Chicken Biryani Recipe: Easy Dum Biryani with Basmati or Sella Rice

This easy chicken biryani recipe serves 6: chicken thighs marinated in yoghurt and biryani masala are cooked with onions and tomatoes, layered with part-cooked basmati or sella rice and steamed in a sealed pot on a low heat, the method called dum. Allow about 2 hours 50 minutes, including at least an hour's marinating.

What is biryani?

Britannica describes biryani as a rice dish of Persian origin, now a popular celebratory dish in South Asia; the name comes from the Farsi phrase birinj biriyan, "fried rice". The rice is half-cooked separately and layered over briefly precooked meat or vegetables, "with the rice at the top so that the juices of the other ingredients steam it", and in one common preparation the pot is "sealed with dough".

That slow, sealed finish is dum (or dam), cooking gently in the pot's own steam; it gives dum biryani its name. This recipe is pakki ("cooked") biryani: the chicken is cooked before layering, so you can check it is done, unlike kacchi ("raw") biryani, where raw marinated meat cooks under the rice.

Which rice is best for biryani: sella or basmati?

Long-grain basmati is the most common rice for biryani, Britannica notes. Sella basmati is parboiled (steamed in the husk before milling), so its grains are firmer, stay separate and are less likely to break or turn sticky; basmati that is not parboiled cooks softer, light and fluffy. Both work; see our guide to sella basmati rice. Sella usually needs a little more water and time than white basmati, say our sella pages, so here it boils for longer after the same 30-minute soak (our rice pages suggest 20–30 minutes).

Try Khyber Sella Basmati Rice 5kg, which our page calls ideal for biryani and pilau, or Unique Super Kernel Basmati Rice 5kg (not described as sella), which cooks up soft yet separate. Both are bulk buys in our pulses, rice and grains range.

Which biryani masala? Our three blends compared

Biryani is generally less piquant than curry, Britannica notes. Our three blends differ most in salt and heat:

Per 500g of chicken, our product pages suggest 2 tablespoons of Greenfields or Sara, or 1 tablespoon of Abido. All three are in our spices and herbs range.

Crispy fried onions and whole spices

Greenfields Crispy Fried Onions (125g) and Sara's Crispy Fried Onions (75g to 5kg) are ready to eat: our pages suggest layering some inside the pot and scattering more on just before serving, so they stay crunchy. The Greenfields onions contain wheat (gluten); for Sara's, check the pack label, as fried onions are often coated in flour. Whole cinnamon, bay leaves and green cardamom pods scent the rice.

Easy chicken biryani recipe (serves 6)

Prep: 20 minutes, plus at least 1 hour marinating. Cook: about 1½ hours, including the 30-minute rice soak (while the chicken cooks) and 10 minutes' resting. Total: about 2 hours 50 minutes. You need a large, heavy flameproof casserole (4–5 litres) with a tight lid.

Ingredients

• Chicken: 1kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 5cm chunks.
• Marinade: 200g plain yoghurt and 4 tablespoons of Greenfields or Sara Biryani Masala, or 2 tablespoons of Abido Biryani Spices plus chilli powder to taste.
• Salt: none at first with Greenfields (it contains salt); 1½ teaspoons with Abido (it has none); with Sara, check the pack.
• For the pot: 4 tablespoons of oil or ghee, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 onions (thinly sliced), 2 Taj Garlic and Ginger Paste cubes (or 4 garlic cloves and 4cm of ginger, grated), 2 tomatoes (chopped), 2 green chillies (slit; optional) and a small bunch each of coriander and mint (chopped).
• Rice: 500g basmati or sella basmati, plus 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 bay leaves and 5 lightly crushed green cardamom pods for the water.
• To layer: 60g crispy fried onions, 2 tablespoons of melted ghee or butter, and a pinch of saffron in 3 tablespoons of warm milk (optional).

