This just may be my new favorite food. The first time I ever had chicken biryani was about 5 years ago, at Sansar in Livermore, CA. I loved it and returned often (this also happens to be the only Indian restaurant to ever give me authentic amounts of heat in my food). And since then, I have searched high and low for a restaurant that made chicken biryani even half as good as Sansars, until now that is. Because now I can make it at home. Granted this did take me 8 hours to make. But it also made enough to feed a family of eight, so we had plenty of leftovers to make my time worthwhile. It took a while to develop this recipe, since there are so few recipes online which seem remotely correct, but here it goes.
The day before, I marinated the chicken and let it sit overnight.
On the day of, I first made rice, steamed with lots of whole and ground spices.
Then the chicken masala was cooked, with the chicken and all its marinade added to a pan of onions and spices, then simmered with tomatoes and yogurt for a while.
Then the chicken masala, and the rice were layered into a large oven-safe vessel and baked for 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld.
And when it came out of the oven, it was beautiful and smelled so good, that we ate it. And I was the happiest person in the world for the next week as we munched the leftovers.