Chicken Biriyani

I've made this a few times now and the family loves it - one of the only dishes with yogurt in it I can get my daughter to try.  1 serrano is enough for us.  I use about 1.5 cups of yogurt.  And I don't use all the rice to mix in but save some for a lunch the next day.  Comfort food.

I made this recipe for my family today and it was liked a lot. I ll definitely add to my list of best recipes. Next time i ll either increase the amount of ingredients or reduce the amount of rice as i had extra rice left. I ll also increase the amount of spices in order to spice it up a little bit more and add more yogurt. Thanks for posting this recipe.

I spotted this dish while looking for something to spice up dinner time. I always check out the lower scored reviews for criticisms and nearly chose something more familiar to me, but went ahead to the grocery store to stock up. I followed several suggestions: more yogurt, reduced cardamom and ginger (ground), omitted the raisins, and kept the rice separate from the rest of the dish to allow for personal mixing preference. I will absolutely make this excellent dish again! Loved it!

I have made this recipe several times and with many different substitutions, and it comes out marvelous every time. My favorite spice house (begins with "P" - not sure if I'm allowed to say :-) ) has wonderful Indian spices and I have found that using half sweet curry and half Garam Masala made it taste more like it does in my favorite restaurant. I also use cardamom pods in the rice along with a couple of cloves and a small stick of "true" (Ceylon) cinnamon, and omit the cardamom from the spice mix with the meat. I up the meat to 1 1/4 lbs so that I get a better balance of rice to meat. I also use no-fat greek yogurt, and as long as it is mixed in when the heat is low, there's no curdling. The leftovers reheat beautifully, which is great since it makes 6 very generous servings. It's a wonderful dish for company, too. One of my all-time Cooking Light faves!

great flavors and makes a lot. May not be authentic but still a great dish

I would have to say that the cardamom killed it for me. I should have listened to my nose when smelling this foreign (to me) spice. It overpowered the entire dish, but maybe it's due to the fact that I simply don't like the flavor. I also thought it was a little dry and noticed as I was pouring in the rice that I had better leave some out, and by some, I mean a solid 2 cups. The ginger might also be a little on the heavy side. If I were to make this again I would probably skip the cardamom altogether, use 1/2 tsp of ginger, and intervene in whatever way possible to make it less dry (like more yogurt or less rice). I wasn't sure about the raisins, but they ended up being a pleasant surprise.

This is a great recipe! That being said, the family thought it would benefit from cooking only 1 cup of rice w/2 cups water, and keeping all else the same. For leftovers, along with the cashews we also added some spicy peanuts we had on hand for a nice little kick. Delish!

I was searching for a last minute recipe to use up chicken thighs and came across this tasty dish. I didn't have yogurt or cashews, so substituted nonfat sour cream and toasted slivered almonds. Served it over brown rice. Delicious week night dinner.

LOVE this recipe. I double the yogurt to give it more of a sauce consistency and I also do not blend the rice in. I know that's not true Biriyani, but we like it that way!

Absolutely delicious! I had run out of yogurt so I ended up subbing in full-fat sour cream instead; it worked perfectly and didn't curdle a bit. Otherwise, I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, and it was fantastic. Some of the best Indian food I've eaten.

This was excellent. I only used one serrano chile and that was plenty hot for us. I also used boneless chicken breasts. The rice was good also. Will definitely make this again.

Excellent dish! Even my husband, who isn't normally a huge fan of Indian cuisine, loved it! The only change I made was substituting brown basmati rice and using slivered almonds instead of cashews. It was still outstanding!

This dish was superb! My whole family loved it and couldn't get enough. I doubled the recipe, which definitely made it a lot more time-consuming, about 2 hrs from start to finish, but it was totally worth it. The flavors were outstanding and it wasn't either too rich or too bland. It definitely tasted really authentic and I thought it was even better than any Chicken Biriyani dish I've tasted at an Indian restaurant. I did find that I seemed to have a lot more rice than the chicken mixture, seeming disproportional. This may have been due to the effects of doubling the recipe but I'm not sure. All of the rice didn't fit in the pan with the chicken though so there was some rice that remained separate from the dish. Did anyone have a similar experience? Next time I don't think I will double the recipe.

