Speedy Biryani with Uncle Ben's and the Children's Food Trust

Uncle Ben's have teamed up with the Children's Food Trust for the Big Cookathon 2015. They are working with BBQ extraordinaire DJ BBQ and have come up with a recipe for a Speedy Biryani to cook with your children at home.

Bud and I decided to cook the Speedy Biryani together but sadly he got bored almost instantly and went off to play Hot Wheels with his Dad instead and I was left to cook solo. Bud does love to help out in the kitchen usually and one pot recipes like this one are perfect for little ones to help with, or for older children to cook alone.

Ingredients
(Serves 4)

200g Uncle Ben’s Ready to Heat Basmati rice
100g French beans
130ml water
4 tomatoes
4 x 15ml spoons Uncle Ben’s Recipe Base Korma
2 chicken breast fillets (about 260g)
2 hard-boiled eggs
1 medium red onion
1 x 15ml spoon vegetable oil
Small bunch fresh coriander
Curry paste

Method

● Cut the chicken into 2–3cm diced pieces and place in a bowl. Wash your hands after handling raw chicken
● Cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet. If you haven’t already hard-boiled the eggs, pop them in a separate pan in cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Then drain through a colander and leave to stand in fresh cold water to cool. While these are cooking you can carry on with the next steps
● Using a different chopping board and knife, peel and finely chop the red onion
● Wash the French beans, tomatoes and coriander
● Finely chop the coriander. Top and tail the French beans and cut them in half. Cut the tomatoes into quarters
● Heat the vegetable oil in the large saucepan, then add the chicken, half of the chopped coriander and Uncle Ben’s Recipe Base Korma. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring all the time. The chicken will change colour from pink to white


● Add the chopped red onion and French beans and cook for a further 3 minutes


● Add the tomato quarters, and add the water gradually – you may not need it all. Your Speedy
Biryani should be moist enough for the flavours to spread through evenly, but it shouldn’t be wet. Cook for a further 3 minutes. Keep stirring
● Add the cooked rice. Mix well, cover and simmer for 2 minutes. You might want to add a little bit more water now
● Peel the shell from the hard-boiled eggs and slice into quarters
● Spoon the Speedy Biryani into a large serving dish (we served ours direct from the wok we cooked it in) and garnish with hard-boiled egg quarters and a sprinkling of fresh coriander


Top Tips
1. For a vegetarian option try using 300g of QuornTM fillets – prepare and cook in the same way as the chicken. I think this recipe would work really well with fish too, I would choose a meaty white fish.
2. To save time, buy pre-cooked rice so this can just be added at step 9. This will save on washing up too. You’ll need about 500g of cooked rice
3. An easy way for children to chop the coriander and French beans is by using kitchen scissors
4. To save time, hard-boil your eggs in advance. Once they have cooled, store in the fridge until you need them
5.  It’s not advisable to reheat rice, so this isn’t a dish to save for later