Chicken Rice but not Biryani !!!

OK, so keeping in line with the theme of this blog, where I show how a dish turns out to be if you cook it for the very first time. Yesterday I tried a hybrid version of Biryani :-). By hybrid I mean, it was not a proper Biryani rather an attempt to finish up my left over vegetables and raw chicken :-). And yet you get a good night dinner out of it along the way :-). Mind you I also cooked it for the first time!

I also learnt a few lessons as in what veggies should be used for this dish and what all veggies should be ignored.

Prerequisites

• Pressure Cooker is a must for this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp Cumin seeds.
• 2 medium size onion, finely chopped.
• 2 Bay Leaves.
• 4 Cloves.
• 3 green chilies (adjust according to your taste).
• 2 tsp red chilies  (adjust according to your taste).
• 2 tsp Cumin powder.
• 2 tsp Coriander powder.
• 1 tsp turmeric powder.
• 1 glass of raw rice, well rinsed with tap water.
• 3 tsp Olive Oil, Refined Oil, or Desi Ghee.
• Whatever veggies/meat left in your fridge :-). I had green paprika, frozen peas, yellow bell pepper, roughly 200 gm boneless chicken.
• You can use carrots, cauliflower, egg plant, any chicken or pork.
• Salt to taste.
• Sweet Chicken Sauce (optional).
• Butter to garnish (optional).
• Garam masala to garnish (optional).
• Coriander leaves to garnish (optional).

That's how the preps should look

Cooking Process

• Heat the pressure cooker with olive oil, refined oil, desi ghee for few minutes.
• Add cumin seeds. Let them crackle.
• Add bay leaves.
• Add onions to fry.
• After about 2 minutes, add just the chicken pieces. Since it will take long to cook.
• When onions start to change its color, add dry spices i.e. salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric, cloves etc.
• Add rest of the cut veggies.
• Add sweet chicken sauce.
• After few minutes, add raw rice.
• Mix them well.
• Pour 1 and 1/2 glass of water. Since chicken will also ooze out some water, thus this much water is sufficient.
• Put the cap on and make sure there is no pressure left in cooker, by lifting its whistle for few seconds.
• Cook it till 3 whistles blow. For first whistle put the gas on high, after first whistle put it to lowest possible heat.
• It should take roughly 20 minutes for 3 whistles.
• After 3 whistles, vent out all the steam.
• Let it sit for cool down.
• That's it, open and your dish should be ready!
• Plate it out and put some garam masala, butter, copped coriander leaves to garnish.
• Serve with curd.

Final Product

You might say it does not look like an awesome dish like they show in other professional shows. And that's exactly my point is when you cook it as a new cook, dish might not come out like a "profy", rather its like this, a bit naive, a bit immature :-).

Hey I am not expert, but it was a great dinner for me :-).

Lesson Learned

• Try to put some hard veggies, so that they stay well with rice and chicken. Like carrot, cauliflower etc.
• Since I used very soft vegetable i.e. bell pepper and paprika, they were kind of dissolved in the dish. But that's my lessons learned, while trying a new dish.