Easy Chicken Biryani with Quinoa

I am a list person - i have a list for everything but one of the things I really struggle with is making a list of our meals. I don't know why i struggle so much with it because I absolutely love it when I do. I think I find it too confining and I am not one to colour inside the box and I like to cook what I'm either craving or a dish that's been on my mind. Shayne often complains that I would ask him what we should have for dinner (on our way home from work) and he'll suggest pasta and I'll be like okay - we are having curry. I think he's kinda caught on that 99% of the time I will go with something completely different to what he suggested. Sometimes I end up cooking something completely different to what I was planning to cook when I first start cooking. So as you can see - planning a weeks meal is not always followed.

During this lockdown (CV 2021), I've started getting into cooking again and on one of our fortnightly shopping trip I came upon this jar of Briyani Cooking paste. I have never eaten or cooked Biryani before (I know shock horror especially living in Fiji with all the different types of curry - one would think that I would have had it at least once... anyeeeeway) so i thought this might be a good way to learn and state something new. The jar was not expensive so I figured if it doesn't taste right, It wouldn't be too much of a big deal. This was in the panty for a couple of weeks before I made my first attempt. Read the recipe on the back of the jar and a few other recipies on the web and felt pretty confident that I could put it all together without worrying too much about measurements etc. At the time, I only had frozen chicken pieces - dinner time was getting close and since i don't have a microwave - couldn't really defrost the chicken quickly... wonder if it would work cooking it in the pressure cooker - quicken the process and still keep the meat moist (I've always found that chicken tends to stay dry if you cook it from frozen)/ I am also not the biggest fan of rice (quite the opposite to middle daughter who can eat rice 24/7). I prefer quinoa - the rest of the family prefer rice - our compromise - we will go halves. I apologise to the purists but this recipe is here to stay - especially since it is my now go to meal when I am running out of time and haven't had the chance to put out meat for dinner in the morning before going to work. 

• 1 Onion diced
• 3-4 medium size tomatoes diced
• 1 tbsp oil (I use olive oil)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp "Mothers Recipe Biryani Cooking Paste"
• 2-3 tbsp plain yoghurt
• 3 tbsp warm milk
• pinch saffron thread
• 1 cup long grain rice
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 kg chicken breast

1. Heat oil in pot 
2. Add chopped Onion and Tomatoes, stir, add salt
3. Add Biryani sauce and yoghurt - combine thoroughly
4. Add Chicken, close pot and let cook for about 15min
5. In the meantime, add saffron threads to warm milk and let sit
6. Soak rice and quinoa mixture in water 
7. After the first whistle of the pressure cooker, release steam, open lid and add rice/quinoa mixture into the chicken
8. Try not to stir in the rice mixture but make sure it's fully submerged in the sauce.
9. Close lid and cook for another 5-7min (after the first whistle) and let it sit till you're ready to serve.
10. Serve with either tamarind sauce or favourite chutney 

Makes 5-6


notes and local shopping tip:

• this is my emergency - don't know what to cook and don't have time. You can use any meat- i've always just used chicken
• this Biryani sauce is from Extra Supermarket (I seriously contemplated sharing this recipe because I was worried they will run out of the sauce and I will have to start looking for an alternative)
• quinoa can be found at Cost U Less, Lazy Chefs, Yong Tong, New World and Extra oh and Fresh Choice
• Chicken - I like the Crest Chicken breasts (1kg bags) as they are perfect for this recipe

Hope you enjoy this as much as we do. Loloma Levu - Tor x