Chicken Yakhni Pulao at Home: Fluffy Basmati Rice Cooked in a Clear, Fragrant Stock
A good chicken yakhni pulao is biryani’s quieter cousin. No layers, no food colour, no heavy hand with the chillies. Everything rests on the yakhni — the clear, spiced stock the rice cooks in — and when that stock is fragrant and the grains stay separate, the dish needs nothing more than raita and raw onion on the side.
Ingredients
For the stock: half a kilo of bone-in chicken; one medium onion, quartered; six or seven garlic cloves; a one-inch piece of ginger; one tablespoon of whole coriander seed; one teaspoon of fennel seed; four green cardamoms; two black cardamoms; four cloves; a stick of cinnamon; two bay leaves; and salt to taste. Tie all the whole spices in a small muslin cloth to make a potli. For the rice: two cups of basmati, soaked for thirty minutes; one large onion, sliced thin; half a cup of yogurt, whisked smooth; four or five green chillies; one teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste; half a cup of oil or ghee; and fried onions and fresh coriander to finish.
Method
Build the stock first. Put the chicken, quartered onion, garlic, ginger, the spice potli and salt in a pot with five cups of water, and simmer on a medium flame for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until the chicken is tender. Lift out the potli and squeeze it well, take the chicken out, and strain the stock; you want about four cups. Now heat the oil in a wide, heavy pot and fry the sliced onion until golden; lift half of it out for the top. In the same pot, add the ginger-garlic paste and the cooked chicken and fry for two or three minutes, then stir in the yogurt and green chillies and cook two minutes more, until the oil shows at the edges. Pour in the strained stock and bring it to a rolling boil. Drain the soaked rice, add it, taste and fix the salt, and cook on a high flame until the water drops below the surface of the rice and small holes appear. Wrap the lid in a cloth, seal the pot, and give it fifteen minutes of dum on the lowest flame. Switch off and rest it, unopened, for ten minutes.
Serving it properly
Loosen the rice from the side with a flat spoon so the grains do not break. Scatter the reserved fried onions and coriander over the top, and serve with mint raita, sliced raw onion and green chutney. Worth knowing: if a jug of yakhni is sitting in the fridge from the weekend, this becomes the easiest weeknight dinner there is — soak the rice, build the pot, and let the dum do the rest.
