Rice & Lentil Porridge (Khichdi / Khichuri)

I'm always fascinated to hear about ways that cultures can be both wildly different and yet ultimately similar.

For example, when I'm sick I've got a set of comfort foods that immediately come to mind:  ginger ale and saltines for an upset stomach, orange juice and chicken soup for the flu, hot water with ginger and lemon for a sore throat or cough.  If, heaven forbid, I were to ever come down with pneumonia again I imagine I'd want white peach gelatin and bananas (no vigorous chewing required, y'see).

Through my experiences both living in Japan and spending time with my in-laws, I've found that in other parts of the world rice porridge is the food of choice for the sick.  In Japan, for example, there are even different words for porridge made from uncooked versus cooked rice.

Khichuri is a type of south Asian rice porridge that has the advantage of including lentils (dal) for an extra little protein punch.  It was one of the first Indian foods my in-laws trusted me to eat -- back when we were all still getting to know each other -- and perhaps not coincidentally was also one of the first Indian recipes I remember seeing in print.  I was introduced to it at their house over one particular visit when I was feeling under the weather, so the recipe caught my attention when a few months later I was handed an Ayurvedic cookbook by a girl at Boston Pride.

Rice porridges are great for infants, sick people, and the elderly because they're easy to digest, relatively flavorless, and often come close to mimicking the kind of food that people would be eating in that culture anyway, meaning that it's not scary-looking or insulting (as baby foods and nursing home purees so often are).  In the west I suppose the closest we come is oatmeal, porridge, or plain grits, depending on where you live, though those are breakfast foods and don't often contain any protein or vegetables.  That's where khichuri has an advantage since it's made with lentils and common variants include peas, cauliflower, and spinach with carrots.

You'll notice this version of the recipe is very plain and relatively bland -- sort of the South Asian equivalent of a saltine.  That's on purpose.  There's nothing stopping anyone from jazzing this up into a regular dal recipe, just as you can put all kinds of snazzy things atop a plain cracker.  But for me, when I'm sick and not feeling up to cooking this falls close enough to the "meal" category.  Plus it saves me the hassle of chewing, which is nice when I'm all out of energy.

And hey, if you're into Ayurvedic cooking or if you're looking for a "detox" (again, keeping in mind that detox is a ritual rather than a medical reality), there are some claims that khichri will cleanse your karma or some such thing like that.  Either way it won't hurt you, and is fairly nutritious so long as you work in a side salad or some other kind of greenery with it.

Khichuri - Rice & Lentil Porridge

This one's gonna fly by, I promise.  The overview is:  0.5 cups lentils, 1 cup rice, 3-4 cups water or stock, a tiny bit of flavoring, and boil until mushy.

Here goes.

First off you'll want to pick out your lentils.  Aim for smaller ones since they'll cook up faster.  Personally I chose half masoor dal (the orange ones) and half val dal (the white ones), though mung/moong dal (green ones) are very popular for this dish.  Chances are whatever you have on hand will probably work fine, though French lentils may never truly break down into mush.  That's fine, just be aware that your consistency will be different.  You can use all one kind or mix and match according to your tastes.

Rinse your half cup of lentils and cup of basmati rice in warm water using a fine mesh sieve until the water runs clear.  Soak them for 15 minutes or more in warm water to help the rice start plumping and get the lentils softened up a tad.  You can do all this together in the same bowl since we're going to cook everything together anyway.  This recipe is all about cutting down on effort.

While the lentils and rice and plumping, get a deep saucepan going on medium heat.  Add 1 tsp oil (ghee is the traditional choice here, but I find it hurts my stomach when I'm sick so I opted for olive oil instead), heat until shimmering, and then add 1 tsp cumin seeds.  I didn't bother to photograph this process because it's fairly straightforward and we've seen it here and here and here and here and here already, so if you're unsure go ahead and check any of those links.  If you'd like to add a bay leaf or substitute mustard seeds (such as seen here), then please feel free.  I like the smokey flavor of cumin seeds, but it's not written in stone.

