Hyderabadi chicken biryani

Ingredients

• 1 ½ kilograms of Chicken (cut into 12 pieces)
1 cup Plain Yogurt
1 kilogram of Long Grain Rice
1 tsp. Red Chilli Powder (Pisi Lal Mirch)
½ tsp. Ginger Paste (Pisi Adrak)
½ tsp. Garlic Paste (Pisa Lehsan)
Lemon Juice (from 4 lemons)
A bunch of Fresh Mint Leaves (Podina)
4 Green Chillies (finely chopped)
6 Whole Black Peppercorns (Saabut Kaali Mirch)
6 Cardamom Pods (Choti Ilaichi)
2 medium Onions (thinly sliced)
2 cups of Dalda Banaspati or any Clarified Butter (Ghee)
½ tsp. Yellow Food Color (soaked in ½ milk)
Salt (to taste)

Directions

1. Wash chicken pieces with cold water and drain well. Seperately in a bowl mix together ginger paste, garlic paste, red chilli powder, and plain yogurt into a smooth paste. Marinate chicken pieces in this mixture and set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Cook on low heat without adding any water to the chicken. When water dries up, remove from heat.
3. Seperately in a pan, heat the banaspati or clarified butter; add onions and fry to golden brown. Add mint leaves, cardamom pods, and lemon juice. Mix and remove from heat.
4. Boil rice in water in a large pot until rice is parboiled and drain. Grease the same pot; add half of the rice to it and then all of the chicken mixture on top of that and then the rest of the rice. Add food color mixture on rice.
5. Place pot on a hot tava or griddle and let cook on low heat for 15 minutes. Finally remove from heat; fluff rice and serve