Chicken Briyani

A  simple complete lunch can be chicken briyani, chicken chilly in Andrastyle, mint chutney, and clear soup.

Chicken Briyani : This is local briyani of  Belgaum, the place where am born and brought up.

My version of chicken briyani  :

Mint leaves              : 1/4 cup
Coriander leaves      : 1/2 cup
Garlic Ginger Paste  : 1/2 tbsp
Green Chillies          : 8-10
Curd (yogurt)          :  1 cup
Grind all above ingredients into smooth paste   --------->  1

Onions  :   4 medium sized.
Cardamom powder  : 1tsp.
Turmeric powder    : 1/2 tsp.
Briyani Masala Powder  : 1 tbsp ( Any briyani masala available in market, I prefer Everest).
Chicken              :1/2 kg.
Basmati rice        : 2 cups.
Cloves                 :6
Cinnamon           : 2 inch
Cardamom           : 6
Bay leaves          :2

Caramelizing Onions:
Peel the skin of onion, Slice length wise. In 4 tbsp of oil, caramelize onion adding  1/2 tsp of salt.Do caramelization on low flame.Separate out caramelized onions from oil. Retain this oil for marination.

For Marination :  
Marinate chicken with 2 tsp of salt, turmeric powder, cardamom powder, briyani powder, retained oil after caramelizing of onions, 1/2 portion of caramelized onions and the above paste ( from 1). Marinate for an 1 hour.

Parboil Rice :

Wash and drain the rice. Keep aside.
Take 5 cups of water in a vessel. Add  cloves, cinnamon,cardamom, bay leaves, 2 tsp mint leaves, 2 tsp salt, 4-5 green chillies slit lengthwise. Bring to boil. Add rice and parboil. Strain rice.( ** Separate out cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leave from rice, this is optional. I prefer it because i don't like getting cloves in mouth).

In a heavy bottom handi, add around 1 tbsp of butter. Now put the marinated chicken. Layer it with paraboiled rice. Dig some small holes, add pinch of food colour in tsp of milk and pour in the digged holes.One can any number of colours. I prefer safforn.To the lid apply dough of flour, put it on the handi. Put some red hot charcoal on lid. Cook on charcoal for 20 - 25 minutes or till the dough applied to the lid gets dry and a beautiful aroma starts coming out. Cook for another 10 minutes.
 If using pressure cooker, dd around 1 tbsp of butter. Now put the marinated chicken. Layer it with paraboiled rice. Dig some small holes, add pinch of food colour in tsp of milk and pour in the digged holes.
Cook on high flames for 7 minutes and 20 minutes on low flame.