Biryani.

For the biryani Is a very easy rice dish that you can make relatively simply with out much of a problem. Chicken goes very well with it normally marinated in some thing and then baked in an oven and served over the top.
For the easy biryani rice you will need.

2 tbsp vegetable oil
½ onion, peeled, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste
100g/3½oz button mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground turmeric
500g/1lb 2oz basmati rice, rinsed thoroughly in cold water before cooking
100g/3½oz fresh peas or frozen defrosted peas
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
To cook the rice is very simple and does not take a lot of skill but you do have to trust what is happening when you can not see the rice. First you need to find a pan with a tight fitting lid if not have a baking try ready or some tin foil to cover the pan at the end. When you have found that you can start to cook.
Take the oil and heat that in the pan and then add the onions and the garlic. Cook them till they soften and start to take on a little colure. Then add the mushrooms, dried chilli flakes and ground turmeric. Cook all this for a while so that the flavour of the dry spiced cooking out in to the dish.
Now add the rice and let that cook with all the other bits for a while. You want it to take on some of the oil and the liquid that will have come out of the mushrooms. Then add some water , you want the water to be approximately 1cm/½ in above the level of the rice. Any more and it will over cook and to little and it will still be under cooked.
Bring the water to the boil in the pan, then immediately cover the pan. Ideally you do not want the steam to escape from the pan as you are cooking so get the best fitting lid you can. If you want the best use foil and a lid of some kind a belt and braces approach.
Cook on the heat for another 4 or 5 minuets and then turn of the heat and just let it stand. Do nut uncover just let it steam in the pan and it will cook. The hard thing is to trust that you have got it right and put in the right amount of water. After the rice has been standing for a while add the peas and the chopped tomatoes and the heat of the rice will warm through and cook them. When it has been of the heat for about twenty minuets it will be ready, just run a fork through it and fluff the rice and you are good to go. Place on a plate with the chicken of your choice over it.
For a easy and quick marinade for the chicken this is as simple as it gets with thing you might have in your store cupboard.

1 dessertspoon ready-made sweet chilli sauce or mango chutney or both
2 tsp ready-made curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp of garlic purée 1 tsp of ginger purée
1 tbsp plain yoghurt
8 chicken pieces thighs or breast skin on, bone in, skin scored several times all very rustic
Now the longer you leave this to marinade the better and the chicken piece do not want to be very big about half a chicken barest size.
The all you have to do is grill, bake or pan fry using as little oil as possible. This is best on a barbeque I have found or a char griddle pan on the stove top.