Irene's Cornish Chicken Breyani

Half cook 2-3 cups rice of your choice with a few cinnamon sticks and elachi and then remove whole spices.
Boil 1/2 cup breyani dhall or use 1 can of brown lentils. Boil a few eggs (optional).

To a large pot add:
1 medium cornish chicken (cut and washed)
1 large chopped onion,
2 teaspoons each of roasted dhania seeds, jeera seeds, fennel seeds, 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 star anise, 4 cloves & 4 elachi (all ground)
2 tsp dhania jeera powder
2 bay leaves,
1 tsp tumeric
3 tsp ginger and garlic paste
1 tbs chilli powder (optional)
2 sprigs curry leaves
half tsp saffron
10 peppercorns freshly & coarsely ground
4 dried chillies
1 & 1/2 cup sour milk
P.S. no oil is used.
Marinate for a minimum of 1 hour. I marinated overnight in fridge.
Cook for 1 hour on medium high heat.
Mix in 1 bunch of mint leaves.
Spread a thin layer of half-cooked rice over the chicken mix, spread the breyani dhall over (I covered half with breyani dhall and the other half with frozen mixed veg to accommodate my family), add boiled eggs (if using) and cover with the remaining rice, a few blobs of butter and food colouring over the top.
Add 1 cup ice water (prevents the food from catching to the bottom of the pot), cover pot with foil and then the lid & bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to the lowest and steam until rice is cooked through for -+ 45 mins or bake in a preheated oven at 160 deg cel for the same time.
Enjoy with dhall or raita.
Prepared, tried and tested by:  Irene Dasari‎