South Indian
Chennai Chicken Biryani (Seeraga Samba Rice)
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Chennai Chicken Biryani (Seeraga Samba Rice) is South Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
The quantities follow this count.
How to cook it
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Rinse the seeraga samba rice gently twice and soak it 20 minutes. Mix the chicken with the yogurt, turmeric, red chili powder, half the ginger garlic paste and 1/2 tsp of the salt and leave it while you start the masala.
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Heat the oil and ghee in a pressure cooker or heavy pot, add the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, bay leaves and star anise, then the thinly sliced onions, and fry 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown.
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Add the rest of the ginger garlic paste and the slit green chilies for 1 minute, then the chopped tomatoes with half the mint and half the cilantro, and cook until the tomatoes turn mushy.
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Add the marinated chicken and cook on medium heat 10 minutes, stirring, until it is half cooked and the masala clings to it.
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Pour in the water with the rest of the salt and the lemon juice and bring it to a rolling boil. Taste it: the water should be a little saltier than you want the rice. Drain the rice and add it, scatter the remaining mint, cilantro and the garam masala over, and stir once.
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Close the cooker and cook 1 whistle on medium heat, then turn it off and leave it 15 minutes before opening. In a pot, cover tightly and cook on the lowest heat 18 to 20 minutes instead. Fluff it gently with a fork so the small grains stay whole, and bring it to the table with onion raita.
Serve it with
A South Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Chennai Chicken Biryani (Seeraga Samba Rice), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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What it is eaten with
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The sharp little thing
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Something cool and fresh
A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Chennai Chicken Biryani (Seeraga Samba Rice) carries dairy. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | Yes | Adai (Tamil Nadu Multi-Lentil Dosa) |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | No | |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Estimated, per serving
- Calories
- 490 kcal
- Protein
- 23 g
- Carbs
- 58 g
- Fat
- 18 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sugar
- 4 g
- Sodium
- 660 mg
- Saturated fat
- 6 g
Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.
When to cook it
Chennai Chicken Biryani (Seeraga Samba Rice) takes about 75 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a proper project. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
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Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.