PAKISTANI CHICKEN BREYANI

Made this for my sons birthday today. A very unique, simple yet flavorsome recipe I picked up over 20 years back. It’s a very light textured breyani compared to the masala breyani that we used to in South Africa, but it’s lovely and very easy to make.

1 kg chicken pieces
4 cups basmati rice
4 large potatoes
egg yellow food colour
3 large onions, chopped
1 cup ghee
Marinade for chicken:
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons of ginger/garlic mix
juice of 3 lemons
1 tablespoon of chilli powder
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
6 cloves
6 ealchi, whole
2 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon of saffron essence
4 tablespoons of cooking oil

Mix the marinade ingredients and place the chicken into the marinade while preparing the rest of the dish.
Boil 4 cups of basmatic rice as per instructions on your packet and strain and leave aside.
Wash and cut 4 large potatoes. Sprinkle salt and colour with some egg yellow food colour. Spray some oil and roast your potatoes for 20 minutes at 190°C.

Fry the onions in the ghee and remove ¼ of it. Colour the ¼ removed and leave aside as well.

Add your uncolored fried onions to your chicken mixture, place in large pot and cook for 20 minutes.

Once the chicken is well cooked, add your roasted potatoes followed by the rice and coloured onions in top of all. (Everything is layered).

Cover with foil and leave in the oven at 180 °C degrees for 30 minutes.

Photo and recipe: Yasmeen Ibrahim