Instructions

Place chicken pieces into stockpot. Add garlic, onion, 2 tsp of cinnamon, turmeric, allspice, mace, cloves, coriander, cumin, thyme, parsley, apricot nectar, apple juice, salt and pepper. If necessary, add a little water to barely cover the chicken. Bring to a boil and skim off any scum that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to a simmer (low), cover and cook until the chicken is very tender and falls off the bone. (about 2-3 hours) Remove from heat, cool chicken in stock. Remove chicken and discard the bones and skin. Cut or shred the chicken into small pieces. Put aside.

Strain the cooled stock into a sauce pan over high heat and reduce to about 2 cups. Add the eggs, reduce the heat to a low simmer, stirring constantly with a wire whisk until the eggs are thick & creamy, now reduce until all of the moisture is evaperated. (about 15 minutes) Remove from heat. Remove the egg mixture and set aside.

Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat and add the almonds and cook until the almonds are golden. Cool and combine almonds with the powdered sugar and remaining 1 tsp cinnamon.

Place 1 sheet of phyllo dough on a flat work surface. Keep remaining sheets covered with a damp cloth. Using a wide pastry brush, brush lightly the phyllo sheet with the cooled butter to cover it completely. Top the phyllo sheet with a second phyllo sheet, placed at a 45º angle to the first sheet. Brush with butter and repeat until you use 8 sheets of phyllo dough and they form a circle of dough. Make a second stack of 8 buttered sheets in the same manner.

Reserve ½ of the almond mixture. Sprinkle ½ of the almond mixture on each stack of phyllo dough, forming a 8 inch circle in the middle of each stack. Cover each circle of nuts with ½ the reserved chicken. Now equally divide the remaining egg mixture in ½ and cover the chicken fillings, then top off the eggs with the remaining almond mixture equally divided amongst the two sheet stacks.

Bring one side of the phyllo up and over to cover as much of the filling as possible and brush the top of the dough with butter. Bring the remaining sides up and around, one at time, overlapping and buttering as you go, until all sides have been folded over the filling. Repeat with the second stack of phyllo.

Preheat oven to 375° .

Brush 1 phyllo sheet with butter and lay it over the top of a filled phyllo pie. Butter and overlay 7 more sheets, positioning them to form a circle over the filled pie. Butter the underside of a section of the top stack and fold it down under the pie, continue buttering and overlapping to form a slightly hexagonal shape.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Decorate with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

After toasting the Biryani Masala spices, allow them to cool down and then grind them into a coarse or fine powder depending on your preference. This makes enough biryani masala for deveral batches of biryani, store in a jar or sealed baggie, out of the sunlight, for up to 3 months.

In the thick parts of the chicken make deep slashes into the thicker parts of the chicken to allow the masala spices to better penetrate the chicken. (If your using boneless thighs you can make slashes at a medium depth)
If you are smoking the chicken, you can do that now.
In a large bowl, add salt to the chicken, lemon juice, then all the rest of the chicken spices, mix well, cover and let marinate 24 hours.

The next day, rinse your Basmati rice three times (removing excess starch from the rice) and then cover with water and let soak for 1½ hours. After the rice has soaked long enough, put on a large pot of boiling water, once boiling, add the spice sachet with all the rice spices and the Basmati rice (or add the spices without the sachet, you may want to pick these out before adding to the main pot, or go Indian style as I am sure in Indian households they don't mind eating around the whole spices.

Par cook the rice for about 4 minutes, we want the rice 90% cooked, don't stir the rice too often as we don't want to break the individual rice grains. After the 4 minutes, strain the water from the rice (and if you want the whole spices if you didn't use a sachet), remove the sachet and discard if you used it. Set the rice aside

In the bowl with the chicken that was marinating over night, add the 1 cup of yogurt and add 80% (about 5 oz) of the fried onions and ⅓ of the chopped cilantro bunch and ⅓ the chopped mint leaves and if your using the optional ingredients, add in the prunes, potato, carrot and peas. Mix well.

In a heavy bottomed pot, add 2 tblsp of ghee over high heat, when melted, keep the heat up high until it is roaring hot and now add your chicken pieces with its marinade and the potato cubes. Stir often cook on high heat for 5-6 minutes, cooking the chicken 85-90%, taste the masala for salt content and adjust as needed.

