Biryani semi-homemade style!

I am not into tedious cooking but sure love the food that taste this way. It can be assembled in the morning and then can be cooked in the evening.This is a very low-fat version of chicken biryani.

Ingredients:
4-5 chicken drumsticks
small bunch of mint leaves(abt 15-20 leaves)
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 cup fried onions(store bought)
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste(store bought)
1/2 cup of chopped cilantro leaves
2 green chillies finely chopped
1 tsp biryani masala(any kind, store bought)
paprika as per taste
Salt as per taste

Marinate the chicken drumsticks in rest of the spices. Keep it marinated for 2-3 hours. For vegetarians, chicken can be substituted with canned raw green jackfruit pieces. If a jackfruit is used then there is no need of marination.

2 cups rice
1 tsp jeera
1 bay leaf
4-5 peppercorns
2-3 cloves
few drops of lemon juice
few strands of saffron

Cook the rices with the dried spices. For low fat version, I do not saute rice in oil or ghee, I just put everything in small amount of water and half-cook the rice in rice cooker.

For assembling: Spray some oil in oven-proof dish. Spread marinated chicken in the dish. Spread the half-cooked rice on top of chicken. Cover the biryani dish with aluminium foil. Cook biryani in 350 F oven for 25-30 minutes.

My family loves this biryani and I do not mind making it often as it is very easy to make and it is surprisingly low-fat. All the oil in the recipe is from the fried onion. I call it semihomemade style as there is not lot of prep and most of the things are storebought.

Enjoy veggie jackfruit biryani or chicken biryani this cold winter!