Anyway, when the cumin seeds get fragrant -- this will take less than a minute -- add a finely diced onion.  I had frozen onion puree hanging around so I used that to cut down on cutting time because I was feeling pretty darn ill and just wanted to eat already.

After about 10 minutes of sauteeing the onion I added 2 tsp ginger paste, which I forgot to photograph.  Trust me, though, it's in there.  Cooked ginger has the added bonus of containing a compound called shogaol which is an anti-inflammatory.  So that's nice.  Every little bit counts when you're sick.

When the onion & ginger were cooked up I drained my rice & lentils and added them on top:

Followed immediately by 3-4 cups of liquid.  I used vegetable stock.  You can use water or broth if you'd like.  The more liquid, the more squishy yours will be.  I erred on the side of less water for the stick-to-your-ribs effect.  There's really no wrong way to do this, though.

Hard part's over!  Dial it up to medium-high, bring it to a boil.  When it boils, turn it down to low, cover it, and let it simmer until everything's gooey.

Val dal and masoor dal break down fairly fast, so mine was ready in just over half an hour.  The beauty of this is that you can let it simmer on low more or less indefinitely -- it'll just keep getting more and more goo-like the longer it's on the stove.  Once it was juuuuuust about to the right consistency I added two tsp dried curry leaves (optional, you could sub a different spice if you'd like):

And one tsp turmeric powder (also an anti-inflammatory):

I stirred all that up, covered it again, and let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so to "cook" the spices, salt to taste, and that was that!

If you want to add veggies or other/additional spices, some common ones are:  hing (asafetida), cumin powder, coriander powder, fennel powder, fenugreek powder, bay leaves, cloves, fresh cilantro, mint, cinnamon, cardamom, black peppercorn, red chili powder (naturally), green chilies, peas, cauliflower, spinach, eggplant, and carrots.  That's not an exhaustive list, obviously, but should give you a nice jumping-off point to get creative on your own.  I like mine as plain as possible so that it doesn't give my tummy too much thinking to do when I'm feeling low, but as I mentioned in the intro there's nothing at all stopping you from making this into a regular dinner.

Not entirely certain what's up next.  I've got some Mardi Gras recipes, St. Patty's recipes, and a few Japanese favorites in the pipeline for sometime between now and early March, though, so be sure to stay tuned.

Khichuri - Rice & Lentil Porridge

Ingredients (can easily be multiplied or halved):

• 1 cup basmati rice
• 0.5 cup small lentils (e.g. mung/moong dal, val dal, masoor dal)
• 3-4 cups water or stock (or more, if a thinner consistency is desired)
• 1 tsp oil or ghee
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• can sub or add: mustard seeds, bay leaf
• 1 small onion, finely minced
• frozen / pureed onion also ok
• 2 tsp ginger paste
• 2 tsp curry leaves
• see paragraph just below the last picture, above, for substitute ideas
• 1 tsp turmeric powder

Directions:

1. Thoroughly rinse lentils and rice in a fine-mesh sieve until the water runs clear.  Soak in warm water for 15 minutes or longer (up to several hours or overnight).  Drain and rinse again.
2. While lentils and rice are soaking, heat a large stockpot on medium heat.  Add oil, heat until shimmering.  Add cumin seeds and heat until just fragrant -- less than 1 minute total.
3. Add onion & ginger paste.  Saute 10 minutes or until onion is translucent and soft.
4. Add drained lentils & rice along with stock (or water).  Turn heat up to high and bring to a boil.  If adding vegetables, place them in the pot at this time (with the exception of spinach, which should be added later, with the curry leaves & turmeric).  
5. Once the pot boils, turn the heat down to low, cover, and let simmer until the rice and lentils begin to break down.  How long this takes will depend on the type of lentils used, but could take 30-60 minutes or longer.  
6. Uncover, add curry leaves & turmeric powder.  Replace cover and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
7. Add salt to taste and serve.  

