This Biryani-Style Roast Chicken Dinner Is My Go-To for Company

This biryani-style chicken is everything I want in a roast chicken dinner: juicy meat, fluffy rice, and tender vegetables, all perfumed with an incredible blend of toasted spices. To achieve this, I use an Hyderabadi-style biryani technique. It’s my go-to dinner party recipe, and I love that the whole meal roasts together in one skillet.

As a South Indian who grew up in Texas, for me “home food” was a mix of my family’s Tamilian cuisine and the culture we were immersed in as new immigrants. My roast chicken recipe highlights elements of both these cuisines: the Texan’s love of a big roast bird burnished in a cast iron skillet along with the spice profile and cooking technique of an Indian biryani.

What is Biryani

While Indian cuisine varies greatly from region to region, biryani transcends this regionality, and there are many iterations of it across India. Often reserved for special occasions and large gatherings, biryani is a celebration of aroma, color, and flavor that features perfectly cooked grains of spiced basmati rice and often times tender chunks of meat and/or vegetables. During the time of the Mughal Empire, the dish traveled throughout India, taking on aspects of various local cuisines. While I appreciate the many styles of biryani, the one I love most and incorporate into this recipe is Hyderabadi biryani. I was first introduced to this style by my father, who loves all biryani, but especially the Hyderabadi version. The roast chicken recipe I'm sharing here takes many cues from that South Indian specialty.

A few things that make Hyderabadi biryani unique are the simultaneous cooking of the meat—most often chicken or lamb that’s broken down into pieces—with the rice, its heavy use of spices, the sealing of the dish to promote steaming while cooking, a variety of textures in the final dish, and the specific fanfare in plating. I’ve incorporated many elements of this biryani style into my whole roast chicken recipe here. Read on for the full recipe and tips for making a beautifully browned and juicy biryani-style roast chicken with plump rice, earthy potatoes, and tender zucchini.

Tips for Making My Biryani-Style Roast Chicken

1. Add big flavor with a freshly toasted spice blend. Bold aromas and rich colors are very important for a good biryani, and most recipes incorporate spices and herbs, such as cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, dried red chiles, and cilantro, which imbue the meat with their aromas as the dish cooks. Here I switch out traditional Indian red chile peppers for a sweeter, denser pepper found in Texas: the Pequin chile. And instead of the anise that's commonly used in Hyderabadi biryani, I opt for allspice berries for a nuanced savory profile. For the best flavor, be sure to toast whole spices and then grind them yourself rather than using store-bought pre-ground spices. 

This recipe makes about double the amount of spice blend needed, but it stores well in an airtight container at room temperature, and you’ll be glad to have the extra spice blend already made for your next roast chicken or to add to simple roast vegetables or rice for another meal.

2. Ensure tender chicken with a yogurt-based marinade. I rely on the gentle tenderizing effect of lactic acid in this yogurt marinade to guarantee moist, juicy meat. Combine the chicken with the marinade and let it sit for at least two hours, but it will be even juicier and more well seasoned if left in the marinade overnight before roasting.

3. Add an ample amount of fresh vegetables. In a classic biryani the rice is the primary ingredient, but here I’ve decided to incorporate lots of vegetables, including potatoes, zucchini, and caramelized onions into the dish to make this a complete meal. Potatoes are a natural pairing with chicken, and I like how the squash melts into the rice as it cooks. 

4. Par-cook the basmati rice with chicken stock. It is standard practice to par-cook the basmati rice in biryani recipes, and I use this technique here. This ensures the rice is evenly cooked once it is combined and steamed with the vegetables and chicken to complete the dish. Instead of par-cooking the rice in water, here it’s simmered in chicken stock to add another layer of chicken flavor.

5. Cook in a cast iron skillet or heavy-bottomed Dutch oven. I grew up watching my family use tawas and vannas, and I realized later in life that cast iron skillets I used as a professional cook in kitchens in Texas are very similar to this traditional Indian cast-iron cookware. They share the same heft and great heat retention properties. My mother would always tell me that South Indian stews like sambhars and khozumbus taste better when cooked in a cast iron vanna, and I feel the same way about roasting chicken in a cast iron skillet. The superior heat retention of a cast iron skillet ensures a great initial sear on the chicken and that heat retention also helps properly cook the rice and vegetables, so everything cooks properly at the same rate.

Since it's abundant amount of vegetables, rice, and the whole chicken cooking all together, I recommend using a 14- or 16-inch cast iron skillet to accommodate everything. if you don't have a skillet this large, a large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven with a lid will also work well.

6. Spatchcock the chicken. Hyderabadi-style biryani traditionally steams the par-cooked rice with cut chunks of chicken or lamb for the final dish. I love how the juices from the meat permeate the rice when they're cooked together. Here the chicken is roasted whole, but spatchcocked for faster, more even cooking. The butterflied flat chicken allows for the rice and vegetables to be layered together in the style of biryani so the flavors all meld. 

7. Transfer to a platter for a great presentation. Once cooked, it's important to let the skillet or pot sit covered for 15 minutes to allow carry-over cooking to occur. At this point you could present the skillet table-side as-is, but I prefer to spoon the rice and vegetable mixture onto a serving platter and top with the spiced spatchcocked chicken. It’s a gorgeous presentation that showcases the layers of work put into it.

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