Chicken Biryani

Ingredients

1 to 2 kg mutton or chicken (preferably bony & fatty)
1 kg basmati rice
100 to 150 grm. Yogurt
3 to 4 tsp. salt (according to taste)
1 medium onion
6 garlic (Lehsan) cloves
1 tbs. ginger (Adrak) paste
12-16 green cardamom (Chhoti Ilaichi)
1½ to 2 tbs. garlic (Lehsan) paste
16-20 cloves (Laung)
1 cup oil, preferably ghee
2-3 tbs. Kewra
½ tsp. yellow food colour
1 tsp. sugar
1 pinch saffron (Zafran)
½ tbs. lemon juice

Instructions

Add mutton, salt and garlic (Lehsan) cloves in a pot with 2 glasses of water. If you are using chicken you can do with only one glass of water or less.
Cook on low flame till the meat is tender and the water dries.
Take one medium onion slice it and fry it in about 1 cup of oil/ghee till it is light brown. Add the rest of the spices, yogurt and fry it little and then add the meat.
Simultaneously soak the rice in water for half an hour.
Boil the rice with 1 tbs. of salt and ½ tbs. of lemon juice till it is ¾ cooked. Drain the water and keep it aside.
Transfer a little rice to a pot and on top of that add some of the meat masala combo so as to make layers of rice and masala keeping rice layer at the bottom and top.
Sprinkle on it a solution of Kewra, yellow food colour, 1 tsp. of sugar and a pinch of Saffron (Zafran) soaked in a tbs. of milk or water.
Keep it covered and on a low flame for about 10 minutes keeping the pot tightly closed to steam cook (dum).
When the rice is done, the biryani is ready.
Serve with salad or Garlic (Lehsan) chutney and Raita