Method: how to layer biryani and cook it on dum

1. Marinate. Mix the marinade and any salt in a lidded container and turn the chicken in it. Don't rinse raw chicken: the Food Standards Agency (FSA) warns that washing it can spread campylobacter by splashing. Wash your hands, cover and chill at the bottom of the fridge for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
2. Soak the rice. When you are ready to cook, rinse the rice 2–3 times until the water runs almost clear, then soak it in cold water for 30 minutes.
3. Fry the onions. Heat the oil in the casserole over a medium heat and fry the cinnamon and onions, stirring often, for 10–12 minutes until deep golden. Add the garlic and ginger (cubes from frozen) for 1–2 minutes, then the tomatoes and chillies for 5 minutes.
4. Cook the chicken. Add the chicken and its marinade, cover and simmer gently for 20–25 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce is thick (uncover at the end if watery).
5. Part-cook the rice. Meanwhile, boil 2.5 litres of water with the salt, bay leaves and cardamom. Add the drained rice and boil, uncovered, until nearly tender but still firm in the centre: 5–8 minutes for ordinary basmati, longer for sella (start testing at 8 minutes). Drain well.
6. Check the chicken is cooked. Cut into the thickest piece of chicken with a clean knife. The FSA's advice is that chicken should be steaming hot all the way through, with no pink, fleshy meat, and the juices should run clear. With a food thermometer, the middle should reach 70°C for 2 minutes, or 75°C for 30 seconds.
7. Layer. Taste for salt and stir half the herbs into the chicken, then level it and scatter over half the crispy onions and the rest of the herbs. Spoon the rice on top in a loose, even layer and drizzle over the ghee and saffron milk, if using.
8. Cook on dum. Seal the pot tightly with foil, then the lid. Cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes, until it sizzles, then on the lowest heat for 20 minutes. Or, in an ovenproof pot, bake at 180°C (160°C fan), gas 4, for 20–25 minutes.
9. Rest and serve. Leave it covered, off the heat, for 10 minutes, then fluff gently from the edge, remove the bay leaves and cinnamon and scatter over the remaining onions. Serve with raita and salad.

Allergens: yoghurt, ghee, butter and milk contain milk; the Greenfields masala contains mustard and the Greenfields onions wheat (gluten). Abido's pack says it may contain traces of wheat (gluten), sesame and mustard, and the Taj cubes may contain celery and peanuts. Sara's labels show allergens in bold. Always check the labels.

Biryani vs pilau: what is the difference?

The two overlap: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries define pilau (or pulao) as "a hot dish of rice and vegetables and often pieces of meat or fish, cooked with spices". As usually described, pilau is cooked in one pot and not layered, while biryani is layered, often from separately cooked rice and meat, more strongly spiced and more often the main dish. Food writer Vir Sanghvi has written that nobody can define the difference to his satisfaction.

How to store and reheat biryani safely

Biryani is a rice dish, so follow the FSA's advice on rice, which is stricter than its general advice on leftovers. Bacillus cereus spores in uncooked rice "can survive being cooked", it explains, and "it's not the reheating that causes the problem, but the way the rice has been stored before it's reheated".

• Cool it fast: "chill it as quickly as possible, ideally within one hour". "Dividing it into smaller portions can help with this", and "don't leave rice in the rice cooker, steamer or pan to cool down".
• Fridge: "Keep rice in the fridge for no more than one day until reheating."
• Reheat once: "you should never reheat rice more than once", and check it is "steaming hot all the way through". In a microwave, add a splash of water, cover and stir halfway through.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my biryani rice mushy or hard?

Mushy rice was usually boiled too long, sat on a watery sauce or was stirred after layering. Hard rice was under-boiled, or steam escaped. If it is still firm after resting, sprinkle over 2–3 tablespoons of hot water, reseal and steam on the lowest heat for a few minutes more. Sella is more forgiving.

Can I use chicken breast instead of thighs?

Yes, but breast dries out more easily, so cut it into larger chunks and simmer it only until cooked through, checking the thickest piece is steaming hot with no pink meat and clear juices. Thighs stay juicier, which is why our chicken shawarma recipe uses them too.

Can you freeze chicken biryani?

Yes. The FSA's advice for rice is to cool it quickly and make sure it "goes in the freezer within an hour of cooking", in smaller containers so it chills faster. Before eating, "defrost your rice in the fridge and then reheat it until it is steaming hot before eating immediately". Reheat it only once.

Can I make a vegetable biryani the same way?

Yes. Our Greenfields and Sara pages suggest frying onions with 1–2 tablespoons of masala and mixed vegetables, then layering with rice and steaming. Cooked chickpeas work well too: our guide to lentils and pulses covers soaking and cooking them.