Chick­en Biryani

(serves 8)

2 cups bas­mati rice
5 car­damom pods
5 whole cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 stick cin­na­mon, snapped in half
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup oil (not olive, bet­ter sunflower)
3 onions, fine­ly sliced
1/2 cup yogurt
3 cloves gar­lic, minced
1 1/2 tsps grat­ed fresh ginger
4 green chill­ies, fine­ly chopped

2 lb diced chicken
1/4 cup chopped tomatoes
5 car­damom pods, slight­ly split
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cloves
dash fresh­ly ground pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsps corian­der powder
1 1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsps lemon juice
hand­ful chopped coriander
large pinch saf­fron, soaked in 4 tbsps warm milk
but­ter for dotting

Now. I know that looks like a lot. But I’ve divid­ed the ingre­di­ents up into the cat­e­gories in which they’re cooked togeth­er. Pic­ture the rice and spices as the pota­toes in a mous­sa­ka, or the pas­ta in a lasagne. Then then onions and chick­en and such are the meat sauce. And the last bits are the parme­san cheese top­ping. Trust me.

So steam the rice with all the spices in it. Stop it cook­ing just before it’s ful­ly cooked, because it will cook fur­ther in the oven. Now, I myself removed the whole spices because Avery would nev­er eat them. But aside from the car­damom pods, one could eat them all. You decide. Set the rice aside.

Now brown the onions in a large skil­let until quite, quite brown. Save about 2 tbsps on a dish, and put the rest in a large bowl. Com­bine with the yogurt, gar­lic, gin­ger and chillies.

Brown the diced chick­en in the onion skil­let for about five min­utes, and then add the yogurt mix­ture. Mix well, add all the oth­er ingre­di­ents down to the cin­na­mon and cook VERY VERY low for 30 min­utes. The oil will begin to sep­a­rate. This is good. Remove the bay leaves.

Now you’re ready to lay­er. Start with a chick­en lay­er, then a rice lay­er, then chick­en, then fin­ish with a rice lay­er. Spread with the remain­ing sliced browned onions, then sprin­kle the lemon juice over, the corian­der, then the saf­fron-milk mix­ture. Dot with but­ter, cov­er tight­ly with foil, and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

DELI­CIOUS. You should serve this dish with some fresh-made pap­pad­ums (noth­ing eas­i­er in the world: 90 sec­onds in the microwave on full pow­er: they’re like a mag­ic trick) and the appro­pri­ate gar­nished (I love cucum­ber rai­ta and lime pick­le, but choose your own), and a good side veg­etable. We end­ed up with sauteed pep­pers, but they were SO BOR­ING. I have to think of a bet­ter side, to mar­ry with such a com­fort­ing yet exot­ic main dish. Sug­ges­tions grate­ful­ly accepted.