Lemon Cashew Rice

Doc and I are about as different as two people could be.  It's something we're constantly made aware of, both in terms of culture/upbringing as well as personality.  He likes sports.  I like Doctor Who.  I read about one book a week.  He reads about one a year.  He's competitive at most things but easygoing about chores.  I'm cooperative in most situations but exacting when it comes to cleanliness.  His intelligence is based on rote memorization, mine on problem-solving.  He likes chips, I like crudités.

And, to get to the point at last, he prefers bread whereas I could eat rice forever.  I can, and have, eaten it for every meal for years at a time.

We try to share with each other what we can and politely (sometimes tersely) overlook the rest.  We could teach the world a lot about peace.


If you're wondering why I haven't delivered on my promise of scones and white chocolate popcorn, over the weekend I had grand plans to make them but in the end just didn't feel like having more junk food in the house.  Perhaps next weekend.  I hadn't posted in a while and I wanted to give you something new before then, so I started brainstorming.  We've been eating a lot of freezer meals lately (lentils, for example) and I haven't had anything new to post.  Then I figured, why not post one of the side dishes I make to go with the freezer meals?  So here's some rice for you.

In the interest of fairness I'll post a flatbread recipe one of these days, too.  Just not today.

[Concise recipe at the bottom, as always.]

Lemon Cashew Rice

Total Real Time:  30-60 min for rice presoak, 20 minutes for mix-ins (while rice soaks), 60 minutes in the rice cooker.
Weirdest spice: curry leaves.

A few days ago Doc and I tried a new Indian place.  The food tasted excellent but ended up making me rather sick before we'd even left the place.  (Tip: always read the online reviews first, question your choice of establishment if half of them mention food poisoning.  Lesson learned.)

Anyway, one of the things they had on their menu was lemon rice.  That caught my interest.  Lemon?  In the rice?  Since you now know my love for all things rice, you can guess why I had to give it a go within the week.  I'm pleased with how this came out.

Step one was to put the rice in to soak in warm water for at least half an hour.  We've already talked about why that's a good idea, right?  Right.

While the rice soaked I started with the skillet on medium-high heat.  When the pan was hot I added a splash of oil (about 1-2 tsp).  When the oil started to shimmer I added 1 tsp of mustard seeds.

Remember our discussion about how mustard seeds and mustard powder are different?  If you don't have mustard seeds, just leave them out.  Don't substitute mustard powder or you're going to get some weird rice.

Like cumin seeds, mustard seeds only take about 30-60 seconds or so until they start to make a sizzling, crackling noise.  When that happens add in 1 to 1.5 cups of diced onions.  I used frozen but you can use fresh if you've got them.

Stir it up with the oil and mustard seeds, add a tiny dash of salt (helps them to cook faster -- don't use your total final amount of salt just yet), and stir occasionally over the next 10ish minutes.  Frozen takes a little longer, as you might imagine.  I probably sauteed mine for about 15 minutes or so.

Next up is flavorings.  I added a handful of cashews:

Followed by the zest of half a lemon (dried lemon zest would also work -- try starting maybe around 1/4 tsp, taste it, and add a little more if that's not lemony enough for you):

Followed by 1.5 tsp chili powder (optional, adjust to taste), 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp coriander powder, and 2 tsp garlic paste or minced garlic.  

I wanted a very light amount of spices compared to the lemon flavor.  If you want things with more spice heft you could as much as double the turmeric and coriander.

I stirred all this up and let it cook for another 5 minutes.

