Re: Biryani Help!
Personally I believe if you are a beginner, you should opt for the Biryani Masalas. It will help you with instant Biryani. However a recipe that I can give you is below.
The quantity I am mentioning is according to 4 persons.
Chicken 1 Kg
Yogurt 1/4 kg
Oil- standard 3/4cup
Onions 2 big and finally chopped
Tomatoes 2 Big
Rice about 4 to 5 standard cup size (I use Tilda Supreme Quality).
Potatoes optional.
Fry onion, golden brown and take them out, keep aside.
In a bowl, add yogurt,
2 tspn pisi lal m irch
1 tsp chaat masala
1 tsp pisa dhaniya
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp haldi (turmeric powder)
1 tbsp garam masala mota kuta hua. (almost 5 cloves, 10 black pepper, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 black cardamom, 3 green cardamom, 1 nutmeg, 1 tsp javitri, 1 tbsp leveled zeera)
Now add sabut garam masala, almost 5 cloves, 10 black pepper, 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 black cardamom, 1-1/2tsp zeera, 2 Biryani phool, 2 to 3 bay leaves.
add lehsan adrak paste 1,1 tbsp
add at least 5 aalu bukharay or some people add a bit more.
mix it well and pour the paste in pre-heated oil.
Achhi tarha bhoono ke oil ooper aajaye.
Now add chicken and isko bhi achi tarha bhoono and cover it.
Check after 5 minutes if chicken is leaving water. Mostly it does and you won’t need to add the water separately.
After 10 minutes, add potatoes. cover it.
After 10 minutes, chicken should be almost done (chicken usually takes no more than 30 minutes, we want to make sure chicken is not Fully done.. like usme 5 to 10 minutes wali kasar rehni chahye takay wo tootay nahin.)
Add chopped tomatoes, cover for 5 minutes.
Now grind the fried onion, not too much but mota mota rakhna.
Now add the onion in Chicken and add about 10 to 15 small green chillies, dont cut them. Its just for flavor.
Add Paudina about a cup in last.
The Masala should all be well-merged and shouldn’t be like a saalan.
For Rice,
Boil water, adding few cloves and black pepper, a green chillie, a slice of lemon and a black cardamom. about 2 tablespoons salt.
When boiled, add rice, and drain them when cooked 75%.
Now in degchi, (probably the same you boiled rice in unless its not steel one, never to cook rice or any food in steel degchi)
Add a tablespoon oil (take from the chicken masala) (one thing more, when chicken masala done, and all oil comes up, takeout the oil from the chicken masala in a separate bowl. Jitna bhi nikaal sako nikaal lo. The masala shouldn’t be left with oil.
Spread half rice, pour chicken masala, sprinkle some more paudina, (at this time taste the masala, if you think the masala has less salt or red pepper you can sprinkle them at this stage too). Now add the rest of the Rice. (This is a 3 layer Biryani, when I cook more rice, I sometimes get more layers so that it becomes easy to handle while mixing).
Now level them, pour 3 tablespoon milk, 1 tbspoon kewra, some fried onions, Some red color and few paudina leaves and the oil you took out from masala should be poured now!! cover it, put some weight on it, higher the flame for 3 to 5 minutes and now lower it at dum. Dum it for rest 5 to 7 minutes and serve it now 
and have decided after trying a few restaurants not so great biryani that I will attempt to make my own.
so let me share my simple recipe with you (that includes the packet masala)
Hum karrrrrrrrrachi walo ki biryani ka bhi koi jawab nahin 