Rice Cooker Chicken Briyani

Rice Cooker Chicken Briyani: Your shortcut to a mouthwatering, homemade Biryani. One-pot perfection in every bite!

I make variations of rice cooker briyani (biryani/biriyani) all the time, they are just not ‘proper’. ‘Proper’ as in following a set of must-have ingredients to call this a somewhat legit briyani. I always just use whatever I have in the pantry IN THAT MOMENT, and while those rice cooker faux-briyani are delicious, I thought I would start with the basics with this Rice Cooker Chicken Briyani!

I’m no stranger to the wonders of my rice cooker, and one of which is making perfect, fluffy, spiced briyani.

Briyani is a flavourful, aromatic, and comforting dish, winning hearts worldwide for its fusion of tender chicken, fragrant spices, and perfectly cooked rice.

To make a simplified version of chicken biryani using a rice cooker, I have not one, but two ways of making Rice Cooker Chicken Briyani! They’re both easy to accomplish, but to find out my preferred method, scroll to the bottom of the post.

Please note that this method won’t give you the same depth of flavour as traditional biryani, but it’s a quick and convenient way to make a tasty dish. You can adjust the ingredients and spices to suit your preferences.

Why You Will LOVE This Recipe

• Time Efficiency: Chicken Briyani is traditionally a labor-intensive dish that requires you to cook the rice and chicken separately before assembling and cooking it. This recipe simplifies the process and reduce the hands-on cooking time thanks to rice cooker magic! Perfect for busy weeknights AND special occasions without the fuss.

• One-Pot Wonder: Rice cookers excel at creating one-pot meals, and Chicken Briyani fits the bill perfectly. Let the rice cooker handle the entire cooking process, from sautéing the spices to simmering the chicken and rice together. This means less cleanup! Yay!

• Flavour Explosion with Minimal Ingredients: Chicken Biryani is renowned for its rich and complex flavours, and in this recipe I highlight the ingredients required to get you there… spoiler alert, they’re a short list of ingredients that is easily accessible! Using a rice cooker ensures that these flavours meld together beautifully.

Key Ingredients for Rice Cooker Chicken Briyani

Chicken

I highly recommend using thighs for succulent and flavourful meat! They will also stay juicy for longer and not dry out in the rice cooker. I used boneless chicken thighs, chopped to bite-sized pieces. This will ensure it can cook through in the rice cooker.

Bone-in chicken pieces can work too, be sure to check that the meat is cooked through.

Can I use other proteins such as mutton?

This recipe was tested for chicken specifically. Other meats such as mutton may not work as well if these steps are followed to a T. The rest of the ingredients and marinade however, are THE SAME.

See the following notes if you are planning to use other proteins besides chicken:

1. Mutton, lamb or beef would require different cook times depending on the cut you have. A longer marinating time is required, so the yoghurt can tenderise the meat.
2. Pre-cook the mutton or protein of choice to ensure it cooks fully in the rice cooker.
3. Chop mutton to smaller pieces to ensure it cooks evenly in the rice cooker.

Marinade

This marinade is easy and uses minimal ingredients!

In fact my faux-briyani will have far more spices than this (I have A LOT of fun spices in my pantry), but this is all you need to make amazing chicken briyani:

• Yogurt: To marinate the chicken and add a creamy, tangy element to the biryani.
• Aromatics: A ginger-garlic paste is the aromatic heart of this marinade. If you have no ginger-garlic paste, you simply need to grate in 1/2 inch of ginger, and 2-3 cloves of garlic to the marinade. If you have onion paste, you can include this in as well. I excluded this since onion slices will be added in later in its sauteed form – even yummier!
• Garam Masala: This is the main spice blend used for our briyani. You can also replace with curry powder.
• Chilli Powder: This adds a bit of spice and a subtle smoky flavour to the briyani. You can replace this with paprika.
• Turmeric Powder: This adds both flavour and a gorgeous golden colour to our briyani – no food colouring needed here!
• Salt & Pepper

The Briyani

• Basmati Rice: The long-grain, fragrant Basmati rice is essential for a perfect biryani. It absorbs the flavours and spices beautifully while remaining fluffy. Other long-grain rice such as Jasmine will work great too.
• Whole Spices: Biryani is all about the spices! You’ll need whole spices to impart a spiced element to the rice. In this recipe, I used cinnamon, cloves, cardamom pods and star anise. These will elevate your rice to create that authentic flavour, BUT if you do not have any of these, feel free to omit. You will still get a delicious pot of Briyani even without.
• Ghee or Oil: Ghee is traditional and imparts a rich flavour, but you can also use cooking oil if you prefer. I find ghee to be a bit too strong, so I prefer using oil to saute the ingredients.
• Fresh Herbs: Fresh cilantro and mint leaves provide a burst of freshness and colour.
• Fried Shallots: Adding fried shallots (or fried onions) is going to elevate the briyani.

