Dinners where you can cook everything in a single pot are one of my favorite things. This recipe for Chicken Yakhni Pulao is one of those recipes, and you're going to love it. When you look at the pictures, this looks like just another chicken and rice dish, but it's so much more flavorful than that.
What Is Chicken Yakhni Pulao
Kashmiri Yakhni Pulao is full of delicious spices like garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves and they all come together beautifully in the chicken. The rice is cooked separately in the chicken broth at the end, making it much more flavorful than plain white rice.
What Is The Difference Between Yakhni Pulao And Biryani?
Chicken Yakhni Pulaos and biryanis have a lot in common in that they are both a mix of meat and rice cooked together. But what makes a Yakhni different is that it is all about the rich, meaty broth that you create. It's actually a very simple, comforting dish and all the flavor comes from the meat broth and the spices.
In contrast, biryanis often have a lot of other spices and aromatics such as onions, garlic, mint, and yogurt added, as with this Lamb Biryani Recipe.
Another way this chicken yakhni pulao recipe is different from a biryani is that the spices are left whole and are cooked in a cheesecloth pouch, and then discarded after cooking, unlike most recipes where you grind the spices and put them directly on the meat itself. This allows the meat to be infused with the flavors of the spices, and not just topped with them.
Thirdly, for a yakhni pulao, you have to cook it in two stages. These stages are:
- Make the broth
- Cook the rice in the broth
How To Make This Instant Pot Chicken And Rice Recipe
Like I mentioned above, there are two different steps to making this Yakhni Pulao. While it may sound like it is a complicated recipe, I assure you it is still quite simple. Here's how you do it
Make the Yakhni
- Place onions, ginger, garlic, and whole spices into a cheesecloth bundle and secure tightly.
- Place chicken, water, salt, and the cheesecloth bundle in the inner liner of your Instant Pot.
- Cook at high pressure. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed and then release all remaining pressure.
- Remove the cheesecloth bundle and discard.
- Remove the chicken and break into large pieces.
- You should have 1.5 cups of stock in your Instant Pot (use a measuring cup to be sure).
- Leave 1.5 cups of stock in the pot for cooking the rice and reserve any remaining stock for a different recipe.
Make the rice
- To the stock in your inner liner, add the rinsed long grain basmati rice, garam masala, ghee, and salt. Push the rice down to ensure it is covered by the stock.
- Lay the large shredded chicken pieces on top of the rice.
- Cook under high pressure. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed and then release all remaining pressure.
- Mix lightly and serve.
- You can also make this with beef or lamb if you prefer. If you cut the meat into large, bite-size pieces, you won't need to change cook times.
Which Is The Best Rice For Pulao?
While you don't HAVE to use a specific type of rice for this Instant Pot Chicken and Rice recipe, some will produce better texture and absorb the flavor of the homemade broth more than others.
For this Yakhni Pulao recipe, I used Basmati rice. It is one of my favorite types of rice to cook in my Instant Pot because of how perfectly it turns out every time.
Want More Instant Pot Chicken And Rice Recipes?
- Creamy Chicken And Rice
- Instant Pot Barley and Chicken Soup
- Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani
- Instant Pot Arroz Con Pollo
- Pressure Cooker Chicken Congee
Pressure cooking this Chicken Yakhni Pulao in your Instant Pot also helps it to be infused with the flavors from the spice pouch. This also saves time from grinding up spices, or from spices losing their flavor because they were ground too long ago. Make it and tell me what you think!
Ingredients
For the Yakhni
- 1/2 cup (80 g) Sliced Onions
- 6 (6) Garlic Cloves
- 3 (3) julienned ginger
- 2 (2) Cinnamon, each about 2 inches thick
- 4 (4) Cardamom Pods
- 6 (6) Whole Cloves
- 6 (6) Whole Black Peppercorns
- 1 pound (453.59 g) Bone-in Skin-on Chicken Thighs
- 1.5 cups (375 ml) Water
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Kosher Salt
For the Rice
- 1.5 cups (277.5 g) Basmati Rice
- 2 teaspoons (2 teaspoons) Garam Masala
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Ghee
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Kosher Salt
Instructions
Make the Yakhni
- Place onions, ginger, garlic and whole spices into a cheese cloth bundle and secure tightly.
- Place chicken, water, salt, and the cheesecloth bundle in the inner liner of your instant pot.
- Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed for 10 minutes, and then release all remaining pressure.
- Remove the cheesecloth bundle and discard.
- Remove the chicken and break into large pieces.
- You should have 1.5 cups of stock in your instant pot (use a measuring cup to be sure).
- Leave 1.5 cups of stock in the pot for cooking the rice and reserve any remaining stock for a different recipe.
Make the rice
- To the stock in your inner liner, add the rinsed long grain basmati rice, garam masala, ghee and salt. Push the rice down to ensure it is covered by the stock.
- Lay the large shredded chicken pieces on top of the rice.
- Cook at high pressure for 4 minutes. Allow the pot to sit undisturbed for 10 minutes, and then release all remaining pressure.
- Mix lightly and serve.
- You can also make this with beef or lamb if you prefer. If you cut the meat into large, bite-size pieces, you won't need to change cook times.
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Nutrition
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Nita
If in a hurry can I use chicken stock to cook the rice?
URVASHI PITRE
I’ve tried that. It doesn’t have the same Rich flavor
Barbara
I don’t understand how much ginger to add. Three of what volume julienned?
Elena-Beth Kaye
3 thin slices fresh ginger
2 pieces Indian Cinnamon (cassia bark), each about 2 inches long (or ½ tsp ground cinnamon)
4 whole green Cardamom Pods
Yasmeen
I’d like to double this recipe. Would I change the cooking time or make any other modifications?
URVASHI PITRE
Use only 1.75 cups of water/liquid. All else stays the same
Yasmeen
Thank you for the quick reply!
I am going to double the amount of chicken and rice but I should only increase water/broth to 1.75 cups. Is that correct? Would I double the amount of the spices, onion, garlic, ginger, etc as well?
URVASHI PITRE
Yes double everything except the water. Only 1.75 of that
fatema
This recipe was surprisingly easy to make but without compromising on taste. I have tried multiple pilau recipes, both stovetop and instant pot, and this one is by far the best. My entire family loves the way this pilau turns out. Thank you!!!!
Sam
Turned out amazing! Thanks for sharing