Freaky Biryani

Technically this is biryani, but I took so many left turns on this I'm ok if you just want to call it a casserole, or meat and rice stuff. Very excited because this unlikely recipe turned out GREAT!

List of Stuff:

• 1 rotisserie chicken
• 1 lb smoke sausage
• 1 cup bacon bits
• 2 cups basmati rice
• 2 cups water
• chicken bullion paste
• 2 onions diced
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• tomatos diced 14 oz
• 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• jalapeno seeded and diced
• 1 bay leaf
• mint
• cilantro
• fried onions
• Biryani spice (SWAD brand)
• garam masala 
• salt
• normal people would use 1 cup of yogurt for the marinade, but no dairy for me. I sort of subbed with some coconut milk.

Wash 2 cups rice until the water is clear. Fry it in oil for about 5-7 minutes, This does something magic, I'm guessing it cooks off the remaining exterior starch to make the rice shinier. I like to be brutal, getting it blazing hot, short of smoking the oil. Learned this
from my early Rice-a-Roni years.Transfer rice to collander and soak in water for 30 minutes, up to 2 hours.

To the cooker add 1 3/4 cups water, chicken bullion paste, cranberries, bay leaf, 2 tablespoons lipid of choice. I used butter flavored oil.

Soak 2 pinches of saffron in a bit of water.
Butcher a rotisserie chicken into small chunks and lay in baking pan. Prepare the sauce:

2 onions diced
tomatos 14 oz
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
jalapeno seeded and diced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp Garam Masala
2 teaspoon Biryani spice (be careful with this, it's powerful)
salt
Yogurt or coconut milk to taste, 1/4 to 1/2 cup

Simmer and reduce until thick and blended. Add half to the rice cooker and half to the chicken and get it coated. Add to rice cooker pan 2 more tsp Biryani spice powder and two pinches of saffron. Dump into rice cooker bullion water. Cook on normal rice setting. Taste it once it gets going and add Biryani spice if needed.

Here's where I went way off course: I cooked 1 lb. of sliced smoked sausage and half a pound of bacon and added that to the chicken. I know. Just let me play.

When rice is ready, add a layer of store bought fried onions on top of the meat, (EDIT: Add more fried onions!) then tear up mint and cilantro on top. Layer the rice on top of that.

I sometimes like to add diluted orange food coloring mixed with water to the left 1/3, green color to the right third (Indian flag colors). The main reason I like this is because it shows contrast of the grains, to show off how beautiful your intact long Basmati
grains are. Also fun to see people freak out about my weird lunch.

Bake uncovered 350 for about 20 minutes until the top layer is pretty dry.

Finish with lime and fresh torn herbs.

Taste test:
Holy cow! It's delicious biryani!! I'm actually kind of shocked this came out so good!
OMG. THIS IS FANTASTIC. Not just ok. More like this is going into regular rotation.

Shaking my head in amazement. Good job, me!

After eating this all day:
Ok, really don't need the sausage. Next time, straight up Chicken Biryani from scratch bone-in chicken. Also keeping the bacon :) Add frozen peas & carrots. More ginger garlic paste and Biryani spice, probably 2/3 of the packet?.