Hyderabadi Biryani with Chicken

This is a biryani I've made many times with various meats, including lamb, minced beef, shrimp, etc, and it's a hit everytime. I had an Independence Day Iftar on August 14th during Ramadan in 2010 to celebrate Pakistan.  I love themed parties, I asked all my guests to wear green.  I made eight cups of rice, the most I've ever handled and it came out really delicious.  The secret was having a pot big enough to do it right.  It helped served 34 guests with all the other entrees.  Ramadan is hands down my favorite time of the year and I absolutely love to host iftars.

Ingredients
4 cups basmati rice
1 full chicken cut into 20 pieces
8 tsp salt
2 black cardamoms
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp red chili powder
8 cloves garlic
4 medium onions sliced
2 tomatoes diced
.5 cup yogurt beaten
1 inch ginger julienne
.5 cup oil
2 lemons (juice)
.25 tsp yellow food color
.5 tsp of mace powder
.5 tsp of nutmeg powder
4 tsp butter

Directions

Masala:

1. Fry onions in oil until golden brown.
2. Add chicken until white.
3. Add 2 tsp salt, red chili powder, tomatoes, garlic, and beaten yogurt.
4. Cook until dry (stir frequently on medium heat - do not burn the spices by forgetting to stir) and oil separates from spices.
5. Add ginger, toss and close stove.  Masala is ready.

Rice:

1. Wash and soak rice for at least 30 minutes. 
2. In pot boil water, add rice, add remainder salt, 2-3 black cardamoms, 2 bay leaves and cook until 75% cooked through.  
3. Drain rice and remove bay leaves.

Combine Masala and Rice:

1. Grease the bottom of the pot with a bit of oil, then layer the rice in the following order - [half portion of rice - all of the masala - remainder of rice]
2. Divide butter into eight equal sections and place all around top of the rice. 
3. Mix lemon and yellow food coloring and pour onto top of rice in S - shape.  Add nutmeg and mace.
4. Cover and move to oven (preheated to 280 degrees) for 20 minutes. [You can do this on the stove top as well - on low heat - keep rice covered and cook for 10 minutes] 
5. Remove from oven, toss rice to mix up masala and coloring slightly.  Remember not to OVER mix, it's just a slight distribution of masala, rice and color.  And always be delicate with the, breaking basmati rice is a sin.  Serve hot.