Biryani Rice with chicken

While I was at Trader Joe's on Friday they were handing out samples of this yummy food called Biryani Rice.  It was $5.99 for a bag plus $2.49 for the chutney plus $1.99 for coconut water.  It was pretty darn good and I thought maybe it would be nice to try something new at home.  To buy this from Trader Joe's I would of needed 2 bags of the rice mixture and one jar of chutney.  Total dinner would cost me $16.46 and that is the reason I was determined to make it myself. 

Biryani Rice with chicken

1 chicken breast
Rice
water
1/4 cup of chopped onion
1 cup of frozen pea's (or fresh)
1/2 cup of red bell peppers chopped
1/2 apple peeled/chopped
1/4 cup raisins
1 can of garbanzo beans
2 tsp salt
2 palm fulls of curry powder
6 cups of coconut water (or 6 1/2 cups of water boiled with coconut for 10 minutes.  Strain and use water)
1 tsp of butter

1. Ccoconut and 6 1/2 cups of water simmered on medium heat for 10 minutes. Strain and set aside water till you need it.

2.  In a separate pan saute apple, red peppers and onion till tender. Once tender add in curry powder, salt, peas and chicken.  Add water till the water covers the chicken.  Drain and add in your garbanzo beans.  Boil till you are left with half the water you added in the first place.  Turn off heat, mix in your teaspoon of butter and leave.

3.  Take coconut water and 3 cups of white rice and put into a large pot.  Heat till boiling then turn down heat to medium low and put a lid on it.  After a few minutes you will notice the water is almost gone and you will see holes in the rice where steam is coming through.  Turn heat off and set aside for 10 minutes.  This ensures that the rice will absorb all the water and your end results will be soft and fluffy rice. 

4.  Once the rice is done add in your curry mixture and mix till you see no more white rice.  Put a lid on this and let set for another 5 minutes.  Again this ensures that the rice will absorb all the liquids till nice and fluffy. 

5.  Put rice into bowl with 1 tbsp of chutney. Done!

Here is what my cost was to make this whole dish.

$1.19 chicken breast ($5.99 for bag of 5 breast)
.50  3 cups white rice (at $1 per lb)
FREE water
FREE onion(my sister gave me them)
.41 frozen pea's (bag has 6 cups was $4.99)
.33 frozen red peppers (used about 1 which bought for 3/$1)
.10 organic apple (was .79 per lb, used 1/2 apple)
.41 raisins (used 1/4 cup pack was 3 cups at $2.49)
.99 can of organic garbanzo beans
.99 curry powder ($1.99 jar used 1/2)
.10 Organic coconut flakes (was $5.99 per lb used very little)
1.24 Chutney ($2.49 per jar used 1/2)

Butter/salt I had

TOTAL COST=$6.26
Serves my family of 6 plus enough left overs for lunch tomorrow. Makes about 9/10 cups. 

Honestly I was a little freaked out by apples and raisins in the rice. I have never been a fan of sweet stuff in my main meals and the thought of chewing on them freaked me out. BUT once this dish done there were no chunks of either of them and you would never know they were there unless you made this dish.  If you like the taste of them try not cooking them all the way. 

This meal is slightly spicy so if you cannot handle spice then instead of adding coconut water try adding coconut milk.  Or maybe try adding some plain yogurt for another added creamy flavor. 

Nancy