Chicken Yakhni Pulao

This time of the year the whole Delhi is celebrating Navratri. They are having fast for the whole 9 days at a stretch, having fruits only diet, and of course, a strict NO-NO to non-vegetarian food. Well, Bengalis are always the exception! And when it comes to food, they don’t follow any rituals which bar them from having their favourite dishes. So, naturally, even this time of the year, my refrigerator is full of chicken, fish, egg – whatsoever it may be possible. And on Sunday, both my culinary passion and my taste buds crave for something delicious, something scrumptious and obviously, something non-veg! Oh dear, be it the first day of the Navratri, I just can’t waste my Sunday lunch with vegetarian food just like other Bengalis. I remember during my childhood, it would be a rare occasion not to have mutton (Khasir mangso) on Sunday lunch. Though I don’t follow this now regularly, but still, there must be something special on the dining table on Sunday.

So, this Sunday, I prepared Chicken Yakhni Pulao. Yakhni Pulao is a Persian delicacy which was introduced to the Indian by Mughal Rulers. By the Nawabs of Lucknow or Awadh, it was made more popular. Though the authenticated Yakhni Pulao is generally made of mutton, we have made our own improvisation to prepare the same dish with chicken too. Yakhni, or the broth or stock is with its simplest term means the stew cooked with the meat and spices. The yakhni pulao is basically the pulao which is cooked in the yakhni. Sounds similar to the biryani, right? The basic difference between both the dishes is that the yakhni pulao is made by cooking the meat along with aromatic spices in water till the meat is tender, then adding the rice in the meat broth along with meat which is then sealed and cooked till it's done, whereas in case of biryani, the rice is boiled or parboiled separately in spiced water and then layered with separately cooked meat, which is then sealed and cooked over low heat till it's done. So, the method  of preparation is a bit easier in case of Yakhni Pulao, which is more or a less a one pot meal with rice and meat cooked together. But the aroma and taste.. just out  of  the world ! 

Let’s begin with the recipe now….

Preparation Time – 20 mins, Cooking Time – 40 mins, Serving – 3-4

Ingredients:

For the  Yakhni:

1. Chicken – 600 gms, cut into medium sized pieces, cleaned and skinned
2. Bay leave – 2 nos.
3. Onion – ½ of a medium sized onion, cut into 4 dices
4. Garlic – 2 cloves
5. Ginger – 1 inch piece
6. Cumin – ½ tsp
7. Coriander – ½ tsp
8. Kabab chini – ½ tsp
9. Shahi jeera – ½ tsp
10. White pepper (sha morich as we call it in Bengali) – ½ tsp
11. Black peppercorn – ½ tsp
12. Nutmeg – ½ inch piece
13. Mace – 1 flower
14. Saunf – ½ tsp
15. Green cardamom – 3-4 nos.
16. Clove – 4-5 nos.
17. Cinnamon  -  2 inch stick
18. Dry red chilli – 1-2
19. Water – 1 ½ times the volume of the rice + ¾ cup

For the pulao:

1. Basmati rice – 300 gms (it is a thumb rule for Pulao or biryani to use the rice weighing half the meat), washed and drained
2. Ghee – 1 tbsp
3. Olive oil – 1 tbsp
4. Onion – 2 medium
5. Green chilli – 2 nos.
6. Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tbsp
7. Yogurt – 4 tbsp
8. Tomato – 1 medium
9. Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
10. Salt – to taste
11. Sugar – 2 tsp

Method:

First, you are going to prepare the yakhni… the main part of the whole preparation. For that, tie up all the whole spices mentioned for yakhni in a piece of muslin. In a deep pan, put the muslin bundle along with the chicken. Pour the water you have measured. Let me explain the water measurement for your convenience. Measure the rice in any utensil as per your availability and convenience. It may be in a bowl or in a cup. Say for example, 300 gms of rice is measured as 2 cups of rice. Now, you have to take 1 ½ times of water, i.e, 3 cups of water, measured in the same cup you used for measuring the rice. Then, pour a little extra, say, ¾ cup.

Then put the pan on the gas oven over a low flame. Cover it. Keep it for 20-25 mins.

By the time your yakhni is being prepared, you can make your other preparation. Such as, slice the onion and tomato, beat the yogurt to have a smooth texture and spread the washed rice on a flat plate to dry it up.

After 20-25 mins, the spices in the muslin bundle, will infuse all their aroma in the water. The chicken has its own flavour too. And by this time, the chicken will get tender also.

Moreover, the water in the pan will be reduced to the desired quantity. The extra amount we have put, would have been evaporated. The water left in the pan is just the appropriate amount we need to cook your rice.

Take the muslin bundle out of the pan. Keep it aside. Drain the chicken pieces and keep aside them too.

Now, take the spices out from the muslin and make a paste of it (except for the bay leaves). It may sound a bit weird or you may think the spices have already released their aroma, so the paste will be of no use. But trust me, it is not. It will give the richness of flavour in your rice. Moreover, it’s always better to use it than to waste, isn’t it? Even otherwise, you would have to add some spices to the pulao for the intricate flavours. But as you have already used these spices, and your yakhni is infused with their aroma, adding more fresh spices would have make your pulao too loaded with fragrances. By using these boiled spice paste, you can make your pulao simple yet extraordinary.

To cook the pulao, heat ghee and oil in a pan or pressure cooker. Add the bay leaves you kept aside taken from the muslin out. Add sliced onion and fry it till golden brown.

Add tomato and let it get soft.

Then add rest of the ingredients mentioned for pulao. Cook them till they start releasing oil.

Add the chicken and the spice paste. Cook it for another 2-3 mins.

Then add the rice and the yakhni water.

Cover your pan and let the rice cook over high flame till the water dries up and rice gets fully cooked. If you are using pressure cooker, cover the lid and cook it over high flame till the whistle is about to blow. Try not to let the whistle blow so that the aromatic vapour may be kept inside the cooker only.

When you open the pan or the pressure cooker, all your senses will be filled up with heavenly fragrances… a combination of whole spices, ghee, chicken, basmati rice… just out of the world !

Serve it. Don’t overdo it with any side dish. Better serve it with simple cucumber raita.