Sprinkle this layer with the remaining ingredients. Strain the remaining rice and transfer toto the biryani pan. Sprinkle with half the coriander (cilantro), mint leaves, half the remaining fried onions, half the melted ghee and half of the saffron milk mixture. Using a sieve or large slotted spoon, transfer half the rice to the biryani pan and cover the sauce with it. When boiling add the soaked rice, reduce the heat a little and simmer for 5 minutes to par-cook. Place a pan with the water, salt, bay leaves and aromatic spices and bring to a boil over high heat.Melt the ghee and add a pinch of saffron to 4 tbsp hot milk to infuse for a few minutes.Reduce the heat to medium, season with salt to taste and continue simmering while you prepare your rice.

Add the chicken and simmer for about 8 minutes or until it is about 80% cooked through.Stir in the yoghurt into the sauce and add the potato pieces and continue simmering until the potatoes are about 50% cooked through.

Now add the ground spices and water and simmer for about 3 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, garlic and ginger paste, chilli paste and half the fried onions and bring to a simmer. When visibly hot, stir in the whole spices and infuse into the oil for about 30 seconds.

Heat a six litre pan over medium high heat and add the oil.

Continue washing until the water runs almost clear. When you first do this, the water will turn milky white.

Wash the rice in several changes of water in a bowl.

Photos of the chicken biryani cooking processвЂ¦ If you would like to cheat a bit, tightly wrap the top of the pan with foil and place the lid on top. Just mix flour and water together to make a soft dough. This is the authentic way to seal a biryani pan while cooking.Дoing this ensure no steam, or very little steam is able to escape while cooking. It is important to get the sauce simmering below the rice but it is equally important to ensure it doesnвЂ™t boil so much that it dries up and burns the chicken.ДЇor this reason, I suggest cooking on high heat for 5 minutes and then lowering the temperature to very low to continue cooking. When I first started cooking biryanis in this way, I burnt a few. The importance of adjusting the cooking heatвЂ¦ This can be a bit messier to eat but the flavour is worth the effort. I purchase lamb leg that has been cut and left on the bone for more flavour. You could cook the lamb in cubes but I prefer to cook it on the bone. This biryani recipe works perfectly well with lamb too. Then I just transferred them to a paper towel to soak up any excess oil. For this chicken biryani recipe, I thinly sliced through red onions and then fried them in about 5cm (2 inches) of oil until golded brown. I prefer to fry my own as itвЂ™s cheaper and easy to do. You could just purchase crispy fried onions and they will work. Golden fried onions feature in many chicken biryani recipes. I used 4 green birdвЂ™s eye chillies but you could use more or less to taste. To make garlic and ginger paste, you take equal amounts of garlic and ginger and blend with just enough water to make a paste.ДЇor this recipe, I added chillies to the blend. Not at all dry! What is garlic, ginger and chilli paste? Once cooked and ready to serve, the biryani is moist and delicious. In this recipe I upped the amount of sauce. Many authentic chicken biryani recipe and lamb biryani recipes for that matter can be a bit dry. Really easy and a great dish to serve a crowd! How is this chicken biryani different?

Dum biryani recipe