Don't worry about getting thing too browned up since we're about to toss it in to cook alongside the rice.  Speaking of which, now's a good time to rinse it and toss it into your pot.  I prefer my rice cooker to using the stovetop.  You may need to make some adjustments for amount of liquid and cooking time depending on your equipment.  When it comes to deciding the rice:liquid ration, always default to the cooking instructions on:  (a) your own rice cooker; or, if using the stovetop, (b) the container the rice came in.  For example, my bag of rice says 1.75 cups of liquid for 1 cup of basmati rice, but my rice cooker says 2 cups of liquid for 1.25 cups of white rice.  I default to the cooker's instructions.  If I were cooking the rice in a pan on the stove, I'd use the rice bag's instructions.  Either way, here's what you do:

1. Squeeze out one lemon into a measuring cup; then,
2. Add the remainder of the liquid on top of that.

For example, I needed 2 total cups of liquid for my 1.25 cups of basmati rice.  First I squeezed out the lemon into my measuring cup:

And since it was an enormous lemon I got about 1/4 cup of lemon juice.  I then measured out the rest of the cup by topping it off with water:

See what I mean?  In other words, I counted the lemon juice as part of the total liquid I was adding to the rice, rather than measuring out two cups of water and then adding the lemon juice on top.  A quarter cup was just about perfect for a mild lemony flavor.  As for the rest of the liquid you could use water, vegetable stock, or chicken stock.  If using canned broth or stock, just keep in mind that they're usually pretty salty and you'll want to taste everything at the end before adding extra salt.

Okay, so into the cooker went the rice, the liquid (water + lemon juice, in my case), followed by the onion & cashew mix, a cup of green peas just for color, and 2 teaspoons of curry leaves (you can omit these if you don't have them, or substitute a bay leaf).

I closed it up, switched it to the setting for "mixed rice" (I have a fancy cooker and have found this is the best way to handle any rice-with-bits-of-stuff that I make), and let it do its thing.  If you're using a stovetop method, again, just add in the onion mix, peas, and curry leaves and then follow the directions that came with the rice.

Sixty minutes later the timer went off.  I prefer to let it sit for another 5-10 minutes after it goes off.  For some reason that seems to keep the rice from getting gummy, but that might just be a quirk of my cooker.  After the waiting period I fluffed the rice with a fork and dished it out.  Keep in mind that turmeric can and will stain absolutely any wood, fabric, people, or plastic it touches so I'd recommend serving this with a metal spoon rather than a rice paddle.

As I mentioned above, this has got a really mild lemon flavor and goes light on the spices.  That makes it an unobtrusive side to something with more kick or personality.  If you wanted to give it more of a center stage you might swap out the peas for edamame (yay, extra protein!), add some green chillies, and crank up the lemon and spices.  Or not.  Whatever makes ya happy!

Lemon Cashew Rice

Ingredients:

• 1.25 cups of basmati rice + 2 cups of liquid (includes juice of one lemon)
• NOTE: Follow the directions on your rice cooker or rice bag to get appropriate rice : liquid ratio.  1.25 : 2 is specific to my cooker and may not produce ideal results for yours.
• Be sure to count lemon juice (roughly 1/4 cup) as part of the cooking liquid.  Water or stock/broth can be used for the remaining liquid.
• splash of oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 - 1.5 cups diced onion
• handful of cashews
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tsp garlic paste or minced garlic
• 1.5 tsp chili powder (optional, to taste)
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 cup green peas (optional, can sub edamame)
• 2 tsp curry leaves (optional, can sub 1 bay leaf)
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. Cover rice with warm water and set aside to soak.
2. Heat skillet on medium-high.  Add oil, and then add mustard seeds when oil is hot enough to start shimmering.  Cook mustard seeds 30-60 seconds or until sizzling.
3. Add onions and a dash of salt.  Saute, stirring occasionally, for roughly 10 minutes or until onions are softened and translucent.
4. Add cashews, lemon zest, garlic, chili powder, and turmeric.  (If using green chillies, add them at this time.)  Saute for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Drain rice and rinse until water runs clear.  Add to rice cooker with liquid.
6. Place onion mix, peas, and curry leaves on top.  Do not stir.
7. Set rice to cook for one cycle.  (NOTE: if using stovetop to cook the rice, mix in onions, peas, and curry leaves, then follow directions on the rice package.)
8. Once cooker cycle is done, allow to sit 10 minutes without opening the lid.  
9. Fluff with fork and serve.