Method #1: Pre-Frying the Chicken and Adding to Pot

1. Marinate the Chicken

• Start by marinating the chicken pieces with yogurt, spices, and aromatics.
• Allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes or more (overnight is always best) to infuse the flavours. If I were to be honest, I always skip the marination step and this is one of RARE dishes that tastes AMAZING even without the long marinating time.

2. Sauté Spices and Aromatics

• Add oil or ghee to a pan and heat over low to medium heat.
• Add the whole spices – cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and star anise – and the sliced onions. Stir fry until fragrant.

3. Pan Fry Chicken

• Once fragrant, add the marinated chicken along with all of the marinade. Pan fry until spices release fragrance. The sauce should turn a more golden brown shade. No need to cook the chicken all the way through.
• Turn off the heat.

Can I skip this step?

BELIEVE ME I’ve tried! But it just was not as good. Frying the spices in oil allows it to fully bloom and release the flavours. I also find that skipping this step will give the rice a slight bitter taste, and the raw flavours of the spice will be very prevalent.

4. Prep Rice

• Wash and rinse rice until water runs clear. Drain completely.
• If using basmati rice, I would recommend soaking it for 30 minutes so it cooks evenly.
• Add rice to rice cooker pot, and add water accordingly.
• Following the indicator line on the rice cooker for the amount of water needed. If your rice has no indicator line, basmati rice typically follows a 1:1.5 rice-to-water ratio. Regular long-grain rice such as Jasmine white rice follows a 1:1 rice-to-water ratio.

5. Add Chicken and Spices

• Add the pan fried chicken and the spices over the rice. Make sure to include all of the gravy marinade in the pan! That’s all flavour for the rice.
• Try to spread it out to one even layer.

6. Cook

• Turn on the rice cooker, and let it do its job. It will automatically switch to the “keep warm” mode when the biryani is ready.

Meanwhile, how about making a very simple Acar or Pickled Vegetables as a side?

7. Garnish and Serve Rice Cooker Chicken Briyani

• Once it’s done, open the rice cooker.
• Garnish your Chicken Biryani with fresh mint, cilantro, and fried shallots.
• Fluff the rice gently to combine, and your delicious one-pot meal is ready to serve!

Method #2: One-Pot Rice Cooker Chicken Briyani

Some rice cookers come with a ‘cook’, ‘frying’ or ‘saute’ mode, which means you can do everything straight in a rice cooker!

My rice cooker (the Zojirushi ZCC-10 or ZAQ-10) doesn’t have this mode, BUT I can fry my spices by simply turning on the rice cooker. In fact, most rice cookers should be able to do this. Even my old, cheap one was able to do this. As long as the pan is on the spring mechanism at the bottom, it should activate the heating element when press the button to cook.

Rice cookers work by gradually heating up to cook rice, ensuring perfect grains of rice… unfortunately this makes some of them too smart for if you want to quickly heat up the pot to saute! Not impossible though.

If you find that your rice cooker doesn’t do this, then you will need to implement Method #1.

If you want to make this truly one-pot, the methods differ only slightly from the above! This is how:

1. Marinate the Chicken & Prep Rice

• Start by marinating the chicken pieces with yogurt, spices, and aromatics.
• Allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes or more (overnight is always best) to infuse the flavours.
• Rinse the Basmati rice until the water runs clear. Allow to soak for 30 minutes, before draining.

2. Sauté Spices & Aromatics

• In the rice cooker’s cook/fry/sauté mode, heat ghee or oil and add the whole spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves. Add sliced onions. Sauté until fragrant.
• If rice cooker has no ‘cook’ function, set to regular rice setting, and turn it on to start cooking.
• Different rice cookers will have different heating up times. To ensure your rice cooker is hot, add oil first, then immediately toss in onions. There is no need to wait for the oil to get hot. Once the pot heats up adequately, the onions will start to sizzle. That’s how you know it’s hot enough.
• Once the onions are sizzling, add the whole spices – cinnamon, cloves, star anise and cardamoms. Saute and let the fragrance release.

Note: If you’re using the Zojirushi ZCC-10/ZAQ-10 (my rice cooker!), set to regular rice setting, and turn it on to start cooking. It will take 5 minutes to heat up, so use this time to do some ingredient prep work.

3. Add Chicken

• Place the marinated chicken in the rice cooker. If there is excess marinade, make sure to add to the pot too.
• Stir fry to combine with the onions. Stir until the sauce starts to bubble, or deepens in colour. This will make sure the spices releases flavour and the flavours are locked in. The chicken should only be partially cooked, no need to cook it through.

4. Layer Rice

• Layer the rice over the chicken in the rice cooker. Give it a quick stir to combine.
• This is where the magic happens, as the rice will absorb the chicken’s flavours and the aromatic spices.
• Add the right amount of water. Since there should be some liquid in the pot already, either from the marinade or juices released by the chicken as it cooks, you would not be able to follow the indicator line on the rice cooker. Follow this ratio instead:
• Basmati rice to water = 1:1.5
• White long grains such as Jasmine rice, or Thai Hom Mali rice = 1:1

5. Cook!

• Then put on the lid and let the rice cooker finish its job. That’s it! It will automatically switch to the “keep warm” mode when the biryani is ready.

