Gordon Ramsay’s chicken biryani simmers yoghurt-marinated chicken in whole spices while the basmati cooks separately with raisins in spiced ghee. They finish together for the last 5 minutes, fluffy rice, juicy chicken. It takes about 1 hour 10 minutes plus marinating.
The recipe is in his Great Escape India book, and the headnote tackles the biryani fear directly. Authentic versions need “quite a few steps, none of which is at all difficult, but the end result truly justifies the time spent.”
The move that makes it is toasting the rice in the ghee first. Basmati and raisins get a full minute in the hot spiced fat before any water arrives. Every grain ends up coated, coated grains repel each other as they cook, and that’s why his biryani never clumps.
Gordon Ramsay’s Chicken Biryani
Course: DinnersCuisine: IndianDifficulty: Medium4
servings25
minutes45
minutes645
kcal1 hr 10 min
Straight from Great Escape India: 500g of marinated chicken, basmati toasted in ghee with raisins and star anise, and the fried onions saved for the top.
Ingredients
- For the chicken:
500g (1.1 lb) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
200ml (¾ cup + 2 tbsp) natural yoghurt
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp hot chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
3cm (1¼ in) knob of ginger, peeled and grated
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely crushed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp ghee or melted unsalted butter
2 medium onions, peeled and finely sliced
1 cinnamon stick
5-6 cloves
3 cardamom pods
- For the rice:
2 tbsp ghee or melted unsalted butter
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
4 cardamom pods
300g (1½ cups) basmati rice, rinsed and drained
85g (3 oz) raisins
375ml (1½ cups) water
Handful of coriander leaves, to garnish
Directions
- Marinate the chicken: Place the chicken in a bowl with the yoghurt, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala and half the ginger and garlic. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper, mix well to coat, cover with cling film and marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Fry the onions: Heat the oil and 1 tablespoon of the ghee in a heavy-based pan and fry the onions, stirring frequently, over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes until soft and brown. Remove with a slotted spoon, squeezing out any excess oil, and set aside.
- Fry the whole spices: Add the remaining ghee to the pan and tip in the cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Fry for 30 seconds until fragrant, then add the remaining garlic and ginger and cook for another minute.
- Cook the chicken: Add the chicken and all its marinade to the pan and stir well. Simmer for about 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through.
- Toast and cook the rice: Heat another heavy-based pan until hot, add the ghee, cinnamon, star anise and cardamom, and fry for about 30 seconds until aromatic. Tip in the rice and raisins, stir to coat, and toast for a minute. Add the water and a good pinch of salt, bring to the boil, then cover and gently simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Marry them: Remove the lid and spoon the chicken and its sauce over the rice. Re-cover and simmer for another 5 minutes until the rice is ready.
- Rest and serve: Take the pan off the hob and let it stand for 5 minutes with the lid on. Mix the chicken through the rice, transfer to a warm dish, and garnish with the fried onions and coriander.
Notes
- The 30-minute marinade is the minimum, overnight is better. And the fried onions from step 2 are the garnish, so don’t eat them while you wait.
FAQs
Does Gordon Ramsay layer his biryani?
Not in this one, and that’s the clever part. The dum-style biryani everyone fears, raw marinated meat under par-boiled rice in a sealed pot, gambles everything on timing. His home version removes the gamble: the chicken is fully cooked in its sauce before the rice ever sees it.
The two only meet for the final 5 minutes plus a rest, so nothing can be raw and nothing can overcook. That’s what his headnote means by steps that aren’t difficult, he’s re-engineered the dish so a first-timer can’t sink it.
Why does Ramsay put raisins in biryani rice?
85g of them, toasted in the ghee alongside the rice, and they’re doing real work. The raisins plump in the steam and land as little bursts of sweetness against the chilli and garam masala.
If raisins in savoury rice worry you, try them once before deciding, because toasted in spiced ghee they taste nothing like cereal raisins. His books pair spiced rice this way on purpose, pointing to biryani or his pilau rice recipe whenever a dish needs perfumed rice beside it.
What’s the goat biryani Gordon Ramsay made in India?
The dum ba biryani, and it’s one of the maddest things he’s ever cooked. In Lucknow he spent a day with master chef Imtiaz Qureshi, a man who has catered weddings of fifty thousand people and more. His summary on camera: “The eggs go inside the quail, the quail inside the chicken, and finally, we stuff it all in the goats.”
The whole thing steams in a dough-sealed pot broken open at the table, a dish the book calls fit for kings. Ramsay rated the technique “as complex as anything in Michelin star cookery,” and the lesson is on his channel. His book keeps a simplified dum ba for celebrations, while the chicken version above is his everyday answer, from the same city as his lamb korma.
How many calories are in chicken biryani?
This recipe works out around 645 calories per serving, and with exactly 500g of chicken in it, the whole dish lands near 2,580. The ghee and the 85g of raisins carry more of that than the chicken does, because breast meat is the lean part here.
Takeaway biryani usually runs 800 to 1,000 per portion, mostly from extra oil in the rice. His version stays lower partly because the fried onions get their excess oil squeezed out before garnishing, a small step with a real effect.
Should biryani use chicken breast or thighs?
His recipe says breast, which surprises people, and the method explains it. The chicken only simmers for 10 minutes in a protective yoghurt marinade, a window where breast stays juicy, and thighs wouldn’t have time to soften properly.
If you’d rather use thighs anyway, cut them small and give them 15 to 18 minutes at the simmer before the rice stage. The yoghurt is doing the tenderising either way, the same marinade logic as his butter chicken recipe from the same book.
Does chicken biryani keep well?
His headnote says it plainly: “any leftovers taste just as good the next day,” and the spiced rice genuinely does deepen overnight. The safety rules matter more than usual though, because cooked rice is the one leftover that punishes carelessness.
Cool it within an hour, fridge it covered, eat it within a day, and reheat it once, piping hot all the way through. And for what to cook after this one, my roundup of his curry recipes maps the whole family.
