Chicken Biryani 2 of 52......

......Well beef to be more precise, not very authentic but rather nice.

Not sure what to cook for tea and noticeably behind on the 52 new recipes challenge I decided to follow the recipe on the back of a packet of spice mix I had in the cupboard and I did follow it - almost....

The first ingredient was 1 lb of chicken breast- as our chickens are still wandering around the yard I replaced the meat with casserole beef from the freezer. Other than that I did exactly what it said on the packet well other than....* the added water.*

Because I used casserole beef it needed much longer cooking time than stated for the chicken.
So to begin with I diced the beef, tossed it in seasoned flour and browned it off in the pan, I then added a couple of onions, bay leaves and water and cooked gently for a couple of hours. After that I followed the recipe but used the stock/gravy from the beef instead of the 1/4 pint of water, although I did add a little water to slacken it. I also added a couple of extra oz. of rice and peas.

Using a packet of spices seemed a little like cheating, an instant meal, but no different I guess than putting together a mixture from the spice rack and it was definitely worth repeating, a quick simple meal (well other than the 2 hours the beef cooked for !)