Chicken Biryani

This recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and I am sad to admit I was a little disappointed with it.  I think the dish tasted good, and like normal, this was quite a bit better for lunch the next day, but it did not taste much like biryani that I have had in restaurants.  Now that could be because the Indian restaurants I go to may not be as authentic as I think, but all I know is is this recipe did not taste like what I had anticipated.  There are quite a few Indian restaurants in Houston, and we have found a couple that we go to that we think are really good, but the Indian people we know tell us “they are crap”, so I will give Cooks Illustrated the benefit of the doubt and assume this is what biryani tastes like, and I just haven’t actually had real biryani before.  I do not want to discourage anyone from trying this dish as it was really pretty good, and not really that difficult, just be warned that if you have had biryani before this may not taste the same.  I also want to warn you that this will stink up your house.  I made this for dinner on Friday and I think by late Saturday afternoon the smell was finally gone, so I wouldn’t make this if I was having anyone over the next day.

15 cardamom pods, preferably green, smashed with a chef’s knife
2 cinnamon sticks
3 inch piece fresh ginger, cut into ½ inch thick coins and smashed with a chef’s knife
1 tsp cumin seed
5 quarts water
3 bone-in chicken breasts
6 tbs butter
4 small yellow onions, sliced thin
2 jalapenos, chopped fine with seeds and ribs
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 ½ cups basmati rice
1 tsp saffron threads, lightly crumbled
½ cup dried currants or raisins
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Put all of the seasonings in a cheesecloth and secure with twine.  Put the cheesecloth in a large pot of water with 2 tsp salt and bring to a boil.  Allow the water to simmer for 30 minutes, the water should turn red and be fragrant.
Meanwhile, season both sides of chicken breasts with salt and pepper and set aside.  Heat 3 tbs butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat until foaming subsides; add half of the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and dark brown about edges, 8-10 minutes.  Add half of the jalapenos and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Transfer onion mixture to a bowl and wipe skillet clean with paper towels and repeat with second batch of onions, jalapenos, and garlic.  Transfer to bowl with rest of onion mixture, season lightly with salt and set aside.  Wipe out skillet with paper towels, return heat to medium high, and place chicken breasts, skin side down in skillet, one at a time.  Cook without moving chicken until well browned, about 8 minutes, then flip chicken and brown second side, about 8 minutes longer.  Transfer chicken to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm while the remaining breasts are being cooked.
If necessary return the water to a boil and stir in the rice and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Drain the rice through a strainer.  Transfer the rice to a medium bowl and stir in safforon and currants/rainsins and season with ¼ tsp salt.  Reserve the spiced water and discard the spice bundle.  Spread half of rice in the bottom of a Dutch oven, topped with half of the onion mixture then the chicken, skin side down.  Evenly sprinkle with cilantro over the chicken then top with the remaining onion mixture and cover with the remaining rice.  Pour 1 ½ cups of the reserved cooking liquid evenly over the rice.
Cover the Dutch oven and cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Uncover and check the bottom of the pan, if dry, add up to 1 cup of the reserved cooking liquid and cook for an additional 20-30 minutes or until the rice is tender and chicken is cooked through.
Remove chicken to a plate and debone.  Stir the rice and spoon biryani into individual bowls and top with chicken.

Serves 8, 450 calories, 14 g fat

I served this with naan bread which the one I bought was about 85 calories for half of a piece.  I think if I was having this as my whole meal and not having bread with it I would have made this into 6 servings and split each chicken breast into 2 servings.  That would have made this closer to 600 calories per serving, but a large portion of rice.
I think I started cooking at 5:00 and we were eating dinner before 7:30, so quite a bit of time, but I think it’s worth it every once in a while to try something totally different and practice new techniques in the kitchen.
I also buy my spices at an Indian grocery store; they have tons of whole spices for a fraction of the price.  I buy a small(ish) bag of whatever I need and store it in the freezer.  Since I don’t cook Indian food all that often it takes me a while to get through a whole bag of spices.