Chicken Biryani
Food is so much more than just the nutrients it provides. I talk about this all the time.
In 2019, when my husband and I returned home from the hospital with our very first newborn baby, we got to experience the gloriousness that is a meal train. Are y’all familiar with meal trains? Basically, people in your circle are able to sign up volunteering to provide you with meals, groceries, and gift cards to help lighten the load during big transitional times.
For a period of several weeks (months, even?), we had food coming in on a regular basis and it was such a huge gift not to have to worry as much about how we were going to feed ourselves.
Though we were given lots of delicious food during that time, by far my favorite thing we received was a humble styrofoam box full of homemade chicken biryani made by my dear friend Aisha’s mom.
Do you ever have moments of eating something amazingly delicious and thinking, “Does this food taste so good because I’m ravenously hungry? Or is it actually that good?” That was me with this. As a postpartum mama trying to heal and feed a newborn, I was for sure super hungry. But also, that biryani really was just that good.
It was the kind of thing you have cravings for and are simultaneously mad that you ate it in the first place because you know nothing else is you eat or make is going to be the same. It’s pretty routine for that biryani to come up in conversation with Aisha even to this day.
I recently came across this recipe for chicken biryani that you can make in the Instant Pot and I decided to give it a try. Gathering the spices for the recipe is what inspired my recent IG post about the bulk section of the grocery store.
Sometimes you can just look at ingredients listed in a recipe and make the assumption that it’s going to be good. That was my mindset with this recipe. Like when you have layers upon layers of spices (both ground and whole), fresh onions, garlic, ginger…ghee-sauteed cashews!? Uh, yeah. How could that not be good?
Much to my delight, the recipe turned out absolutely wonderful. My husband’s words were something along the lines of, “Oh yeah. Fire. Excellent. We need to have this on the menu every week.”
Was it the same as Aisha’s mom’s? Absolutely not. But it didn’t have to be, because ultimately I know - no matter how good a recipe is, I’m not going to be on Mrs. Darwesh’s level. And that’s okay.
When I talk about food having a deeper meaning and significance beyond just the nutrition it provides, this is what I mean.
It’s a trip down memory lane. I can’t think of chicken biryani without thinking about those fresh newborn days and Aisha’s mom.
It’s warmth and comfort. Our house was perfumed with the aroma of warming spices throughout the cooking process that was only topped by the flavor of the final result.
It’s culture. We got exposure to some ingredients that don’t often make an appearance in our kitchen.
It’s adventure. Trying out a new recipe always runs risks, but the payoff can be so worth it.
And it’s so much more.
I think that styrofoam box of biryani in 2019 was a simple act of generosity for the Darwesh fam, but it had a profound impact on me.
Here’s to meal trains, here’s to moms, here’s to food that tastes good.
(Also, make this recipe if the Instant Pot is your thing. 10/10.)