Fragrant, comforting, and easy to serve as a complete meal, Awadhi chicken biryani is a non-vegetarian Awadhi main made with simple everyday ingredients in about 60 minutes. The recipe lays out the ingredients and each cooking step clearly, so you can adjust seasoning, texture, and serving size for your own kitchen.
Recipe Snapshot
- Prep time: 30 minutes
- Cook time: 30 minutes
- Total time: 60 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: Awadhi
Ingredients
- 420 grams basmati rice ((2 ½ cups) (aged rice))
- 1 large onion (thinly sliced about 1 heaped cup (or handful of fried onions))
- ¼ cup ghee
- 4 cloves
- 1 bay leaf (, small, / tej patta)
- 4 green cardamoms (/ elaichi)
- 1 to 2 cinnamon sticks (/ dalchini)
- ½ shahi jeera (/ caraway seeds)
- ½ tsp kewra water
- 2 drops meeta attar ((optional) (prefer organic))
- 3 to 4 green chilies
- 1 Pinch saffron (, soaked in 1 tbsp water)
- 4 tbsp cream
- 1 ½ cup mint ((pudina chopped) (not used in authentic awadhi biryani, but some places they are used))
- 1 kg chicken (or lamb meat (bone-in))
- 1 ½ gram cinnamon (/ dalchini)
- 6 green cardamoms (/ elaichi)
- ½ tsp cloves (/ lavang)
- 2 bay leaves (/ tej patta)
- ¾ tsp salt (or as needed)
- ½ tsp cardamom powder (/ eliachi powder)
- 150 grams curd (, or ¾ cup, / yogurt (semi thick) (do not use sour))
- 1 ½ tbsp ginger garlic paste (or ginger juliennes)
- ½ tsp Yellow chili powder (, (Substitute with Red chilli powder))
- 1 pinch mace powder (, or substitute with 2 to 3 strands of mace / javitri)
- 1 tsp rose water
- ½ tsp kewra water
- ½ tsp shahi jeera
- 1 to 2 bay leaf ((optional))
- 2 to 4 green cardamoms (/ elaichi (optional))
- Cinnamon stick ((optional))
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice ((optional))
- 1 tsp salt (or as needed)
Method
- Please follow the instructions from the step by step photo instructions.
Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note
Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.
