Forget the sauce, it's the actual rice/meat recipe I'm after.
For a start, I think we need to add 'the sauce' right back into the mix. I'm almost 100% sure that chicken biryani (using that as an example) is not just chicken and rice. Now I know that by 'the sauce' you probably meant the accompanying vegetable curry side dish. But a sauce or spiced oil is the starting point for the BIR chicken biryani, too.
I saw one made recently, at a take away. The chef spent at least 5 mins making what I assume to be a sauce, complete with pre-cooked chicken. Then, almost at the end, he added cold pilau rice, mixed it in, heated it up, and the biryani dish was finished.
I keep meaning to try it myself, but haven't yet got round to it. The standard of five different chicken biryanis which I've had this year from different BIRs was disappointingly low.
Regards
George