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.