Kerala style Chicken Biryani

Clean the chicken and put some cuts and marinate the pieces with the ingredients given under ' To Marinate', for 1 hour or overnight.

Soak the rice for 30 minutes. In a big vessel add water to boil. Add in cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and salt. Add in the drained rice followed by some lime juice. The rice should be cooked till al dente,

Fry the chicken till half done. In a nonstick vessel add oil put the sliced onions and sauté till it becomes brown.

Add the ginger garlic and green chilli paste. Saute this well. Add ½ tsp turmeric powder and 1 tsp garam masala powder.

Add the chopped tomatoes and mix well till the tomatoes become soft. Add yogurt and mix well. Add the fried chicken and mix well and cook till fully done. The masala should not have much gravy.

Add some chopped coriander and mint leaves to this curry. Fry 2 onions for garnishing and dum. Fry the cashew nuts and raisins.

In a large vessel add some ghee and spread half of the boiled rice. On top of this add some coriander and mint leaves sprinkle some garam masala, half of the essence and color and some ghee. Now put the masala over this rice.

Add the rest of the rice on top of this and spread evenly. Sprinkle some more garam masala powder, fried cashews and raisins, the essence and color, put the chopped leaves and fried onions and apply some ghee here and there.

Cover the top of the vessel tightly with aluminium foil and close with the lid tightly. Simmer and keep for dum for 20 to 30 minutes.

For garnishing we can use boiled egg too. Serve hot with papad, pickles or yogurt salad.