I made several changes but it was still good! I used lamb leg instead of chicken, coriander instead of cardamom, no cinnamon or saffron. I think the lamb was much better than chicken would have been. Will be making this again with more spice next time!

I love this dish! This was the easiest Indian recipe that I have ever made, and the best tasting! I love the flavors. I am seven months pregnant right now, and it is super comfort food. The only thing I changed is only adding one cup of rice, so the end result was not as dry as normal Biriyani's I have had. I saw a review about cooking the rice in high elevations: I live at 6,000 feet, and my rice only took 15 mins to cook, so I am not sure what the other person was talking about it taking over an hour. I served this dish with a fruit and mint salad, since it is summertime.

Best biriyani I've had. Used nonfat Nancy's organic yogurt stablized with 1 tsp. cornstarch whisked in, and there was no curdling. Added an extra 1/2 cup yogurt and a few more cashews, too. Seasoning is just right. As others have said, a biriyani is not curry and rice--think of a creamy rice casserole, and you're closer to what it is supposed to be. This recipe made ample servings and was just great served with some spinach on the side and a raita (indian salad of yogurt, grated vegetable, a bit of cumin and garlic).

This was the best Cooking Light recipe - or any recipe, really - that I've ever made. Absolutely delicious, creamy, and lots of complex flavors. It actually did taste like it came from a restaurant and I'm not sure that I could honestly say that about anything else I've made. Didn't make any substitutions except for using ground cinnamon (1 tsp) instead of a cinnamon stick to cook the rice (the cinnamon sticks got stuck in the spice jar and I couldn't get them out!) I would make this all the time if saffron weren't so expensive, not sure if it would be half as good without it...

I am a foodie and I know good food, THIS WAS IT! It was a very healthy way to satisfy my constant cravings for Indian and Middle Eastern food - and I love how my house smelled like an Indian restaurt as I was cooking. The recipe could not have been better (or easier) I cooked the rice in my cooker and it came out perfect. (I just boiled a little water first to dissolve the saffron) As far as the "sauce" issue, this is BIRIYANI. THERE IS NO SAUCE. The recipe never mentions sauce either. It says to add the rice to the yogurt. The rice absorbs it making it moist and flavorful. Look at the picture.

WARNING FOR THOSE WHO LIVE AT HIGH ALTITUDES. RICE REQUIRES MORE LIQUID AND MORE COOKING TIME. THE INSTRUCTIONS ON MY BASMATI RICE SAID COOK FOR 40 MIN AND I HAD TO ADD MORE WATER EVERY 5 MIN AND IT ENDED UP TAKING AN HOUR TO COOK AND IT WAS STILL PRETYY

This is one of the most perfect recipes out there: the proportions are correct, the flavors in balance, the instructions foolproof. I made my own curry powder (a mix of turmeric, coriander, cumin, cloves, black pepper, fennel, and cardamom), and I left out the raisins and nuts. Delicious!

Easy and authentic! Doubled the garlic; subbed in jalepenos for the serranos and added one more, but the rest of the spices were fine. I eat in Indian restaurants all the time and this had all the zing of the real thing. Add 25% more yogurt if you like it wet. Whole fat yogurt is such a treat! Would definitely serve to Indian food-savvy friends.

Made this dish for my parents, sister and my Fiance. They all very much enjoyed it. Biriyani is not a saucy dish, so do not expect lots of sauce from the recipe. I did use 2 1/2 cups of regular yogurt and it was the perfect amount. I also just couldn't spend $13 on the spice Cardamom, so I did a google search on what would be a substitute and found that equal parts cinnamon/nutmeg or cinnamon/allspice would work. Next time I will bump up the serrano chillies to 4 because we thought it was not hot enough. Will definitely make again. My Dad, an Englishman who LOVES Indian, wanted seconds but we had ran out!!