If you feel like venturing into the creative side of cooking, then the Spice Rack’s traditional chicken or mutton biryani recipe is just for you.

And if what you need for the recipe is not in the cupboard, you can bet you’ll find it at the Spice Rack.

Traditional Biryani mutton or chicken:

Serves six to eight people
1 kg chicken / mutton

The rice:

3 heaped cups of Basmati rice
2 tsp Cumin seeds (Jeera)
4 tsp of coarse salt
1 cinnamon stick
2 Pods Cardamom (Elachi)
Method: half cook/boil rice with Cardamom, Cinnamon stick , Cumin and salt.

Marinate the mutton/chicken overnight with the following:

2 tsp coarse salt
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
*1 Large Mug of fried onions or fry 2 large onions in oil till golden brown
2 tsp ginger and garlic ground
2 tsp chili paste
3 tsp chili powder or crushed chilies
2 Tbls lemon juice
*1 1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt
*1/2 packet saffron
1 tsp whole jeeru
2 tsp Coriander pwd (Dhania)
2 tsp Cumin pwd
2 Cinnamon sticks
4 Pods Cardamom
5 to 6 Peppercorns
2 whole green chilies
1 Handful of fresh Coriander
1 tsp garam masala
* Tomato puree
4 to 5 medium potatoes cut into 12 pieces
*4 medium tomatoes
1 cup Brown lentils (Masoor)
Boil the brown lentils in water with 1/4 tsp Turmeric and 1 tsp coarse salt
*Place the Saffron in a microwavable cup with enough boiling water to cover it and microwave on high for 15 seconds
*Boil the tomatoes and puree it
For every 1 tomato, add 1 tblsp of tomato puree
*If making mutton Biryani, add an extra 1/2 cup of yogurt
Fry the potatoes until golden brown

In a large flat pot, layer as follows:

Marinated raw meat / chicken at the bottom
Brown lentils and fried potatoes on top of marinated meat / chicken
The cooked rice at the top with some fried onion to garnish

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