Now turn the heat to low, make sure the chicken pieces are spread out in one layer and add ⅓ of the chopped cilantro bunch and ⅓ the chopped mint leaves add 15% of the fried onions (about 1½ oz)
Add all the rice on top of the chicken layer, smooth the rice into an even layer. Drizzle 3-4 tblsp of the ghee over the rice and then sprinkle/drizzle the saffron liquid over the rice.
Now add the remaining 5% fried onions (about ½ oz) add the remaining ⅓ bunch of chopped mint and cilantro (coriander leaves). Seal the lid with a rolled out piece of bread dough, or tinfoil (or cheesecloth). If you can weight the lid down with something heavy, that helps too!

Cook for 10-15 minutes on low heat. Then turn off heat and let rest for 10 minutes.

I believe traditionally the whole pot is turned upside down a into a platter and served, or just scoop it out with a serving spoon. You can sprinkle some garam masala over the top and serve with a side of Indian yogurt to cool down the spices.

The Pastry: Mise en place (is a French culinary phrase which means "putting in place" or "gather". It refers to the setup required before cooking): Make sure your butter is all cubed up and it's sitting in the fridge, herbs are already chopped, if you're using them and you have a cup or bowl of ice water on hand. In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt and herbs together with a whisk, if you are using the herbs.
Add the butter cubes to the mixture and mix quickly with your fingers, remember the heat of your fingers and hand will warm the butter up very fast, which is why you want to mix quickly until the mixture resembles sand and small pebbles, only tiny beads should remain.
Add the ice water, up to 14 tblsp at first then add, one at a time a tblsp of the ice water until the dough holds together when you squeeze by your hand. You may not need all the ice water.
Create a rounded oval shape which is not too thick, cover in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until needed. I don't like making the dough a ball as when it comes straight out of the fridge will take longer to get it flat with a rolling pin. You want the dough to be very cold when rolling but it will also crack on the edges more so when cold which is why I recommend a much flatter pile of dough. Your finished product should be that you can see small tiny patches of butter interwoven in your pie dough top and bottom.

The Filling: Using either boneless skinless thighs or chicken breasts, sprinkle salt, pepper and granulated garlic on both sides and grill (ideally) or use a heavy bottoms pan and heat up some vegetable oil and pan fry each side until done, really thick breasts can be butterflied open for more even and quicker cooking. Cube up the chicken and set aside. Keep the cubes the same size as the vegetable cubes.
Cut the carrots into cubed pieces and boil in water for 2-3 minutes, until the are cooked through but not too soft, set aside.
Blanch the peas in hot water just until any frozenness disappear, drain and set aside.
You can skin the potatoes or don't for a more rustic look. Cube up the potatoes and cook in boiling water until cooked 3/4 of the way, about 4 minutes depending on how large you made the cubes, drain and set aside.

The Stock: Using home made stock is best (See my Chicken Stock recipe). Next best thing is making your stock with Better Than Bouillon Chicken Bouillon or the Roasted Chicken Bouillon (I think they also make a low sodium chicken bouillon). If your using the Bouillon method, it's easiest to mix all three tblsp with as little warm or hot water as you can and once you integrate the Bouillon making sure it's dissolved, add more water until you get to 11 cups. Once you have the mixture, chicken stock, you can add a tsp of salt and 1 tsp of fine ground black pepper. If your not using the herbs in the dough, you should add a tsp thyme to the stock now. Bring to a simmer over medium/low heat, stir, once hot taste for slat and pepper content and adjust accordingly. Get your corn starch slurry together by measuring our ¾ cup of corn starch and adding just enough cold water until it can be stirred, mix well, once the stock is simmering and your happy that it tastes chickeny and is seasoned well, add some hot stock into your "slurry" until you can pour easily pour the mixed slurry back into the stock, but first turn down the heat to stop the simmering and stirring simultaneously as the stock meets with the slurry and will react by thickening your chicken stock, once you've added three quarters of your slurry, turn the heat back to a simmer, this is when the magic happens, stir the chicken stock it should be getting thicker, now adjust the stock with more slurry until you have a very thick base for your chicken pot pie.
Stir in all the vegetables and the chicken, taste! Adjust the seasoning if necessary. Let cool, as it cools it will thicken even more. You can stop at this point and make the pot pies the next day if you wish.

