Spicy Chicken Pulao Recipe

Spicy Chicken Pulao Recipe

Recipe by: Hameem Fatima

Today we are going to share with you the recipe for spicy chicken pulao. Chicken pulao is a very famous recipe in Pakistan and India and there are a lot of variations as well. Our recipe today is a spicier version and we are going to use a lot of green  chillies to spice our dish up. So let's get started with the recipe.

Ingredients

• 500g chicken, cut into pieces
• 2 cups of basmati rice, washed and soaked for 30 minutes
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 9 green chillies, 6 finely chopped and 3 whole
• 1 tbsp ginger/ garlic paste
• 1 tsp salt/ to taste
• 1 tsp black pepper/ to taste
• 1/3 tsp red chilli flakes
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 star anise
• 6 green cardamoms
• 3 black cardamoms
• 1 cinnamon stick
• A pinch of mace
• A pinch of ground nutmeg
• 3 and 3/4th cups of water 

Cooking Method

Take a cooking pot and add cooking oil. Add chopped onions. Sauté the onions on medium heat until golden brown in color. Once the onions turn golden brown in color, add ginger/ garlic paste, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, green cardamoms, black cardamoms, star anise, black peppercorns, cinnamon stick and mace. Sauté until fragrant. 

Once the ginger/ garlic paste and whole spices become fragrant, add chicken and stir well. Keep stirring to cook the chicken until the chicken turns golden brown in color. 

Once the chicken turns golden brown in color, add chopped and whole green chillies, salt, black pepper, red chilli flakes, ground nutmeg, turmeric, cumin powder and coriander powder. 

Mix the entire contents well and then add water. You can also use chicken stock instead of water. The recipe for the chicken stock can be found here. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil on medium heat. Once the water starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and let the chicken cook for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add rice to the chicken. Mix well. Put the lid back on and let the rice cook on medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until the level of water reduces below to that of the level of the rice. 

Once the water level reduces below the rice level, reduce the heat to low and let it cook for another 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, spicy chicken pulao is ready to serve.

Serving Suggestions

This delicious pulao can be served with:

• Raita
• Salad 🥗
• Chutney
• Shami kababs

The recipe for shami kababs can be found here