Rice Cooker Chicken Pulao (Spiced Pilaf)

If you had to explain the difference between chocolate cake and brownies to someone who wasn't familiar with either, what would you say?

I don't know about you, but I would struggle.  Cake is... well, it's cakier.  Brownies are... I suppose they're just as brown...  and as chocolatey.  They're fudgier than cake, that's for sure, but not as fudgy as fudge.  You can have very cakey brownies and very fudgy brownies, and yet we don't describe either cake or fudge as being brownie-like.  It's all very confusing to explain because defining either relies on contrasting it with the other.

This is, perhaps, a bit like the difference between biryani (rice with bits of veggie and possibly meat) with pulao (also rice with bits of veggie and possibly meat).  As best as I can understand it from reading a few dozen recipes and explanations out there, biryani is denser, usually spicier, and when you layer everything together the rice is only par-boiled (half-cooked), leaving it to finish cooking alongside whatever other stuff you throw on top of it.

Pulao, on the other hand, shares linguistic roots with plov (the first Russian dish I ever learned to cook) and pilaf.  Pulao is said to be easier to cook because you don't have to layer anything, you don't have to switch pots when the rice is half-cooked, and the mix-ins are just thrown together willy-nilly.  (But then the recipe I have for plov involves layers, too, so who knows.)

By those definitions this recipe, based purely on the fact that I don't half-cook the rice first, is pulao.  Whereas biryani prides itself on every bite being a little different, pulao is just a pile of food that doesn't really worry too much about appearances.  If they were people biryani would be the high maintenance one in Jimmy Choos and pulao would be in running sneaks with its hair in a messy bun.

We're kindred spirits, me and pulao.

So while this dish is very flavorful and features a lot of the same spices as biryani, and even in a lazy sense is layered in the rice cooker, I'm going to call this a pulao.  In the end it's probably something like cakey brownies -- it's technically one while closely resembling the other.

All that said -- beyond the how of cooking them -- content is pretty much open to your tastes.  Don't like meat?  Leave it out!  Want a ton of veggies, or different veggies, or different spices?  Whatever makes you happy, that's what needs to go into your pilaf.  Heck, Doc puts chicken nuggets and frozen peas in Uncle Ben's and calls it a day.

Let's get down to it, shall we?

Rice Cooker Biryani Pulao (Spiced Pilaf)

Total Real Time:  30ish minutes to make the mix-ins, 60 minutes in the rice cooker.
Weirdest Spice:  ground mace.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that if I've got leftover chicken (or lamb, or whatever) and some frozen veggies, I'm looking at 20 easy minutes of active time and then I plop it all in the cooker and forget about it.  Plus the rice cooker keeps things warm indefinitely so I can make it in the afternoon and it's still hot when Doc gets home from work or a night out.

Step one is to soak and wash your rice.  Thirty to sixty minutes in warm (not hot) water, then rinse your rice in a fine mesh strainer.  Why?  Because this is the difference between unsoaked/unwashed rice (left) and grains that've been given the red carpet treatment (right):

Notice how the ones on the left are not only a dingy color, they're less plump?  Filthy rice is really gross, yo.  Soaking your rice lets it absorb some water so that they cook more evenly and don't dry out as much.  It's the big secret to fluffy rice.  So put your rice on to plump while you take care of the meat & veggies.  We'll come back to it in a bit.

