Chicken Biryani

India should be called as the land of biryani instead of the land of curry. There are so many different kinds of biryanis, I havent been able to try all of them out...yet. THe biryani shown above is very easy to make, doesnt take a lot of time and everyone likes it. This particular kind of chicken biryani is not my own recipe but given to me by S's friend and borrowed from SHAAN masala packet. There's a little story as to how I got this recipe. I have a great mutton biryani recipe, awesome prawns biryani and amazing vegetable biryani. I was in search for a good chicken biryani. S always used to reminisce about the great chicken biryani his friend used to get for lunch. So when we went to visit her, we asked her to make the biryani. And it was great. I hadn't eaten such good biryani in a long time. So many helpings and spoonfuls later I asked her to email me the recipe and she is such a sweet person, she sent me the recipe. This recipes has been tweaked a little to suit my taste. S loves this recipe. My parents loves this biryani, his parents love this biryani, everything is good.:)
Recipe:

FOR CHICKEN
1 whole chicken cut into medium pieces and washed.
2 large tomatoes
2 large onions
1 laarge potato
1 packet shaan bombay biryani masala
oil for cooking
1 cup yogurt
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
2-3 bay leaves
2-3 peppercorns
2-3 cloves
1-2 cardamom pods


FOR RICE
5 cups basmati rice
6 cloves
6peppercorns
1" cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods
4-5 bay leaves
3-4 tsp ghee
few strands saffron-soaked in water/milk for 30mins.

Wash, clean and cut the chicken into medium pieces. dice tomatoes into small pieces. Slice the onion thinly and fry them in kadai till golden brown. Take care that they do not burn or will taste bitter. ONce the onions are removed from the kadai, season them immediately with salt. Divide the fried onions into 2 portions.
Cut the potato french - fries style and fry till golden brown and keep aside. Wash and chop the cilantro.
Marinate the chicken with the following: ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, entire packet of shaan masala, half the portion of fried onions, tomatoes, entire chopped cilantro 5-6 tsps oil from the fried onions kadai and yogurt. Set this aside for atleast 45 mins.
Meanwhile cook rice in a thick-bottom pot. First wash the rice and keep aside for 10 mins. Heat the pot and add ghee to it. Then add bay leaves, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick and peppercorns. Saute for 10 secs. Already the ghee will start smelling of the wonderful spices. Then add rice and saute for 2 mins till slightly pink-brown. Then add twice the amount of water. So since I used 5 cups rice, I used 10 cups of warm water. When the water comes to a rolling boil season with salt. Remember that the chicken already has salt in it and the onions/fries are also salted. So add salt accordingly. The rice for this biryani is cooked less than aldente, so when it feels raw. turn off the flame and drain of the water from the rice. Divide into 2 portions and keep aside.
Take a large thick-bottom pot for layering of biryani. OIl the bottom of the pot with 2 tsp of oil. Then put the entire chicken mixture on it. Then add one portion of rice and level with chicken. Sprinkle water-saffron mixture on the rice evenly. Saffron gives a lovely yellow-orange color to the rice while the water helps in cooking the rice over steam. then layer with half portion of onions. Then again layer with rice and saffron-water mixture and top with onions and fries. The seal the pot with aluminum paper and cook it over medium flame. when the chicken and rice are done -usually around 30-40 mins then you will be able to smell and see the steam rising from the pot. This biryani cooks mainly over steam and needs very little oil.
Serve hot with extra crunchy fried onions garnished on the top and side of tomato-onion raita(salad) .