Chicken Dum Biriyani

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice - 4 large cups
Boneless chicken breast - 300 gm (cut into 1" cubes)
Large onions - 3
Large Tomatoes - 2
Medium size potato - 1 (cut into 1" cubes)
Fresh curd/plain yoghurt - 1 cup
Almonds - 8 to 10 pieces 
Cashewnuts - 8 to 10 pieces
Raisins - 12 to 15 pieces
Garlic - 6 to 8 pods
Ginger - 1" inch stick
Ghee/Oil - 8 to 10 tsps
Cinnamon - 1" stick
Green cardomom - 3
Big Black Cardomom - 1
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Shahi Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Kalonji - 1/2 tsps
Dry Red chillies - 5 no's
Kasuri methi - 1/2 tsp
Dry Dhania seeds - 3 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Star anise - 1 whole
250 gms wheat flour/ aluminum foil and a weight
salt to taste
Fresh green coriander chopped fine.

Preparation:
- Clean and wash the chicken pieces and keep aside.
- Heat 4 cups of water in a vessel and bring to a boil.
- Make deep slits at 1" gaps on the tomatoes and blanch them in boiling water. Drain tomatoes and peel the skin.
- Cut two large onions into big pieces.
- Grind the ginger, garlic, onion and tomatoes to a smooth paste.
- Heat a kadai and dry roast dry chillies, coriander seeds, jeera, shahi jeera, kasuri methi, star anise, cinnamon,  green and black cardamoms, kalonji, and before removing from gas just add the turmeric powder and mix well.
- Grind the roasted ingredients in a mixer to a smooth powder.
- Add this masala powder to the ground onion-tomato ginger garlic mixture along with one cup of curd/yoghurt and mix well.
- Add this masala mixture to the chicken pieces,salt to taste, mix well and set aside to marinate for atleast 3-4 hours.
- Meawhile heat 6 cups of water in a vessel, add a teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil.
- Wash the basmati rice and add it to the boiling water and cook till the rice is 3/4th to almost cooked. (Approximately takes 5 to 7 mins ). Drain in a collander and keep aside.
- Cut one large onion into thin long slices. Heat ghee/oil in a kadai and seperately fry the cashews, almonds and raisins. Remove and drain.
- In the left over ghee/oil fry the thinly sliced onions till they are crisp and brown. Remove and drain.
- Now add the marinated chicken pieces along with the marinade and saute for 10 minutes till chicken is cooked and tender and the ghee/oil seperates from the gravy.
Now take a heavy bottomed vessel and coat it with ghee/oil. Add a layer of rice, top it with a layer of chicken gravy, top this with a layer of the fried onions+cashews+raisins+almonds and repeat till all the rice and chicken gravy is layered.
- Now knead the wheat flour to make a nice dough. Take a right fitting lid for the vessel, cover and seal the lid to the vessel with the wheat dough OR cover the mouth of the vessel with aluminum foil place a lid on top of it and keep some heavy weight over it - bottom is to make sure no steam escapes out and the biriyani inside cooks in its own steam.
- Take a heavy bottomed tava, heat it and put the gas on simmer. Now keep the vessel on the tava and cook for approximately 20-25 minutes.
- Remove and garnish with fried onions, almonds, kaju raisins and finely chopped fresh coriander.