Shahi Pulao

5 from 2 votes

A fusion style Layer Rice pulao dish, made with layers of rice, dry chicken curry, crispy spicy potatoes and a mild white sauce on top to tie everything together.

Prep Time30

Cook Time30

Total Time1

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Fusion Food, pakistani

Servings: people

Calories: 515kcal

Author: Wajiha

Equipment

blender

Ingredients

Chicken Curry

500 gm boneless chicken cut in small cubes
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
2 whole onion fried until golden brown
2 large tomato
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1/2 cup yogurt
5 whole serrano green chilies
1 ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
1 ½ teaspoon red chili powder
½ teaspoon red chili flakes
2 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
3 to 4 tablespoon oil for cooking

Pulao Rice

500 gm long grain basmati rice soaked in water for 20 mins
4 bayleaves
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 cloves
2 black cardamom
4 green cardamom
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 chicken bouillon cube optional
8 black peppercorns
1 tablespoon garlic paste
2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 ½ teaspoon black cumin seeds (shah zeera)

Toppings

2 cup potato cut in 1/2 in cubes, parboiled in water seasoned with salt and vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon chat masala optional
2 tablespoon finely chopped tomato for garnish
2 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro (coriander) for garnish

Sauce

1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar
chaat masala to taste optional

Instructions

Layer 1 - Pulao Rice (if not using left over pulao rice)

Add oil, whole spices, cumin seeds and garlic paste in oil in a medium pot. Saute at medium heat till garlic paste turns slightly golden brown.
Add soaked rice and salt to the pot. Add enough water that your rice are atleast 1/2 an inch below the water level. Mark the end of a spoon at 1/2 an inch mark and insert it to see your rice is below the 1/2 inch mark or not. You can also use your index finger to do this, your 1 part of index finger should be submerged in water when it touches the rice.
Do a salt taste test of the water, it should taste balanced, not salty or underseasoned.
Cover with a lid and cook at high heat for 5 mins or until all the water has visibly evaporated.
Reduce the flame to low and steam rice for another 5 minutes
Use a flat spoon and toss and turn the rice upside down. You can also use a fork to fluff up your rice.

Layer 2 - Dry Chicken Curry

In a medium sized pot, add oil, chicken, garglic ginger paste, all the powdered spices and salt. Saute at medium heat until chicken changes color from pink to white or brown.
Add all remaining ingredients listed for chicken curry in a blender to make a curry paste.
Add curry paste to the chicken pot along with 1 cup water. Cover the pot and cook the chicken at medium high heat for 10 mins.
Your chicken curry should be towards the dry side and not be very saucy.

Layer 3 - Toppings

To cook the potatoes, you can either bake them in the oven or grill them on the stove.
To bake: Preheat oven at 450°F (230°C). Layer potatoes on a parchment paper in a baking tray and spray with cooking oil. Turn on the broiler for quick results
Bake for 20 mins or until roasted golden brown, flipping halfway through
To Grill: Simply toss the potatoes on a grill pan with some oil and grill at high heat until they become golden and crispy on the outside.
Toss the potatoes in some chat masala and salt to complete.
Chop coriander and tomato for garnish

Layer 4 - Sauce

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.

Assembling

In a large wide dish, start layering with rice at the bottom.
Add chicken curry on the top of the rice.
Sprinkle potatoes, chopped tomatoes and coriander over the curry
Drizzle the sauce on the toppings and serve.

Notes

You can use left over pulao rice for the rice layer. All pulao rice work with this recipe, eg, matar pulao, zeera pulao or simple baghare chawal (tempered rice)
For the toppings, you can add other vegetables of your liking as well.
Since pulaos are generally, mild tasting and not very spicy, the flavor profile of this dish overall is similar to that. You can add chili flakes or hot sauce to the sauce and curry if you want to bring more heat to the dish
To serve the dish for a get together, you can prepare the curry, sauce and boil potatoes a day before. On the day of, simply cook the rice and grill the potatoes, while reheating the curry.

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