Kolkata Chicken Biryani

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken, cut into 8 large bone-in pieces
• 500 g aged basmati rice
• 500 g medium potatoes, peeled and halved
• 200 g thick yoghurt, drained
• 2 tbsp ginger paste
• 1 tbsp garlic paste
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 2 tsp salt, plus 2 tbsp for the rice water
• 300 g onions, thinly sliced
• 150 ml vegetable oil
• 100 g ghee
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp shahi jeera
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 1 black cardamom pod
• 6 cloves
• 5 cm cinnamon stick
• 2 blades mace
• 1/4 nutmeg
• 1 tsp white peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp kewra water
• 1/4 tsp saffron soaked in 3 tbsp warm milk
• 1/4 tsp yellow food colour (optional)
• 3 litres water for parboiling

Before you cook

• Grind the shahi jeera, both cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, white peppercorns and fennel to a fine biryani masala.
• Marinate the chicken with the yoghurt, ginger and garlic paste, chilli powder, 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp of the masala, and leave it for 1 hour.
• Rinse the rice gently and soak it in cold water for 2 hours.
• Hard-boil the eggs for 9 minutes, cool and peel them.
• Rub the peeled potato halves with the yellow food colour if you are using it.

Steps

1. Heat the oil in a heavy pan and fry the sliced onions for eight to ten minutes until deep brown, then drain them on paper to make birista.
2. Fry the potato halves in the same oil for five minutes until golden at the edges.
3. Add 150 ml hot water to the potatoes, cover, and cook for twelve minutes until tender.
4. Uncover and let the water dry off, then season the potatoes with a little salt and half a teaspoon of the masala and set them aside.
5. Roll the boiled eggs in the same oil for a minute until their surfaces blister, then set them aside.
6. Tip the marinated chicken into the pan with half the birista, cover, and cook on medium heat for twenty minutes.
7. Uncover and cook for eight minutes more until the gravy is thick and clinging and the chicken is cooked through.
8. Bring the 3 litres of water to a rolling boil with 2 tbsp salt and 1 tsp of the masala.
9. Drain the soaked rice, add it to the boiling water and cook for four to five minutes, until the grains have lengthened but still snap in the middle.
10. Drain the rice immediately in a colander.
11. Spread half the rice over the base of a heavy pot.
12. Lay the chicken, its gravy, the potatoes and the eggs over the rice and scatter on the remaining birista.
13. Cover with the rest of the rice, then sprinkle over the saffron milk, the kewra water and the last of the masala.
14. Melt the ghee and pour it evenly over the top.
15. Seal the pot with foil and a tight lid, and cook on medium heat for six minutes.
16. Move the pot onto a preheated tawa or heat diffuser and cook on low for twenty-five minutes.
17. Turn off the heat and leave the pot sealed for fifteen minutes.
18. Open it up, fold the layers together with a flat spoon, and serve.