Easy and quick Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani, delicious tender chunks of chicken cooked with rice & Indian spices in a Pressure King Pro (or Instant Pot) to create an authentic takeaway style curry for all to enjoy at home.
This is served up in our house every week! So quick and easy to make, the pressure cooker brings this simple Indian dish to the table in record time.
What chicken to use in Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani
We use chicken thigh for this recipe as we prefer the softer dark meat over chicken breast. However if you prefer breast meat you can use that instead.
See our step by step slide show on how we made our Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani.
You will find full ingredients and instructions on the card below.
Is Chicken Biryani spicy?
This is where the joys of making homemade curry come in! You can make it as spicy as you like? As an example, we use 2 tsp of chilli puree (which is equivalent to 2 small red chilli peppers) in this recipe, which is medium hot. See the chart below for how hot you would like to make your Chicken Biryani also read, about which chilli peppers to use under that!
| Gia Chilli Puree 🌶️ | Fresh Chilli Pepper (Serrano or Birds Eye) | |
| Mild | 1 tsp | 1 chilli |
| Medium | 2 tsp | 2 chillies |
| Hot | 3 tsp | 3 chillies |
| Extra Hot | 4 tsp | 4 chillies |
Which Chilli Peppers to use for curry in UK?
Most common chilli pepper sold in UK supermarkets are Serrano, although the packaging will just say medium spiced Chilli Pepper and usually a multi-pack of green and red. I find the spiciness is so unpredictable with these, which is why I use Gia Chilli Puree.
Gia Chilli Puree is a great product, I know how spicy it is going to make my dish, it keeps in fridge between uses so I always have it handy when I need it! Another bonus is you don't even have to chop it, squeeze it straight in to the pressure cooker, no spicy fingers!!
If I use fresh chillies I prefer Birds Eye Chilli, although birds eye chillies are tiny they are normally stronger than the larger Serrano chillies.
Whichever chillies you choose, remember the heat is mostly contained in the white membrane that holds the seeds.
What spices to add to Biryani?
We made up our own selection of ground spices for this chicken biryani, a mix of paprika, cumin, allspice, ginger, turmeric and coriander. Also needed are bay leaves, cinnamon sticks & cardamom pods (which you will remove at the end of cooking).
What to cook Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani in?
We use a Pressure King Pro Pressure cooker, but the same instructions apply for an Instant Pot. We love our Pressure Cooker it cooks things perfectly with minimal effort and no stirring involved!
What to serve with Biryani?
We served our Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani up with a simple tomato, cucumber and red onion salad, mango chutney & chapati bread. And of course a Cobra Beer.
We sometimes serve it up with a vegetable curry, which we will post for you soon!
Such a great meal, on the table quicker than a takeaway!
Chicken Biryani is lovely but this can be substituted with lamb or prawn. Also tastes great with vegetables like mushrooms, baby corn, cauliflower, peas, carrots, green beans.
Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tsp Olive oil
- 1 Onion Diced
- 3 Chicken Thighs chopped into bite-size pieces
- 1 tbsp Gia Garlic Puree or 3 cloves minced
- 2 tsp Gia Chilli Puree or 2 bird eye chillies chopped
Biryani Spices
- 2 Bay Leaf
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 5 Cardamon Pods
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- ½ tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Ground Coriander
- 1 tsp Ground Allspice
- 2 tsp Ground Cumin
- 2 tsp Paprika
- 450 ml Vegetable Stock
- 300 grams Basmati Rice
- 2 tbsp Fresh Coriander or dried coriander leaf
Instructions
- Place the pressure cooker on fry/saute mode and fry the onion with olive oil for 5 Minutes
- Add the Garlic, Chilli, Chicken, stir.
- Add all the spices and fry for 5 minutes until chicken has browned. Turn off fry mode.
- Place the rice on top adding 450ml of vegetable stock and stir all together
- Secure the lid, close the valve and cook on manual/pressure cooker mode for 8 minutes, let it release naturally for 10 minutes, then open the valve to release the remaining pressure.
- The cinnamon stick, bay leaves and cardamom pods should have all floated to the top! Remove them before stirring all together.
- Serve up and sprinkle some fresh coriander on top and enjoy!!
Nutrition
We think our Pressure Cooker Chicken Biryani is the best quick meal, for any day of the week! What do you think, let us know in the comments below?
Click on the below pictures to see other popular curry dishes we have created in addition to our other dinner ideas
This recipe doesn't work with my Instant Pot - I have tried 4 times now and even sourced the puree's that is used and I always get the dreaded 'burn'. Just will not come up to pressure.
Hi Mick,
Thank you for reaching out to us. We or others have not had this problem before?
Do you mean it's burning at the bottom?
Is the valve of your instant pot definitely closed, you said it's not coming up to pressure that would indicate to me that the valve is open and letting the steam out?
Hope I can try and work out the problem for you.
Thanks
Kay & Luke
Hi Kay, I have only just got my pkp and was looking for healthy recipes to use in it. We both want to shed a few pounds gained through medication and illnesses as we get older. But to be honest we aren’t that old lol. Anyway my question is if you where to make this for two would you half the spices? Also approx how much chicken do you think you used? We love biryani so I am really looking forward to making this recipe.
This recipe is delicous, i find that normally the rice goes a bit stodgy but this was perfect, could eat every day!
Wow and Instapot recipe that is actually "insta" can't wait to try.
We love our Pressure cooker!
I think chicken thighs were a great choice of meat for this recipe! So full of flavor and delicious!
Yes the chicken thigh meat is so tender and soft when cooked this way,
I’m obsessed with chicken biryani! It’s literally my fav! Thanks so much for the recipe!
This chicken biryani looks amazing. I love your combo of spices!! Yumm.
Now, this is promising to be super spicy. A meal to enjoy slowly without having any other plans in mind
Hi, I cooked this last week and it was really good. I added a little salt after and it was delicious! I could imagine there is salt in the vegetable stock but should I add some and if so how much to the dish before I turn the pressure cooker on? Thanks 😊
Made this for dinner tonight. So easy. Wonderfully speedy. Delicious. This will be a family favourite. Thank you flawlessfood.
Thanks Kay do you have any more Asian recipes that can be done in the PKP
Check all our pressure cooker recipes out here, we hope to make more soon! 🙂 https://flawlessfood.co.uk/category/pressure-cooker/
Is there something, in particular, you are looking for? We will see if we can create it for you 😉
Hello there do I boil the rice first or is it straight in uncooked I'm giving it a go tonight
Hi Kevin, the rice goes in uncooked.
Enjoy 🙂
I love how quick and easy this sounds to make.
It is a super quick and easy meal! Sometimes if we have no meat we do a vegetable version which is lovely too!!
This recipe looks so loaded with healthy ingredients plus I absolutely love all the spices that you're using. Looks fantastic!
Thank you, we have it every week, we also add extra veggies for some extra goodness sometimes!
I love how quick it is to make this dish for my family. Thank you
Thank you for your comment, we love it so quick but still full of flavour!