Chicken Biryani

What you’ll need

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast, diced (about 350g)
• 3-4 onions, sliced (about 350g)
• 200g fresh coriander
• 25g mint leaves
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 inch ginger
• 5-6 green chillies
• 3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tbsp oil
• Juice of 1 lemon or lime
• 2 tbsp yoghurt
• 2 tbsp red or orange food colouring
• 1/2 onion, sliced and fried golden for garnish
• 525g basmati rice
• 20g butter
• 1-2 tsp salt for the rice, or to taste

Step by step

Method

1. Soak the rice in water and set aside.
2. Heat the oil and fry the sliced onions until golden-brown, then leave to cool.
3. Blend the coriander, mint, chillies, garlic, ginger and browned onions.
4. Cook this mixture with the chicken, salt, coriander powder and cumin powder for 2-3 minutes, stirring until the chicken is no longer pink. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes until cooked through.
5. Deep-fry the potatoes separately and set aside.
6. Add the lemon or lime juice and yoghurt to the cooked chicken. Cook until excess liquid has evaporated, then stir in the fried potatoes and remove from the heat.
7. Fry the half onion for garnish until golden and set aside.
8. Drain the rice and place in a deep pan with salt, butter and enough cold water to sit about 2cm above the rice. Bring to a boil, cover and cook for about 10 minutes over medium-low heat until the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked.
9. Place half the rice in a deep ovenproof pan, sprinkle with half the food colouring, then spread over the chicken mixture.
10. Add the remaining rice, sprinkle with the remaining food colouring and top with the golden onion.
11. Cover tightly and bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 20 minutes.
12. Remove from the oven, gently mix the layers and serve with plain yoghurt, cucumber raita or salad.