Chicken Pulao (Chicken and Brown Rice) | Beginner’s Attempt

Chicken pulao (chicken and brown rice) is an essential dish for any gathering or celebration. Its simplicity means that it works well with most meat curries but it can also be eaten on its own, depending on how it is prepared.

What is Chicken Pulao?

Pulao in South-Asian cuisine typically refers to rice that has been cooked with meat or vegetables in a seasoned broth. When chicken is added to pulao, it becomes chicken pulao (shocker).

This dish is a staple food in many cultures and is prepared in diverse ways. For this recipe, I kept things simple and included potatoes and peas, but I’ve often mixed and matched other vegetables too.

One of the unique steps involved in preparing pulao is sautéing the onions over a longer period of time until they turn chocolate brown. It is important to bring as much colour out of the onions as possible at this stage because this is what gives the rice its brown colour.

How I Learned to Cook Chicken Pulao

Preparation

First, I rinsed the rice in a bowl with cold water and drained, repeating until the water was no longer cloudy. I then left the rice to soak in clear cold water.

The cloudiness in the water is excess starch. Washing it off prevents the grains from sticking to each other when cooking, resulting in fluffier rice.

After this, I washed the chicken with cold water and drained.

Then I peeled and chopped the potatoes into 1-inch cubes. I left these to soak in cold water.

Finally, I peeled and sliced the yellow onions.

Sautéing the Onions

I then sautéed the onions in sunflower oil on medium heat until they turned chocolate brown, deglazing the pan with water whenever I found that bits were sticking to the bottom.

Ideally, the onions should be more evenly brown, and slightly darker, but I was afraid of burning them!

After this, I added 150ml of cold water and covered the onions for 2 minutes to allow them to soften and darken more evenly.

Then I added the ginger cubes and waited for them to melt. This took about 2 minutes.

Once the cubes had melted, I also added the salt, ground cumin, ground coriander, garam masala powder, and biryani powder and mixed.

Lastly, I mashed the onions, ginger, and spices with a food masher.

Cooking the Chicken

After mashing the onions, I added the chicken and cooked them with the onions for 10 minutes. I made sure to stir every minute or so to prevent burning.

Cooking the Vegetables

Then I drained the potatoes and added them to the pot with the frozen peas. I cooked them until the water released from the peas evaporated (which was when the oil was no longer cloudy).

I made sure to stir every minute or so to prevent burning.

Cooking the Rice

I then added 1.25x the amount of water as rice (1.65l here) and increased the heat to high. I waited for the water to boil, which took about 10 minutes.

Once the water had started boiling, I drained and added the rice. I allowed the rice to cook until almost done (not completely dry, but slightly wet). This took about 15 minutes.

Finally, I placed the pot on top of a tawa (flat, thin cast-iron pan) on low heat and covered to allow the rice to dry. This took about 10 minutes.

What Has Chicken Pulao Taught Me?

Pssst. You’ve made it to the bottom of the post. Thank you for your patience. I will now share my genuine thoughts about pulao with you.

I’m a seasoned pulao-eater but not a seasoned pulao-cooker. Sigh.

This dish is not particularly hard, but bringing the colour out of the onions properly took multiple attempts. This recipe took a while for me to post because on the first attempt, I didn’t darken the onions enough, and on the second one, I burned them and couldn’t use the photos. I was devastated.

This attempt isn’t perfect. Most noticeably, the rice didn’t colour evenly. Thank you for being kind enough not to point it out.

I think this is one of those dishes that will take practice.

To see other meat dishes I have cooked so far, feel free to check out my chicken salan (chicken curry) recipe. My favourite at the moment is my keema (minced meat curry) recipe.