If you don't have leftover chicken on hand you can pop a chicken breast or two into the oven at 350F for 25 minutes (roughly, be sure to check the temp with a thermometer).  Whatever spices make you happy are a-ok, or just throw on a little salt & pepper on and be on your way.  I used some pre-mixed tandoori spice.  Or you can throw together your own tandoori mix if you have the spices on hand: here's a tandoori mix recipe that uses just powdered spices, and here's one that uses whole spices you have to grind yourself (I use a dedicated grinder -- not the same one I use for coffee -- on those occasions when I have to grind my own blends).  But let me stress that tandoori spice was just what I felt like using at the time and can just as easily be subbed for anything or nothing.

 If the amount of effort I wanted to put into this could be summed up in a word, it would be "meh."

If you're making chicken / Meat of Your Choice in the moment, use the time while it's in the oven to make the veggie mix.  I used onions + whatever whatever I reached first on the freezer door:

Onions & more onions.  Oh, and apparently liced mushrooms?

Much like our turkey curry and lentils excursions, this starts with Oil of Your Choice on medium-high heat and 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds.

I used olive oil, you can use whatever you like.

Thirty to sixty seconds should be sufficient to start roasting the cumin seeds.  Then throw in one onion cut into fine julienne strips.

No need to worry about fancy, this is just a way to say "long, thin strips."  To remember what julienne is, I picture a woman named Julianne who is tall and thin.  ...if that helps.

Mix the onions up so that they're coated in the oil and cumin seeds and saute them on medium-high heat for maybe 5-10 minutes, or until they're as brown and caramelized as you like.  No need to get too worried about them since we'll be boiling them with the rice in the cooker.

Next add in a generous dollop of our old friends, ginger and garlic pastes.

Mix that around, give it 2-3 minutes to heat up, and then add in whatever other veggies you want.  I used spinach, bell pepper, jalepeno pepper, and mushrooms.  What we're making here is a stir-fry that's going to go atop the rice, so if you've got something you enjoy in your stir-fry add that here.  Frozen is just as good as fresh.  As you can see here I've got a mix of both to use up whatever I had on hand:

You can see the frost sticking to some of those.  That added a bit of cooking time for me to get rid of all the water that oozed out of the frozen veggies.  If you use fresh or canned vegetables you might not need as much time.  About 10 minutes was plenty to cook off most of the water, at which point I added in spices that were inspired by biryani:  3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon ground clove, 1/4 teaspoon mace, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric.  For those that follow the link there, you'll notice I cut the spice list in about half.  You can cut it further, or add your own.  Heck, if you wanted to try a version with oregano, rosemary, and thyme, you could do that instead.  Again, this is your stir-fry.

The spices will help to absorb any remaining liquid in the mix.  The reason you want to get this as dry is possible is so that it doesn't throw off your rice measurements later.

What is mace, you ask, and is it necessary?  If you're wondering if it's the same stuff in mace spray, it is not.  Mace-the-spray is named after the old-timey spiked weapon knights used to carry and is made from hot peppers (hence the other name, pepper spray).  Mace-the-food is a warm, peppery spice that's actually made from the bark-like hull that surrounds a nutmeg seed, which is why it sometimes makes an appearance in things like pumpkin pie blends.  And no, it's not necessary in this dish.  You could add a dash of black pepper or allspice instead if you want, or leave it out altogether.

Okay, so 3-5ish minutes should be enough to "cook" your spices.  (The idea of "raw" spices still weirds me out.)  Sometime in this process your chicken probably dinged, didn't it?  Let it sit long enough to cool, and then use two forks to shred it.  Or heck, dice it.  Whatever.

Again, "meh."

So now your veggies and your meat are done.  Time to turn back to the rice.  Drain it, make extra sure you've rinsed it until the water runs clean, and then plop it into your rice cooker.  I used 1.5 cups of basmati rice.

You'll want to go by whatever proportions your cooker calls for when it comes to rice: liquid.  Mine calls for 1.5 cups of liquid to 1 cup of rice for white rice, so I used about 2.25 cups of liquid, minus a tablespoon or two of liquid to compensate for the moisture in the veggies and chicken.  (Too much liquid will make your rice gluey.)  I used chicken stock.  You could easily swap out water or vegetable stock here.

