I know it’s July, and we’re supposed to be eating lovely crunchy, crispy, healthy salads, but to be perfectly honest, it’s lashing rain, I’m freezing and all I’m in the form for is comfort food. Seasonal eating be damned (at the moment anyway). So, while Indian food has a reputation for being difficult, let me reassure you that I am not (at the moment) interested in big complex recipes, so this is as easy as pie, as long as you do all the preparation beforehand. This makes for a nice leisurely recipe which takes about an hour or so, start to finish, and doesn’t leave you feeling flustered. It’s also good for when people are coming over as you can turn it right down at the very end and leave it to simmer for about 20 minutes instead of the 10 that the recipe says. Just give it the odd stir so that it doesn’t stick to the arse of the pot. Also, we halved this, so if it looks a bit small for 4 people, don’t worry, the quantities given below will easily serve 4.
OK, here goes:
Ingredients
- 300g basmati rice
- 25g butter
- 1 large onion , finely sliced
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 cardamom pods
- small cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp turmeric (be careful of this stuff, it stains and (in my experience) NEVER comes out.)
- 4 skinless chicken breasts , cut into large chunks (or thighs, just make sure it’s boneless)
- 4 tbsp curry paste (we used Patak’s tikka masala - delish, quite lemony)
- 85g raisins
- 850ml chicken stock
- chopped coriander and toasted flaked almonds to serve
Method:
Soak the rice in warm water. I had no idea what this meant when I did this the first time, so I tend to just bung the rice in a bowl, cover it with hot water from the tap, and leave it until it needs to be added to the pot.
Chop up the chicken and stick it in another bowl with the curry paste. Mix them together and leave while you’re doing the rest of the prep. Again, this is not something that was in the original recipe, but it seems to make life a bit easier.
Chop up the onion, and stick it in a heavy-bottomed pan with the butter, bay leaf, cardamom, and cinnamon stick.
Make up the chicken stock per the stock cube instructions. (For the love of all that is tasty, do not use cheap stock cubes - we use the Kallo organic ones, you can get them in Dunnes, Tesco and the health-food shop. I have no scientific research behind using the dear ones, apart from the fact that they don’t give me heartburn.)

Now, time to actually get cooking. Turn on the heat under the pan and stir around the butter, onions, and spices until the onion is nice and soft. Then add the turmeric and give that a bit of a stir as well.

Now add the chicken in its paste and brown it off; you don’t need to cook it through as you’ll be simmering it in stock in a while, and it’ll cook then. (Yes, seriously.)

Drain off the soaking rice, and give it a good rinse under the cold tap. Fire it into the pot, and the chicken stock after it. Now is also the time to throw in the raisins. Yes, I know the raisins are bringing back memories of childhood curries, but they’re definitely worth it.

Now, bring it to a boil, then turn it right down. My hob goes to 12, so I usually turn it down to about 2 or 3. YMMV.

Give it anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes, giving it the odd stir to prevent stickage.

Scatter the flaked almonds and coriander over the biryani, though it you forget them like we did, don’t panic.

Serve with Naan Bread (coming soon - next post I think) and Mango Chutney (coming some time around the end of July; I promise it’s easy), and of course a beer. Much as I love wine, I don’t really think it goes with Indian food. Currently we’re drinking a lot of Spaten, which is a German beer. It’s in O’Brien’s wines for €2.49 per 500ml bottle and Aldi for €1.75 per 500ml bottle.
Original Recipe from BBC Good Food.