Putting it all together: Pre-heat the oven to 400° F. Take the dough from the refrigerator and using a rolling pin roll out the dough between ⅛ to ¼
If you like a bottom crust: form a sheet onto a pie plate or baking dish pushing the sheet to conform to the inner curves of the pie plate or baking dish and trim off the excess dough that overhangs the edges using a butter knife. Add the pot pie filling into the pastry lined baking apparatus very close to the top leaving a ¼ of space. Add a top pastry sheet over your fillings and using a knife slice an X into the center of the pie to allow steam to escape. If your making a huge 13x8 baking dish you can cut three X's into the top to help the steam escape. Line a baking sheet with foil and place the pie on it, place in the center of the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the insides are bubbling hot and the crust id golden. You may need to check at 15 minutes to make sure the edges are not browning too much, if they are take a couple of strips of foil and wrap around the crusts edges.
If you like a only a top crust: fill the baking dish with pot pie filling and leave a ¼ inch gap to the top. Add a sheet of pastry dough over the top and using a butter knife trim the edges off, place on a foil lined baking sheet and bake for 30-30 minutes. Be aware that the edges can burn, check at 15 minutes and use some foil strips to cover the edges if it happens.

You can also par bake a top crust by measuring how large the top needs to be to fit on your baking pan, bowl or whatever you are using. Cut it to size and place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until tan in color, not golden. Then use these pre cooked tops to put over your bowl of hot pot pie filling you heated on the stove top and then only bake for 5 minutes until the pie top heats up and gets a more golden color, 10 minutes tops. Remember if you forget to cut an X into the pre-baked tops, if the filling bubbles over it will all be over the sides of the crust!

Mix the chicken, ginger, soy sauce, and black pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

Add the oil to a medium fry pan heat to medium heat. Add the garlic, when one side of the garlic is golden, flip to the other side and push to one side of the fry pan, now add the leeks to the other side and lightly toss. Once the other side of the garlic is golden remove from the oil and set aside. Once the leeks are almost all golden also remove from the oil and set aside with the garlic.

Lower heat to low, now add the red pepper flakes to the oil, stir around well, turn off the heat. let cool slightly and strain the oil and reserve it.

For the sauce, in a small bowl, mix the 1 tblsp of soy sauce, water, rice vinegar, potato starch and rice syrup or sugar. Mix well, set aside.

Add the egg white to the chicken that was marinating, and then the 1/2 cup of potato starch, mix until the chicken is well coated.

In a large frying an add the cup of vegetable oil and heat to 350 deg. F.
Fry the chicken pieces until crisp, but don't crowd the pan, do it in batches if necessary, this chicken will be fried twice!. Set the chicken aside, after its first fry. Set aside the fry pan with oil (for the second fry).

Now, in a different fry pan, add the spicy oil you made, heat to medium high and add the onions, jalapeno, fresh red chili, dried red chilis and green onion. Saute for a few minutes, meanwhile, in the other fry pan fry the chicken a second time. Now mix the sauce you made and add it to the onions and chilis, quickly stir in, the sauce will tighten up and become thick very quickly.

Now add the twice fried chicken to the sauce, and also add the leeks and garlic from earlier, turn off heat, mix well. Add sesame oil and mix well again.
Serve!

Mix togather the cut up chicken pieces and the ginger/garlic paste.
Now add the flour, 1/4 cup corn starch, 1/2 tsp salt and white pepper. Coat the chicken well.

Heat up the cup of oil over medium+ heat. (We're going to fry the chicken twice, the first time, don't worry about crisping it up, that's in the second fry.) fry all chicken pieces once, do not crowd the pan, do it in batches.

Now fry the chicken pieces a second time, in batches, set aside.

In a different pan, heat up the 3 tbsp oil over medium heat, heat up the onions for 2-3 minutes before adding in the bell pepper. Saute for an additional 2 minutes before adding the small hot chilies and the ginger/garlic paste. Fry an additional 2-3 minutes. Lower heat to med/low.

Mix together the soy sauce, sambal oelek chili sauce, chili paste, ketchup, rice vinegar, salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a seperate cup mix together well the 2 tsp of corn starch and 1/4 cup of water. Set aside.

In the onion/pepper mix pan, turn heat back up to medium/high, now add the soy sauce/chili paste vinegar mixture, mix well, bring to boil. Add the water/corn starch mix in the cup to the pan, stir well.

Now put all the chicken into the sauce, mix well, add in the mango cubes, toss well and serve over rice.