On top of that I poured first the veggie mix:

Followed by the chicken, a teaspoon of mint leaves, a bay leaf, and 2 teaspoons of coriander (cilantro).  All I had was the frozen stuff, normally I'd use fresh cilantro.

I used to throw in a pinch of saffron here, but I've found that I can't taste it over the other strong spices and since it doesn't come cheap I don't really bother any more.

That's the end of the effort part!  I closed the lid and switched it on.  Now, my rice cooker is kind of fancy, so it has a bunch of different settings.  I've found that when making rice-with-stuff-in-it the "Mixed Rice" setting works best.  You may have to play around with yours to get it just right.

Which brings me to my next point while we wait the hour or so it takes for the pilaf to cook:  what if you don't have a rice cooker?  Unless you eat rice pretty often you probably don't have/need one.  If you do have one but you're not sure what to do with it other than plain rice, let me direct you to the late great Roger Ebert's cookbook.  Otherwise, my best guess is that all this will work equally well with a typical stovetop rice cooking method, though that's untested so you'll have to be sure to let me know any tips you have to share if you do it that way.

Ding, rice is done!

Let it sit for 5-10 minutes or so before you take the cover off or stir it.  I've found that really helps keep the rice from getting gummy.

Be sure to pick out the bay leaf before anyone who might complain about it sees it.  That is, if you have someone like that in your house.

And that's it!  It kept the layers, more or less, so I suppose you could call it a biryani if you wanted to (but I don't):

It's much less attractive once you mix it up and serve it out, unfortunately.

Next up is a true beginner's recipe: making your own stock in the slow cooker.  Stay tuned.

Rice Cooker Biryani Pulao (Spiced Pilaf)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups of uncooked basmati rice
• 5-6 cups warm tap water
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1-2 teaspoons tandoori powder
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 1.5 teaspoons ginger paste
• 1.5 teaspoons garlic paste
• 1/4 cup each of vegetables of choice (e.g. spinach, bell pepper, chili pepper, mushroom
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mace
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons stock or water (or adjust according to your rice cooker's instructions, subtracting 1-2 tablespoons to compensate for the mix-ins)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon mint leaves
• 2 teaspoons coriander leaves

Directions:

1. Rinse rice under warm tap water using a fine mesh sieve.  Place rice in warm water bath for 30-60 minutes while cooking chicken and vegetable mix-ins.
2. Coat chicken breasts in tandoori powder.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until chicken reaches 165 degrees.  Set aside to cool, then shred or dice.
3. While chicken is baking, heat a frying pan on medium high heat.  Add oil, allow to heat until shimmering.
4. Add cumin seeds, roast 30-60 seconds until sizzling and fragrant.  Add onions.
5. Saute onions 5-10 minutes.  
6. Add ginger & garlic pastes, saute another 2-3 minutes.
7. Add remaining vegetables, saute until soft and only a small amount of liquid remains in the pan.
8. Add cinnamon, cloves, mace, cumin, coriander, and turmeric and heat for an additional 3-5 minutes or until the remaining liquid has evaporated.  Turn off heat and set aside.
9. Drain rice and rinse again in warm tap water using a fine mesh sieve until water runs clear.  
10. Place rice in rice cooker and cover with chicken broth.
11. Gently lay vegetable mix on top of rice.  Do not mix.
12. Layer chicken on top of vegetables.  Again, do not stir or mix the layers.
13. On top of this add the mint, coriander, and bay leaf.  The bay leaf should be under the liquid layer, meaning it may need to be pressed down into the layers so that it is in the broth.
14. Cover the rice cooker and set for one cycle.  If your rice cooker has multiple settings, use the one for white rice or for mixed rice, if available.
15. When the cycle is done, allow the rice to sit for 5-10 minutes untouched, then fluff the rice with a fork or rice paddle to mix the layers.