Chicken biryani

Ingredients List

  • 300g basmati rice
  • 25g butter
  • 1 large onion, finely sliced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 cardamom pods
  • small cinnamon stick
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 4 skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
  • 4 tbsp balti curry paste
  • 85g raisins
  • 850ml chicken stock
  • 30g coriander, ½ chopped, ½ leaves picked and 2 tbsp toasted flaked almonds, to serve

Method

  1. Soak 300g basmati rice in warm water, then wash in cold until the water runs clear.
  2. Heat 25g butter in a saucepan and cook 1 finely sliced large onion with 1 bay leaf, 3 cardamom pods and 1 small cinnamon stick for 10 mins.
  3. Sprinkle in 1 tsp turmeric, then add 4 chicken breasts, cut into large chunks, and 4 tbsp curry paste. Cook until aromatic.
  4. Stir the rice into the pan with 85g raisins, then pour over 850ml chicken stock.
  5. Place a tight-fitting lid on the pan and bring to a hard boil, then lower the heat to a minimum and cook the rice for another 5 mins.
  6. Turn off the heat and leave for 10 mins. Stir well, mixing through 15g chopped coriander. To serve, scatter over the leaves of the remaining 15g coriander and 2 tbsp toasted almonds.

Notes & thoughts

First time cooking this. The flavours on this were great, used an off the shelf curry sauce paste which had an interesting texture to it, next time I should make my own paste. The rice was a claggy in the end so I took the lid off and put the heat on for another 5 min to boil off the water. Need to revise the water rice ratio. Check regular basmati recipe for this in the future.