Chicken marinated and cooked with spices and layered with rice. An easy, tasty and delicious Kerala Chicken Biriyani recipe. Nadan chicken biriyani is one of my favorites. An Indian one pot meal. This recipe has it's origin from Malabar region of Kerala.

For more biriyani recipes, check out

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(1,161 votes, average: 4.48 out of 5)

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 15

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian, kerala

Servings serving

Ingredients

Marination

1 Kilogram chicken
1 Cup curd
1 Teaspoon cumin Powder
4 Teaspoons coriander Powder
1 Teaspoon Chilly Powder
1 ½ Teaspoons fennel Powder
45 Grams green chilli
2 Tablespoons garlic (crushed)
2 Tablespoons ginger (crushed)
1 Teaspoon turmeric Powder
2 Teaspoons lemon juice
25 grams coriander leaves (½ bunch)
25 grams mint leaves
curry leaves
2 teaspoons poppy seeds (Khashakhasha paste) optional
salt

For rice

2 tbsps ghee
4 Cups basmati rice
7 Cloves
5 Cardamom Seeds
1 Tablespoon fennel seed (Perinjeerakam)
5 cinnamon (1 inch stick)
3 Star Anise (Thakolam)
3 bay leaves

Masala

4 Tablespoons ghee
5 onion (medium)
3 tomato (medium)
3 Teaspoons garam masala

Garnishing

1 onion (medium)
2 Tablespoons Cashew Nuts
1 Tablespoon Raisins
coriander leaves

Instructions

Mix together ingredients listed under marination. Marinate the chicken well. Refrigerate it for 2 - 3 hours.
Heat ghee in a pan. Add sliced onions, salt and saute, till they turn brown and then add garam masala.
Add sliced tomatoes and saute well.
Add marinated chicken and mix well.
Cover the pan and cook until chicken is done.
Soak rice in water for 1hr. Refer Notes section for another way of rice preparation. Drain the water from the rice. Heat ghee in the pan/ cooker. Add cinnamon, bay leaf, cardamom seeds, curry leaves, cloves and aniseeds.
Once it is sauted well, add rice. Saute it till rice is crispy.
Add 6 cup water to it with enough salt. Cover and cook until rice is done. It would approximately take 10 - 15 minutes.
** Never miss this step. Layer a pan / cooker with alternating layers of rice and the chicken masala. Add coriander leaves and 1 teaspoon ghee at every layer.
You can either layer the biriyani and bake in the oven or you can cook on stovetop. Rice and biriyani masala gets blended well with this. You need not add water since biriyani masala has good gravy content. I have tried both. Preheat the oven at 350F. Layer a pan with alternating layers of rice and the chicken. Add coriander leaves, mint leaves, 1 teaspoon ghee, fried onions, cashews and raisins at every layer. Cover the pan with aluminium foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Without aluminium foil, rice gets dried up easily.
If you wanna cook on stovetop, layer the biriyani in a cooker or in a pan. Cover with a lid and cook for 20 minutes.
Garnish - Thinly slice 1 onion. Heat ghee in a pan. Fry cashew and then raisins. And then add onion. Sprinkle salt and bit sugar. Deep fry onion.
Garnish the top of biriyani with the above fried onions and roasted cashews and raisins. Serve it with raitha, pickle and papad.

Notes

1. Another way of rice preparation with few changes from the recipe - Don't soak rice in water before the rice preparation. Clean rice and add it to the pan/cooker after roasting spices. Add 8 cups of water instead of 6 cups, in that case. Rest of the steps remain the same.

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