A wonderful rice dish from Pakistan and India called chicken biryani is often given only on special occasions like weddings, parties, or religious festivals like Ramadan. Although it requires a lot of planning, the effort is definitely worthwhile. Basmati rice is the best kind to use for biryani.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 4 small potatoes, peeled and halved
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
- 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 (2 inch) piece cinnamon stick
- 3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken pieces cut into chunks
- 1 pound basmati rice
- 2 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 5 pods cardamom
- 3 whole cloves
- 1 (1 inch) piece cinnamon stick
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 pinch powdered saffron
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet. Fry potatoes in hot oil until lightly browned, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain; set aside.
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- Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet. Add onions, garlic, and fresh ginger; cook and stir until onion is soft and golden. Add tomatoes, salt, cumin, chili powder, pepper, and turmeric; cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes.
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- Stir in yogurt, mint, ground cardamom, and cinnamon stick. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are cooked to a pulp. It may be necessary to add a little hot water if mixture becomes too dry and starts to stick to the pan.
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- Add chicken and stir well to coat. Cover and cook over very low heat until chicken is tender, 35 to 45 minutes. There should only be a little very thick gravy left when chicken is finished cooking. If necessary cook uncovered for a few minutes to reduce the gravy.
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- Meanwhile, make the rice: Wash rice well and drain in a colander for at least 30 minutes.
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- Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion; cook and stir until golden. Add cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon stick, ground ginger, and saffron; stir in rice until coated with spices.
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- Heat stock and salt in a medium pot until hot; pour over rice and stir well.
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- Add chicken mixture and potatoes; stir gently to combine. Bring to a boil.
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- Reduce heat to very low, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and steam for 20 minutes without lifting the lid or stirring.
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- Spoon biryani onto a warm serving dish.
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- You can use ghee instead of vegetable oil for a more authentic taste.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 832 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 79 g |
| Cholesterol | 134 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 48 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 1522 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 35 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’ve made this recipe many times and I love it its so flavorful!
This is the second time I’ve made this recipe and I love it!!! It’s one of my go tos!!!
wow
Not a traditional biryani but it taste nice
It was well written very easy to follow and it was delicious I had to make a few changes since I used a premixed biryani spice but all and all it was great will definitely be making it again soon
I did mine in the Instant Pot
The flavour in this was pretty good. Only changes I would make would be to cut the rice in half….there is way to much. I’d also probably add a tad more chili powder (not what we Canadians call chili powder but “red chili” powder) and when prepping for the rice I cooked the seasoning in the oil before adding the rice to the mixture. Overall a pretty good dish.
Good
i cannot believe someone would think this is not the best Biryani ever been made. Truly delicious. I make this dish at family gatherings.. a sheer crowd pleaser. Thanks from the bottom of my heart
This recipe is delicious. I’ve never had any at a restaurant so I don’t know anything about authenticity, but I made it as directed and loved it.
This turned out so good! It’s just my husband and and I so i didn’t do as much chicken or rice but I did double the spices (as others recommended) we still had leftovers which heated up good. This recipe will surely be added to my recipe folder!!
It came out delicious.
20 minutes for potatoes to cook under steam is insufficient so naturally they came out practically raw! I followed this recipe to a tee but it tasted completely bland, undercooked potatoes, over cooked rice and both me and my boyfriend hated it. Only reason I decided to follow this recipe was because I was out of the Shaan biryani mix. If I try this the next time I’m going down on the amount of chicken, adding the potatoes in earlier and definitely at least doubling up on the salt and chili powder so it doesn’t taste like a bland mashed up dish
I’m delighted I had the courage to attempt an authentic Indian recipe. We loved this dish.
Didn’t use saffron as I did not have it at home. Yes. Making it again 🙂
thanks for sharing the recipes, this was the first time I made it, even I hadn’t tried it before, but my boyfriend did, and he loved it.
Instead of saffron, I used garam masala. Nice kick!
Not difficult – was good.
The flavours were great but the rice partially cooked and partially went to mush. Recipe made as written. Disappointed after all the ingredients needed and time it took to prepare.
Nothing special. Also the potatoes weren’t done by the time the rice was. As you can imagine, this is quite a big issue. Not worth the time.
I don’t know much about the authenticity of this dish but it was good! I followed the suggestions of a couple reviewers, I doubled the spices (will triple all next time except the tumeric) and I could not find cardamom at my grocery store so I left it out. Not sure if I missed it not being in there because I don’t recall what it tastes like. I also used chicken legs and they turned out great. Next time I will add raisins. All in all a good recipe just need more spice to it so double them for sure. I think this would’ve been pretty bland if you don’t at least double them. Also, this isn’t all that time consuming to make this if you have things ready to go and multi task a bit. I would say it took me between and hour and an hour and a half to make.