Food Auntie

Kavitha's huge smile and bubbly personality drew me to her immediately.  That, and the fact that she, like me, loves (I mean, loves) cupcakes.  Below is her recipe for chicken pulav.

A few years ago my girlfriends and I went to my mom's house and she taught us how to cook a bunch of my favorites (while we made her measure everything instead of the usual "pinch of that, a spoon of this").  Here's my mom's recipe for chicken biriyani/pulav. -Kavitha

Chicken Pulav
1 ¾ cup of basmati rice (1 ½ coffee mugs of rice is equal)
4 cups of chicken cut into small cubes (because you are putting chicken in rice, you can use more or less)

Rinse the rice

Prepare to grind in blender, to make a paste:
6 cloves of garlic
1 square inch of ginger. Take the skin out.
2 hot jalapenos
A little onion – about 1 cup of onion cut
A little cilantro – ½ cup

Can add water to grind if need to for blender, then grind. It will be a bright green color (it looks similar to pesto)

Get a pot that will hold about 5 quarts
Hear 6 tablespoons of oil in pot on high

When oil is hot – add cinnamon, fennel, cloves, and onions:
Cinnamon stick – about 1 ½ inches long. Break up stick.
1 teaspoon of cloves
½ teaspoon of fennel seeds
½ large onion cut

When onion is brown, add the paste to the pot

Add 1 teaspoon turmeric powder and 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

When the gravy becomes thick (it has probably been on the stove for about 10 minutes on high heat), add the chicken
Let chicken cook for about 10 minutes, and then add the rice and stir

Add 2 ½ cups of water

After about 5 minutes, lower the heat to simmer, and cover (if an oven-safe pot, put entire pot in the oven at 300 degrees)

15 minutes later, stir chicken and rice so that the other half of the chicken is on the bottom of the pot