Mise en place

• With biryani more than any other dish, it's very important to have your mise en place ready as you might miss an ingredient, or a step. On top of that, a mise en place will just help the whole process flow easily. Get your chicken marinade ingredients together, then your biryani spice mix, ingredients for boiling rice, blender ingredients, and finally other ingredients.

  Now that you have everything ready, let's do this!

Chicken marinade

• In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the chicken marinade, except for the chicken pieces: full-fat plain yogurt, grated ginger, grated garlic, garam masala, turmeric, Kashmiri chili powder, and salt. Whisk everything until well combined.
• Add chicken and ensure that all the pieces are well coated with the marinade. Let marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Letting it marinate overnight for the most succulent-tasting chicken is worth it, but 2 hours is fine if you're short on time.
• Remove the marinated chicken from the fridge and let come to room temperature about 1 hour before cooking.

Aromatic Biryani Spices (Briani Spice Mix)

• Combine your biryani spices in a small bowl: coriander powder, cumin powder, cinnamon powder, cloves, cardamom powder, a pinch of star anise powder, and a pinch of nutmeg. You can toast the biryani spice powder mix on low heat if you'd like. This step will add a little more depth of flavor. Set aside.

Cook eggs and potatoes

• Gently place the eggs into a small saucepan and fill the pan with enough water to cover the eggs. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook at this temperature for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to low, and let the eggs gently simmer for another 10 minutes.
• In the meantime, prepare a bowl of cold water with ice cubes, about 3-4 cups and 1 cup of ice. If you'd like, you can skip this step, but the ice water bath helps peel the eggs effortlessly and halts the cooking process.
• After a total of 20 minutes, drain the hot water and put the hard boiled eggs in the ice water bath. Peel the eggs, sprinkle some turmeric on top, and set aside.
• For the potatoes, cut them in half. They should be slightly bigger in size than the eggs. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and some turmeric on top, and set aside.
• Heat ½ cup of vegetable oil in a large saucepan. Once the oil is hot, carefully add the potatoes and the hard boiled eggs. Fry 3 minutes on each side. Set the egg and fried potatoes aside.

Fry the red onion

• If you haven't done so already, peel and thinly slice your large red onion.
• Heat the same large saucepan used for the egg and potatoes on medium heat. You can use the leftover vegetable oil (from frying the eggs and potatoes) and add some more vegetable oil to the pan, about ¼ cup to ½ cup more, enough to cover the onion half of the way.
• Add your sliced red onion and fry until it turns golden brown. Stir every few minutes, taking care not to burn the onion, especially towards the end when it's almost ready. This is when it can easily burn if neglected, then you'll have no choice but to start over. This whole process takes about 15-20 minutes.
• When the fried onion is almost golden, sprinkle a teensy pinch of salt all over. Once golden, transfer it to a colander or strainer and set aside to drain further.

Saffron water

• Mix saffron strands with ¼ cup water (or milk) and set your saffron water aside.

Blend ingredients

• Add blender ingredients into a blender: Roma tomato, cilantro, mint, green chili, ½ cup roughly chopped red onion, and ¼ cup water. Blend until smooth. You may need to add 1-2 tablespoons more water. The end result should be closer to pasty in texture than watery but a little watery is fine. Set your blender mixture aside.

Parboiling the rice

• Rinse the basmati rice several times until the water runs clear. Soak the rice for a half hour. Drain and set aside.
• In the meantime, boil the water for the rice. In a medium pot, heat 7 to 8 cups of water mixed with the whole spices for the rice water: Indian bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds, cloves, green cardamom pods, and star anise (optional). Add salt and ¼ teaspoon of vegetable oil.
• Taste the water. It has to be slightly salty, like ocean water. If it's not, add ½ teaspoon of salt. Boil water rapidly for 5 minutes to release the beautiful aroma of the spices.
• Then, add the drained rice and cook until it's 50% cooked. The core of the rice needs to be uncooked. This step only takes about 3-4 minutes. Overcooking the rice will result in a mushy biryani, so pay close attention.
• Refer to the picture under the "Ingredients for boiling rice" in the step-by-step section to see what the rice should look like. Discard the whole spices, except for the cumin seeds and set the parboiled rice aside. Leave it in the colander so it continues to drain.

LAYER THE BIRYANI

Bottom layer (1st layer)

• At the bottom of the heavy pot, add the chicken with its marinade and the blender mixture. Mix well.
• Next, add the fried eggs and fried potatoes (cooked halfway), along with half of the peas and half of the fried red onion. Mix well.
• Add 1 tablespoon of the ghee and the biryani spice powder mix.
• Now add a bit of water. Add enough water to cook the biryani but not so much that the rice becomes mushy. The trick is to add enough water to cover the chicken and potatoes, but you can still see them. So don’t cover them completely. Start with half a cup and work your way up.

  Refer to the pictures in the step-by-step instructions section. Mix everything really well again.

Middle layer (2nd layer)

• Add the drained rice along with the whole spices for biryani, namely 1 Indian bay leaf, 1 cinnamon stick, 3 green cardamom pods, cumin seeds, cloves, and 1 star anise (optional).

  Flatten the top of the rice with the back of a spoon.

Top layer (3rd layer)

• Sprinkle the remaining peas and fried red onion on top of the rice. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of ghee, a dollop here and there spread out all over the rice.
• Next, pour the saffron water all over the top. I like to add an additional slit green chili on top too, but it is optional.

COOK THE BIRYANI

• Once the biryani is layered, set up the cast iron tawa, heavy bottom pot, aluminum foil, pot lid, and cast iron pan, as shown below. Make sure you seal the aluminum foil really well. If you don’t have a cast iron pan, use any heavy pan on top. This whole setup ensures that the steam doesn’t escape, which is important to properly cook the biryani on the stovetop method.
• Set the heat to medium-high. Ideally, the flame should reach all over the bottom (or diameter) of the pot. Cook for exactly 20 minutes. Set a timer!
• When your timer goes off, reduce the flame to the lowest. Cook for exactly 15 minutes. Set a timer again.
  
• Once your timer goes off, turn off the flame and let your biryani rest, untouched, for 20 to 30 minutes. Don't be tempted to peek at this point because the biryani needs the steam to be trapped to finish cooking.

How to serve

• After 20 to 30 minutes, it is now time to uncover your beautiful work. Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro and serve with chatini pomme d'amour, cucumber salad or raita. ENJOY!