Chicken Pilao

Name: Chicken Pilao
Cuisine: Indian, Asian
Ingredients: 1/2 kg chicken bones (ask your butcher for any extra chicken bones he may have. If you can’t find it then half a chicken will work too); 1 large onion; 1 large tomato; 1 bulb garlic; 2 inch ginger; 1/2 cup fennel seeds; 1/2 cup coriander seeds; 10 black peppercorn; 5 cloves; 2 moti elaichi; 1 long cinnamon stick; 3 bay leaves; 3 whole dried red chillies; 3 tbsp salt; Roughly 2L water; 1/3 cup oil; 1 large onion finely sliced; 3 tbsp ginger garlic paste; 1 large tomato diced; 2 baby chickens cut into curry pieces; 1 tbsp coriander powder; 2tsp cumin powder; 1 tsp chilli powder; 2tsp salt; 3 tbsp Greek yogurt; 5 cups basmati rice soaked for at least one hour; 9 cups of yakhnee; 4-5 green chillies for dum

12 steps

I’m a huge fan of lamb pilao and if you’ve tried my lamb pilao recipe then you know how incredibly flavourful it is. However, I’m not a huge fan of chicken pilao until I finally mastered the recipe. This pilao is full of beautiful flavours and you definitely don’t need any salan/curry to accompany this!

Updated at: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 02:31:01 GMT

Ingredients

10 servings

For the Yakhnee

0.5kgchicken bones

ask your butcher for any extra chicken bones he may have if you can’t find it then half a chicken will work too

1 bulbgarlic

2 inchginger

½ cupfennel seeds

½ cupcoriander seeds

3whole dried red chillies

3 Tbspsalt

2lwater

For the Pilao rice

⅓ cupoil

1onion

large, finely sliced

3 Tbspginger garlic paste

1tomato

large, diced

2chickens

baby, cut into curry pieces

1 Tbspcoriander powder

2 tspcumin powder

1 tspchilli powder

2 tspsalt

3 Tbspgreek yogurt

5 cupsbasmati rice

soaked for at least one hour

9 cupsbroth

yakhnee

4green chillies

for dum

Instructions

For the Yakhnee

Step 1

1. To a large pot, add all the ingredients for the yakhnee and cook it till the bones are completely tender. Should take about 30 minutes.

Step 2

2. Strain the broth. Discard the bones and whole spices. You should be left with just the broth liquid. Set aside.

For the Pilao Rice

Step 3

1. fry onions till golden brown. The more brown your onions are, the better colour your pilao will have. Add 1/4 cup water to prevent the onions from burning. This also helps release the brown colour.

Step 4

2. Add diced tomato and ginger garlic paste. Cook till the tomato has completely dissolved and the oil starts to separate from the masala

Step 5

3. Add chicken and the coriander, cumin, red chilli powder and salt. Cover and cook till chicken releases it’s juices and is no longer pink

Step 6

4. Add yoghurt and bhun the chicken on high heat till the yoghurt water has completely evaporated.

Step 7

5. Add rice and 8-9 cups of water.

Step 8

6. Heat should be on full, let the water evaporate completely. Do not move rice with your spoon.

Step 9

7. Add green chillies and cover with a paper towel. This helps absorb any extra moisture.