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Biryani is of Mogul origin, derived from the Persian Pilau, and when cooked in a traditional way uses many spices and exotic ingredients and takes a lot of preparation and time to make. Restaurants must speed up this process and therefore use precooked ingredients and presentation styles suited to this 'fast-food' environment. High street restaurants will make this with either basmati or pilau rice and, being a dryish curry, serve it with some kind of vegetable curry. In restaurants, although not traditional, it is frequently garnished with cucumber and tomato.

Preparation

• Cut the precooked chicken into small pieces.
• Chop the onion.
• Slice a little cucumber and tomato into thin pieces for garnish.

Cooking

1. Heat the oil in a heavy pan or wok and cook the onion for 1 min.
2. Stir in the methi, salt, almonds and sultanas and cook, stirring for 1 min.
3. Stir in the c41 spice mix and cook, stirring, for ½ min.
4. Add the chicken, stir, and cook, for 1 min.
5. Carefully stir in the cooked rice (ensure this is hot - microwave for a couple of minutes if it has cooled) and cook for ½ min.

Serving

1. Garnish with a little chopped cucumber, tomato and freshly chopped coriander. In restaurants it is typically served with a curry sauce of some sort but I don't think this is really necessary.

Notes

Methi is dried fenugreek leaves and can be purchased at many supermarkets (eg ASDA) or Indian stores.
This was adapted from a video on U-Tube by Dipuraja.

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The main ingredients
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The finished meal


Methi
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