Chicken Biryani...

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, cut (I used about three fairly big chicken breasts cut into 2in cubes)
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 3 tsp ginger paste
• 2 tsp garlic paste
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• whole garam masala
• salt to taste
• 2 cups rice
• 2 large potatoes, cut into 1in cubes
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 4 cups water (for rice)
• ghee
• a pinch of saffron
• 3 tbs rose water

Take a deep breath. Ok, now add the chicken, yogurt, ginger, garlic, chili powder and coriander powder and mix. That's your marinade. Now if its cold enough outside, leave outside covered for about an hour. Else, pop it in the fridge for an hour.

Meanwhile, take the saffron and mix it with the rose water. Pop that in the fridge too. If saffron is a little difficult to get, you can add a saffron-like orangish food coloring to the rose water and keep that in the fridge instead. But saffron tastes nicer.

When the chicken is done, add about a 2tbs of ghee (or oil if that isn't available) and fry 3/4 of the onions until golden. Add the chicken, marinade and all and cook till you start seeing the oil floating and the smell of the raw spices is gone. The chicken should also be tender. Takes about 15-20 minutes.

In another pot, add the remaining onions and garam masala with about 2tbs of ghee/oil and cook till the onions are pink. Add the rice and stir for about a minute or so. Then add the water and add the lid. Without removing the lid,simmer till the water is gone and the rice is tender. Should take about 15-20 minutes. You could cook the rice while the chicken is cooking.

For the potatoes, parboil them and saute them till tender with enough ghee/oil to shallow fry them. Keep aside. Add to the chicken when done.

Now time for assembling. In a big pot (Can you see how fiddly this is?), add a thin layer of the cooked rice. Sprinkle some of the saffron water over the rice. Then add a layer of the chicken and potatoes. Add rice again, followed by the saffron water and chicken/potatoes. Keep layering until you finish everything, making sure the top layer is rice, followed by a sprinkling of the saffron water. Cook with lid on very low for about 5 minutes, to let the flavors infuse. Take it off the stove and garnish with some fried onions, coriander and/or chilies if required.

LEFTOVER BIRYANI: To make this nifty, but yummy way of finishing off leftover rice and curry, take a non-stick pan and add a little oil to just about glaze the bottom. Add half of the rice to make a layer, followed by the curry, and top with the other half. Cover and cook on extremely low until the the rice and curry are warmed up and you can smell the curry mixing in with the rice. Depending on the amount, it can take from anywhere from 5-20minutes to heat up properly. But use your common sense as leaving it for too long will make the rice at the bottom burn.

If you want to dress it up a little, you can saute cubed, parbolied potatoes and add it in the curry mixture during assembly.