Malabar Chicken Biriyani

Malabar Chicken Biriyani is one of the most loved and most tasty dish that you can find Calicut, Kerala.
Though it was originated in Iran, it has become very famous in Calicut.

INGREDIENTS
For Rice:

Basmati rice  -  2 cups
Water  -  4 cups
Onion sliced  -  1 nos
Cardamom pods  -  8 nos
Cloves  -  8 nos
Cinnamon sticks  -  2 nos
Butter - 4 tbsp
Lemon juice  -  1 tbsp
Salt  -  to taste

For Masala:

Cleaned chicken  -  1/2 kg
Onion sliced  -  5 nos
Minced garlic  -  6 nos
Minced ginger  -  2" piece
Tomato chopped  -  3 nos
Minced green chilli  -  10 nos
Chopped coriander leaves  -  1/2 cup
Chopped mint leaves  -  10 leaves
Garam masala  -  1/2 tbsp
Cardamom  -   4nos
Cloves  -  4 nos
Cinnamom sticks  -  1" piece
Salt  -  to taste
Oil


METHOD
For Masala:

Wash and clean the chicken well and drain the water.
Heat oil in a pan and add in the spices.
Fry and then add onion, ginger, garli, green chilli with little salt and saute well until onion becomes soft and tranparent. Cook the onion n low heat
Then add chopped tomatoes and cook till it becomes soft and mushy.
Now add the cleaned chicken pieces and cook.
Add lemon juice, chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves and cook well.
Add garam masala and cook well.
If there liquid, boil it off and reduce it to thick masala.

For Rice:

Wash the basmati rice and drain it.
Heat ghee in a large non stick vessel and add sliced onion and saute till it becomes soft.
Then add the whole spices and saute until the aroma comes out.
Now add the rice slowly and fry for 5 minutes.
Add 4 cups of boiling water and salt and lemon juice and boil it.
Cook till the water has disappeared from the rice.
Flip and check if the rice has cooked well.
Now remove 2/3rd of rice from the vessel and keep it in another plate.
Sprinkle garam masala powder over the left over rice in the vessel.
Take half of the chicken masala and add it over the rice.
Add 1/3rd of the rice which kept in the plate over the chicken masala. Sprinkle garam masala over it.
In the same way add rest of the chicken masala and cooked rice.
Cover the vessel with a aluminium foil and close the lid tightly.
Now cook on low heat for about 15 minutes, so that the flavour of chicken masala will get infused in the rice.
To check if it is done, once when you open the lid, you should be able to see little steam.
Garnish with fried onion, cashew and raisins.
Serve hot with onion raitha, pappadam and pickle.





Note: If you are adding color, add drops of yellow or orange food color while layering the rice.