6. Garnish and Serve

• Once it’s done, open the rice cooker.
• Garnish your Chicken Biryani with fresh cilantro, mint and fried shallots.
• Fluff the rice gently, and your delicious one-pot meal is ready to serve!

Which is the better method?

If you managed to read all the way to this part of the post, then you’re probably curious to know which is my preferred method…. It’s Method #1!

I prefer this method for a couple of reasons:

• It was MUCH quicker to parcook the chicken in a pan and adding it to the pot after. For reference, pan-frying over stove top takes less than 5 minutes, versus in the rice cooker which can take 5 minutes JUST to heat up, especially if your gadget doesn’t have the ‘cook’ mode.

• With Method #2, your chicken would already be cooking in the rice cooker pot. There will be some liquid in the rice cooker pot, from the marinade and the chicken as it releases liquid as it cooks. This will make adding the right amount of water afterwards more complicated. You may end up with more or less water than you need, since a bit of guesswork is needed. Method #1, which is adding water to the rice FIRST, before layering on the chicken, produced more consistent briyanis for me.

I want to emphasise they are BOTH good methods and can yield good briyanis in a pinch! Method #1 is great if I want a quicker option, Method #2 is best for when I just don’t feel like doing extra dishes.

How To Serve Rice Cooker Chicken Briyani

To turn this into a complete meal, serve it with a side of Acar! I have two recipes here on the blog:

• An easy, shortcut Acar
• A deliciously spiced, authentic Acar Nonya / Acar Awak

Optional, but I love having my briyani with a side of curry for gravy.

Here are two easy recipes if you want a side of curry with your briyani as well:

• Curry Chicken
• Butter Chicken

More Recipes Like This

• Rice Cooker Chicken Rice
• Rice Cooker Pepper Lunch
• 10-min Rainbow Fried Rice (easy one-pot rice cooker recipe)

Rice Cooker Chicken Briyani

Recipe by Sha

0.0 from 0 votes

Servings

2-3

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Ingredients

• Chicken

• 300g boneless chicken thighs, cut into pieces

• 1/4 cup yogurt

• 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste (see Notes)

• 1 tsp garam masala

• 1 tsp chili powder

• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

• 1/4 tsp ground pepper

• 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste

• For the rice

• 1 cups long-grain Basmati rice

• 1.5 cups water (or follow indicator line on rice cooker)

• For the Briyani

• 1 tbsp oil or ghee

• 1 cinnamon

• 1 star anise

• 3 cardamom pods

• 3 cloves

• 1 onion, thinly sliced

• 1/4 cup chopped mint leaves

• 1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves

• 1 tbsp fried shallots

Directions

• Method #1: Pre-Cooking Chicken and Adding to Pot
• In a bowl, combine the chicken pieces with yogurt, grated ginger and minced garlic (or ginger-garlic paste), turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala, and salt. Mix well, cover, and let it marinate for at least 30 minutes.
• Add oil or ghee to a pan and heat over low to medium heat. Add the sliced onions and whole spices – cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and star anise. Stir fry until fragrant.
• Once fragrant, add the marinated chicken along with all of the marinade sauce. Pan fry until spices release fragrance. The sauce should turn a more golden brown shade. Turn off the heat, there is no need to cook the chicken all the way through.
• Rinse the Basmati rice in cold water until the water runs clear. Soak the rice in water for about 20-30 minutes, then drain. Add to rice cooker pot, and add water as required.
• Top the rice with the chicken, along with the pan’s contents including the whole spices and sauce.
• Close the rice cooker lid, and with the regular rice setting, turn it on to cook.
• Once rice cooker is done, open the lid. Add mint, cilantro and fried shallots. Gently stir to combine and fluff. Chicken Briyani is ready to serve!
• Method #2: One-Pot Rice Cooker
• In a bowl, combine the chicken pieces with yogurt, grated ginger and minced garlic (or ginger-garlic paste), turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala, and salt. Mix well, cover, and let it marinate for at least 30 minutes.
• Rinse the Basmati rice in cold water until the water runs clear. Soak the rice in water for about 20-30 minutes, then drain.
• Turn on the rice cooker. If a cook/fry/saute mode is available, use it. Add oil or ghee to the rice cooker, and add the sliced onions. Once the onions start to sizzle, add the whole spices – cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and star anise. Stir fry until fragrant.
• Place the marinated chicken, along with any excess marinade, straight into the rice cooker pot. Stir to combine with the onions. Stir until the sauce starts to bubble, or deepens in colour.
• Layer the drained rice over the chicken in the rice cooker. Give it a quick stir to combine. Add water.
• Put on the lid and let the rice cooker finish cooking the rice.
• Once rice cooker is done, open the lid. Add mint, cilantro and fried shallots. Gently stir to combine and fluff. Chicken Briyani is ready to serve!

Notes

• If you don’t have ginger-garlic paste, simply add 1/2-inch ginger, grated and 2 cloves of garlic, minced.

Did you make this recipe?

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