This is one of my favourite leftover roast chicken recipes. This is my go to recipe when I need to use up leftover roast chicken. I love this recipe because it’s quick, easy and satisfying.
Take one roast chicken
I love to buy chicken from our local farmers’ market. When I roast a chicken spear a load of butter over the skin. I’ll throw into the roasting tin a handful of garlic cloves. Pop a couple into the cavity along with a graceful of herbs and half a lemon. I’ll throw the other half of the lemon into the roasting tin. When it comes to herbs it’s whatever is available in the garden. The final addition is a sprinkling of salt and pepper. When the chicken comes out of the oven, it’s golden, soft, succulent and oozing with buttery juices eating to be made into gravy.
Quick and easy chicken biryani, one of my favourite leftover roast chicken recipes.
This leftover chicken is far too good to be made into a sandwich or thrown into a salad. Your leftover chicken with the addition of yoghurt and store cupboard spices can be transformed into a chicken feast.
This is a leftover version of the classic biryani, an Indian staple. The biryani, or spicy rice, has its origins among the Muslims from the sub-Indian continent.
I love making a biryani, the spiced yoghurty meat juices soak into the rice, the flavour really penetrates this dish. This chicken biryani is one of my favourite comfort foods. This leftover chicken recipe is simple and easy to make one-pot dish, perfect for a mid-week supper.
For this recipe, I haven’t pre-soaked the rice and it worked perfectly well. But the trick is to use basmati rice.
How to adapt your leftover chicken biryani
And if you want to, when you add the rice, you can also add frozen vegetables – peas work particularly well, or a tin of brown lentils to make a complete meal in one!
It’s one of my favourite roast chicken recipes – leftover chicken biryani
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Quick and easy chicken biryani, one of my favourite leftover roast chicken recipes
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 people 1x
Ingredients
- 250 g leftover roast chicken
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 0.5 tsp chilli powder
- 0.25 tsp ground tumeric
- salt and pepper to taste
- 120 ml yoghurt
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 chopped onion (medium)
- 2 cardamom pods (bruised)
- 1 cm cinnamon stick (crushed)
- 200g basmati rice
- 1 pint stock (vegetable or chicken)
Instructions
- In a bowl mix the spices and seasoning with the yoghurt to make the marinade.
- Add the the chicken and mix well so all the chicken has a generous coating of the yoghurt marinade.
- Cover the bowl with clingfilm, and place in the fridge to marinate. If you are in a rush, 30 minutes is fine. If you have time, a couple of hours is great.
- When you are ready, on a low heat, heat three tablespoons of oil in a large solid bottomed frying pan.
- Add the chopped onion and the cardamom and cinnamon stick. And continue to fry on a low heat until the onions are soft and transparent.
- Now add the chicken, and stir into the onion and spices.
- Keep the frying pan on a low heat and cover. Allow the chicken to cook for 15 minutes. Check that the chicken does not dry out, if it does just add a little water.
- Now add the basmati rice, stir into the chicken, followed by the pint of stock.
- Keep the frying pan on a low heat, and cover and cook for about 15 minutes or until the rice is cooked.
- Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve. Lime pickle is the perfect accompaniment to this dish. Eat and enjoy.