE onions (sliced)
• 4 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 ½ tsp salt

RICE:

• 3 cups/450g rice
• 4 bay leaves
• 3 star anise
• 6 cardamom pods (crushed using a knife)
• 6 cloves
• 8 small sticks cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp salt

TO FINISH:

• 1 cup warm milk
• 2 tsp medium curry powder

To serve:

Coriander

Chapatis/Rotis

Cucumber raita

Tomato and chilli raita

Chutney

Cucumber raita:

• 1/3 cucumber (finely diced)
• 1 tsp mint sauce
• 1 cup greek yogurt
• Good grinding of salt

Tomato and chilli raita:

• 1 red onion (finely diced)
• 2 tomatoes (finely diced)
• 2 red chillies (deseeded and finely diced)
• 2 tbsp white wine/balsamic vinegar
• Good grinding of salt

Method:

Place chicken in a non-metallic bowl with yogurt, garlic and ginger, cover and allow to marinate for 1-2 hours (or overnight if you like, it will make the chicken even more tender).

Preheat oven to 190*C.

Grind the 6 spices to a powder and set aside.

Fry the onions with the oil and salt on med-high heat for about 8 minutes until nicely caramelised.

Turn the heat down a little and add the spices, cooking for a further 2 minutes before adding the chicken and cooking for 2-3 minutes. (You don’t want to cook the chicken through – this is just to get the flavours working together.)

Rinse the rice in cold water. (This removes some of the starch and prevents you from ending up with a sushi-style pap mixture.)

Add the whole spices to the rice, then pour over boiling water and bring to the boil for 2 minutes (it will probably be on the stove for 5 minutes total), drain (keeping the spices in the rice) and set aside.

Get a casserole dish and spoon 1/3 of rice over the bottom, then spread the chicken mixture evenly over that and then top with the last 2/3 of rice.

Warn the milk in the microwave and stir in curry powder, using a spoon, pour this evenly over the top of the rice.

Wet a piece of wax-wrap and lay on top of the rice, now wet a clean dish towel, squeeze out excess water and lay on top of that. Finally cover the casserole with a

Piece of foil and put in the oven for an hour. (This ensures that the rice can steam and won’t dry out.)

Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with chutneys, chopped coriander, sambals and rotis.

Enjoy!

For the Cucumber and Tomato and Chilli Raitas:

Simply stir the ingredients together in serving bowls and keep in the fridge until you are ready to serve.