Chicken Biryani - 4 stars

Four Stars!

mmmmmm.... chicken biryani. this dish was so easy to make! a friend of mine introduced me to the recipe a few years ago, and she always made it in a 9x13 glass dish in the oven. the recipe that i found suggested making it in a large saucepan on the stovetop, which is what i ended up doing.

it was a great dish, with rich flavor. i used a pre-made biryani paste to simplify - basically sauteed everything together, stirred in the rice, and let the whole thing simmer for ~ 20 minutes until the liquids were absorbed. YUMMY!

i didn't have basmati rice though! oops. only arborio (for risotto) and jasmine were in the cupboard. i used the arborio because i was afraid the flavor of the jasmine would hurt the dish... the arborio melted into a creamy texture like it does in a risotto (disappointing, but not surprising! :) ), but the flavor was still phenomenal.

outside of the rice issue, the only other disappointing thing in this dish was the fat & calorie content. i'm not sure what led me to believe that the biryani paste would be low in fat and calories, but it was not in the slightest! :-S i ate a small bowl of it, and had a big salad to round the meal out. :)

perhaps using the sturdier basmati rice, plus a homemade biryani paste (to control the fat & calorie content) would propel this to five stars.