1. Clean the chicken and cut into eight small pieces. Wash thoroughly, apply salt and ginger-garlic paste and keep aside.
2. Make into powder the red chillies, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon. Whip the curd and mix together with all the spices and then pour over the salted chicken. Cover and keep for at least two hours.
3. Whilst the chicken is being marinated, peel the onions and potatoes; cut two onions horizontally and slice thinly. Chop the remaining two onions and keep aside. Cut the potatoes into eight pieces each.
4. Salt the potatoes, deep fry to a golden colour and drain. In the same ghee fry the two sliced onions until crisp. Keep both the onions and potatoes aside.
5. Wash the rice, add salt to taste and cook with slightly less water than usual.
6. Fry the chopped onions till brown in three tablespoons of the left over ghee from the fried potatoes and onions.
7. Chop the tomatoes finely and add to the browned onions. When a slight gravy forms, toss in the marinated chicken and cook over a medium heat till the meat turns red. Add the mace and shahjeera powder. Add two cups water and cook over a slow heat till tender.
8. Take a deep, large-mouthed vessel and spread an alternate layer of rice, fried onion and potato and chicken till both rice and chicken are used up. With the end of a knife bore five holes from the top of the rice to the bottom of the vessel and pour in the remainder of the chicken gravy. Soak one teaspoon of saffron in four dessertspoons of hot water. Mix thoroughly and pour over the rice.
9. Cover the vessel and put into an oven 300°F or on dum (low heat) for one to two hours.
10. Serve decorated with the fried cashewnuts, sliced hard-boiled eggs. This pulao may be accompanied with Dahi-ni-Kachumber or dhansakh dal.