Heat 6 tbsp veg oil in a thick bottom Kadhai. Finely slice the onions and add them to the oil. Keep the heat on low and let the onions cook. Stir occasionally

Clean the chicken and squeeze out as much water as possible

To the chicken add 1 tbsp lime juice + 1 tbsp red chilli powder + 1/2 tsp haldi + 1 tbsp corriander powder + salt and mix well. Make sure the spices do not get stuck in some crevasse of the chicken pieces i.e. it should coat the whole chicken uniformly.

Add the whole spices and mix

Add the Ground marinade ingredients to the chicken and mix

Add 1/2 cup yogurt and mix

The onions will take approx 1 hr to become golden brown. You need to become careful after 45 min. If you are not careful towards the end, the onions may burn. After 45 min, add salt and increase the heat and stir continuously until the onions become crisp. Remove immediately and leave to cool. You may remove the onions little earlier if you prefer a less intense caramelised onion taste. I like my onions to be quite browned.

Empty the oil left behind from frying the onions into the marinating chicken and mix.

As soon as the onions cool, crush them and add to the marinating chicken and mix. Don't leave the onions out for too long otherwise they will become soggy

Wash the rice and soak for at least 30 min. You should be gentle while washing long grain rice otherwise the grains will break.

Add salt to the rice and half cook it i.e. use half water e.g. 3 cups of water for 3 cups of rice. After the water dries out, switch off the heat and keep the rice covered for 10 min.

Grease the bottom of the large vessel you are going to use for Dum with oil and transfer the marinated chicken into it.

Overturn the half cooked rice over the chicken in such a way that the rice at the bottom of the vessel comes on top and the rice at the top goes to the bottom. This is necessary because when you half cook the rice, the rice at the bottom will be almost cooked and the rice at the top will be only 1/4th cooked. If you reverse this in the dum, the rice will end up being uniformly cooked.

If required, use a fork to gently spread the rice to cover the chicken without breaking the rice grains and without mixing the top / bottom too much. Even if the rice is completely covering the chicken, make some cracks in the rice using a fork so that the steam can come through.

Knead the atta into a stiff dough and line the edge of the vessel with it. Place a cover on the vessel and press it down so that it is sealed all around.

If the vessel does not have a thick bottom, you will need to place it on a tawa while cooking.

Place the tawa on one burner to heat. On another burner, place the sealed vessel on high heat. Keep moving the vessel around so that the entire bottom heats uniformly. You need to cook on high heat for 5 min for the steam to develop

After 5 min, switch off one of the burners. Reduce the heat of the other burner to minimum and place the dum on top of the tawa and let it cook for 35 min.

In the meantime prepare the raita by finely chopping all ingredients and mix them with some water and salt. Keep in the fridge to cool.

You will know the biryani is done when you get a heavenly smell out of the dum. Switch off the heat and take the dum off the tawa. If you want to eat later, make a small opening in the aata seal so that the vessel does not collapse under atmospheric pressure on cooling.