Start by weighing out your rice. Then, wash it under running water a few times and let it soak in for 30 minutes. In the meantime, take your chicken and cut it into bite-sized pieces using kitchen scissors. (Well, I got lazy and didn’t want to dirty my cutting board)
Then, marinate it! Add in the garlic paste, regular yogurt, salt, black pepper, red chili powder, coriander powder, and a bit of garam masala. Mix everything up and let it marinate while you cook the rice and prepare the veggies.
Get a pot, add the drained rice, then season with salt and turmeric. In that, add in the cardamom pods, followed by the cloves. To this, add 300 milliliters of water. Now, you just turn on the heat and bring it to a boil.
Once it starts bubbling, cover the rice with the lid. Keep it cooking for about 10 minutes or till the liquid gets absorbed. Once done, turn off the heat and let it sit covered for 10 more minutes. After that, pop the lid and fork up the rice to keep it non-sticky. (Oh! Don’t forget to remove the whole spices once the rice cools down)
After that, get your pan and add in your ghee. To this, add some cumin seeds and sliced onions. Now, saute it and caramelize the onions. Add in some water when the onions brown and cook until the water evaporates. You can repeat this a couple of times, too, as it helps with even browning.
Once the onions have cooked (or I’ve lost patience), throw in the marinated chicken. With a bit of water, rinse out that bowl to get all the marinated juices into the recipe. Add the water mixture to the chicken and start sauteing for a few minutes. After that, add in some water, mix everything up and cover it. Keep it cooking for 6 to 8 minutes.
You can then add in some mint leaves for extra flavor. To that, add some mixed vegetables. These can be frozen or a mixture of chopped carrots, cauliflower, beans and peas. After mixing everything, bring it up to a boil to get that flavor party started.
Now, we take out our rice and layer it on top of the gravy while it continues to cook. (Biriyani style!) Remember that we want this liquid to really reduce and cook down. This way, it can intensify the flavors seamlessly. So, cook it for another 5 minutes on medium heat and then garnish it with coriander leaves. Then, turn the stove off.
Then, mix everything up so you can store it in your meal prep box. To find out what 1 serving is, you need to get your scale out. Transfer everything to a Tupperware and weigh it. For me, the full dish weighed 1205 grams. So, 1 serving was 241 grams. When it’s time to eat, get your plate or bowl and serve yourself 241 grams of pulao.