1. Marinate chicken

1. Marinate the chicken with all the listed ingredients. Set aside until needed.

2. Soak rice

1. Wash and soak good-quality, long-grained basmati rice for about 2 hours.

3. Make moshla doodh

1. In another 250 warm milk, mix in half a teaspoon each of biryani moshlas 1 and 2, and 4 g salt. Set aside for layering.

4. Make kesar doodh

1. Bloom saffron in about 20 g hot milk for 15 mins. After that, rub the saffron between your fingers to release the flavour and colour into the milk.
2. Add a pinch of yellow food colour, and set this mixture aside for layering.

5. Make the fat mixture

1. Mix together white ghee and vanaspati in the given proportions and set aside. This mixture will be used in different stages throughout the recipe.

6. Prep onions & potatoes

1. Peel and wash the potatoes, and halve them. Smear them with ¼ tsp yellow food colour and 10 g salt.
2. Finely slice 250 g onions. Of this, we will use 150 g to make birista, an the rest while cooking chicken.

7. Make birista

1. Heat 140 g vegetable oil in a pan. Fry half the onions (150 g), stirring constantly until brown. Remove from the heat immediately to prevent them from burning, and spread over a plate to allow them to cool and crisp up.
2. Once completely cool, sprinkle ¼ tsp salt and crumble the birista to a powder. Set aside (we'll need this while layering).

8. Cook potatoes

1. Now, to the same oil, add the potatoes, and fry them on medium heat until lightly coloured on all sides, about 5 mins.
2. Add 250 ml hot water, and boiled with the lid on. Once the potatoes are soft (this should take about 20 mins), uncover the pan, raise the heat, and dry off all the excess water. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. You should still be left with a considerable amount of oil. Remove half of it using a ladle, and we will use the remaining half that is still in the pan to cook the chicken.

9. Cook chicken

1. To half the vegetable oil remaining in the pan after cooking the onion and potatoes, add 50 g ghee + vanaspati mixture.
2. Keeping heat low, temper first with bay leaves, green cardamom, cinnamon and black cardamom. Let the flavours of these spices infuse in warm oil for about 1 min, before adding cloves, peppercorn, and kababchini for about the last 10 secs.
3. Add the sliced onions (the remaining 100 g), and fry on high heat, stirring constantly, until brown, about 6 mins.
4. Add the marinated chicken and braise it very well on medium heat, until the raw smell of the spices goes away.
5. Add biryani moshla 1 & 2 and continue cooking until the chicken is tender and the moisture has dried up.

10. Separate chicken, stock & fat

1. Remove the chicken pices and set aside.
2. Collect all the rendered fat (rogan) and mix it with 25 g ghee + vanaspati mixture. We will use this for layering.
3. Finally, strain the stock so that you have a liquid without any solid particles. Weigh out 300 g of this liquid and set it aside for layering.

11. Crumble khoya kheer

1. In a grinder, powder 40 g khoya kheer. Set aside for layering.

12. Make essence mix

1. Mix together kewra water, rose water, and meetha attar in the given proportions. Set aside for layering.

13. Prepare for layering

Now that we've prepped most of our ingredients, it's time to double-check and gather them in one place for layering. You should have:

• Cooked chicken pieces
• Boiled potatoes
• Soaked rice (strain the water)
• Birista powder
• Khoya kheer (crumbled to a powder)
• Alu bukhara (40 g)
• Mutton stock (300 g)
• Rogan + ghee mixture
• Ghee + vanaspati mixture (75 g)
• Saffron milk
• Moshla doodh
• Essence mix
• Biryani moshla 1 (2 g)
• Biryani moshla 2 (2 g)
• Shahi gorom moshla (¼ tsp)
• Lime
• Atta dough, for sealing

14. Prepare to cook rice

This stage should be started just before you are ready to start layering the biryani haari, and all the components listed in stage 16 above are already assembled.

1. Set about 6 L water to boil, and season it with 1.5% or 90 g salt.
2. Make a loose baggie (with a piece of cheesecloth and twine) containing green cardamom (crushed), black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and bay leaves.
3. Add this to the water, along with 10 g kewra water and 5 g ghee.
4. Cover and allow it to come to a boil, giving the spices a chance to infuse the water.

[We will leave it here at this stage, and come back to cooking the rice half-way through the layering process.]

15. Layering & dum

There are four layers in total.

LAYER ONE

• Grease the bottom of the biryani haari with 2 tsp of ghee + vanaspati (use out of the 75 g ghee we've set aside for layering purposes).
• Squeeze in one-third of a lime.
• Add all of the chicken stock.
• About 30 ml of the moshla doodh.
• ¼ tsp biryani moshla 1 (use from the 2 g moshla set aside for layering).
• ¼ tsp biryani moshla 2 (use from the 2 g moshla set aside for layering).
• ¼ tsp shahi gorom moshla.
• Another 1 tsp ghee + vanaspati.
• All the alu bukhara.

LAYER TWO

• Layer all the chicken pieces.
• Layer all the potatoes.
• ¼ tsp biryani moshla 1.‍
• ¼ tsp biryani moshla 2.‍
• Sprinkle one-third the khoya kheer.
• Sprinkle one-third the birista.
• Sprinkle one-third the essence mix.

Cover the haari for the time being; we will now cook the rice.

Cooking the rice:

Once the water has come to a boil, and it is aromatic from the whole spices, add the rice. Follow the time specification on the packet, but keep checking so that it's not overcooked. The rice needs to be cooked until lengthened, but to only 80% doneness. Strain it immediately, and proceed to the layering.

LAYER THREE

• Add half the cooked rice.
• Add half the rogan + ghee mixture.
• 2 pinches biryani moshla 1.
• 2 pinches biryani moshla 2.
• One-third of the khoya kheer.
• Remaining half of the birista.
• One-third the essence mix.
• Half the moshla doodh.
• Half the saffron milk.

LAYER FOUR

• The remaining rice.
• The remaining rogan + ghee mixture.
• 2 pinches biryani moshla 1.
• 2 pinches biryani moshla 2.
• The remaining khoya kheer.
• The remaining essence mix.
• The remaining moshla doodh.
• The remaining saffron milk.
• The remaining ghee + vanaspati.

Pray you have added everything that needed to be added, and put the lid on. Seal the lid with atta dough, leaving a small opening. This will allow us to check if the dum is complete.

For the dum:

1. Set the haari over direct high heat for 6–10 mins, depending on the material and thickness of the vessel.
2. Meanwhile, also set a flat iron tawa or skillet to heat up fully.
3. Transfer the haari it to the heated tawa, so that it now receives indirect heat through the tawa, on medium-low heat.
4. Leave it on dum for 25–30 mins. The dum is complete when you see steam coming out of the gap that you left in the dough while sealing the lid. If you bring your ear close to the bottom of the haari and listen carefully, the sound should change from one of boiling or bubbling, to a soft crackling sound.
5. Turn off the heat, and allow it to stand for 10–15 mins before cracking the lid open.

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