Chicken Barayani

Ingredients

1. Fine rice (Basmati rice recommended) - 1 pyi
2. Chicken (each weighing about 50 ticals) - 3
3. Oil - 10 ticals
4. Butter/ghee - 40 ticals
5. Ginger - 2 ticals
6. Cinnamon - 1 tical
7. Saffron - a pinch
8. Yogurt - 1 tea cup
9. Cloves - 9 pods
10. Cardamom - 9 pods
11. Cashew nuts - 20 ticals
12. Dried raisins - 3 ticals
13. Beans - 1 cup
14. Masala - 5 ticals
15. Bay leaf - 10 ticals
16. Milk - 15 ticals

Preparation

1. Clean the chicken thoroughly. Cut into 4 pieces (not including head, neck, feet and wings).
2. Pound ginger and squeeze the liquid onto the chicken. Add yogurt and half of the masala and marinate the chicken pieces.
3. Add saffron in the milk.
4. Cut onions into thin pieces and fry until golden brown in oil and butter. When crisp take out from oil, mix remaining masala with the fried onion and crush.
5. Wash rice thoroughly and drain water out.

Cooking

1. Boil water. When it boils, add rice, mix well with the water and close the cover. After awhile, when it boils again, open the cover and stir. Then take down from heat and drain water out of the rice.
2. Spread banana leaf in the pot that is being used to make barayani. Layer the chicken pieces on the bottom, then spread one layer of rice and one layer of fried onions. Continue making layers until rice is all used up. There should be about 3, 4 layers.
3. Pour butter/ghee on the top layer of rice and cover the top.
4. Give high heat to the top of the pot and to the bottom. Give no heat to the middle of the pot. If there is smoke coming out, take some fire away from the bottom. This is a traditional way of cooking barayani with charcoal in an open fire.
5. In about 15 minutes, barayani will be cooked and ready to be served.