Malay Chicken Biryani with Roasted Cashew Nuts

Malay Biryani dish has a unique savory aroma, spices, bright colors and delicious taste. However making biryani from scratch is very time consuming, even though rewards are huge. This is the shorter and easy version of making this versatile rice dish. I get this Shan Malay Chicken Biryani Mix from Indian grocery store. It’s available in many supermarket chains as well. It is a pre-mixed spices packet that contains all the essential ingredients to make a perfect biryani. it tastes just as wonderful as the non pre-mixed packet one.

Ingredients:

7-8 pieces Chicken ( This can be legs.Qtr)
4 cups basmati rice, washed and soaked for 30 minutes
1 tbsp of tamarind pulp, soaked in 1 cup of hot water then press and sieve the juice
1 medium onion, thinly slice
1 bay leave
1 stalk of curry leaves
4 small tomatoes, washed and wedged
Ginger garlic paste
1 cup water
1 tsp of salt
Green chili 1
Shan Biryani mix 2 tbl spn

Directions:


1.Marinate chicken pieces with 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste and 2 tbsp for Shan Malay Chicken Biryani Mix for an hour.

2.Heat up a frying pan on high heat, add oil, fry chicken pieces until evenly seared. Remove and set aside.

3.Meanwhile, boil 10 glasses of water with 1 tsp of salt and add the soaked rice. Boil until the rice is tender. Drain the liquid.

4.In the same pan with oil, add  5-6 cashew nuts and fry it until golden brown. Set a side once its done. fry onion slices until golden brown. Add Shan Malay Chicken Biryani Mix ( 1 tbl spoon), bay leaves, curry leaves, tomatoes, tamarind juice and 1 cup of water. Let it simmer and stir occasionally for 5 minutes.

5.Add in fried chicken pieces and cook until the sauce thickens.

6.Spread the rice and cooked chicken pieces in layers in a rice cooker in this order:
        a)add one layer of the chicken, Cover this layer with a layer of rice(half of the total amount)
        b)Spread remaining mixture on the rice. Cover with the remaining rice. (If there is more quantity of rice, increase the number of layers)

7.Slightly mix the rice and add the roasted Cashews before serving.