🇮🇳 How to Make Biryani

Craving Biryani? On FoodNeverComes the food never actually comes — so here's how to make real Biryani at home, in about 75 min, with stuff you probably already have.

🛒 Ingredients

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• 2 cups basmati rice, rinsed until the water runs clear
• 400g chicken thigh, big pieces
• Marinade: 1 cup yogurt, 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste, 2 tbsp biryani masala, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp chilli, salt
• 2 onions, thinly sliced and fried golden (birista)
• a handful each of mint + coriander leaves
• ¼ cup warm milk + a big pinch of saffron
• 4 tbsp ghee
• whole spices: 2 bay leaves, 4 cardamom pods, 1 cinnamon stick

👩‍🍳 Method

1. Marinate the chicken at least 30 min (overnight is better). Soak the rinsed rice 20 min. Steep the saffron in the warm milk.
2. Fry the sliced onions in ghee until deep golden and crisp — 10 patient minutes. Save half for layering.
3. Boil a big pot of heavily salted water with the whole spices; cook the rice ONLY to 70% done (the grain still has a firm white core, about 5–6 min). Drain.
4. Spread the marinated chicken (with all its marinade) on the bottom of a heavy pot. Layer: half the rice, half the onions and herbs, the rest of the rice, the rest of the onions and herbs, then the saffron milk and 2 tbsp ghee over the top.
5. Seal the lid tight (foil under the lid works) and cook: 5 min on medium to build steam, then 25 min on the LOWEST heat. No peeking — the trapped steam (dum) is doing the cooking.
6. Rest 10 min off the heat, then open and dig from the bottom up so every plate gets chicken, saffron rice and crispy onion. The slightly crusted bottom layer is the prize.