Tehari is a traditional spicy rice dish from Bangladesh that is packed with flavors from curried beef and green chilies. Tehari is usually cooked with beef, but you can choose any kind of meat you prefer!

This classic dish is an emotion for Bengali, especially in the old Dhaka areas it has an insane popularity. You will see a lot of tehari restaurants in old Dhaka. People come from other areas to have authentic old Dhaka tehari. Sitting there and enjoying the ever-changing street life while having this delicious tehari is an experience to remember. Today I will share with you an authentic easy and hearty tehari recipe you are actually searching for!

In South Asia, tehari comes in a number of vegetarian and non-vegetarian varieties. Bangladeshi tehari, on the other hand, is primarily a rice meal prepared with beef. Like my mom, I have prepared tehari several times using just olive or sunflower oil when mustard oil was not readily available in my kitchen. However, the authentic old Dhaka tehari is always cooked using mustard oil.

Some people get confused between biriyani and tehari. The cooking process and fat level are what differentiates biryani from tehari. Rice, meat, and potatoes are all cooked separately for the Biryani dish, mostly in butter or homemade ghee, and then layered while cooking. On the other hand, Tehari is prepared with pre-cooked beef, which continuously mixes with the rice while it cooks. However, the main difference is that the beef pieces are cut in small sizes in Tehari while in biriyani the meat pieces are much bigger.

I still can remember those childhood days when my mother would make tehari. The mouth-watering smell of Tehari used to bring an instant festive mood to everyone! Tehari is indeed a really fulfilling and tasty dish. This meal genuinely warms you up since it is an authentic comforting Bengali food.

The wonderful thing about beef tehari is that it is a complete dish that doesn’t actually require any other sides. Of course, a salad and maybe some kebabs go well with tehari at any time. However, I’d be happy to consume a full plate of tehari just as it is, anytime!

Tehari is usually served as the main course at social gatherings together with salad, raita, pickles, chutney, and Borhani. If I have a full plate of tehari, I don’t need anything else. I can eat all by myself in just 5 minutes!

Tehari is basically loaded with spices and beef pieces. I can make this flavorful tehari on any weekday without having a particular occasion. It can also be a good tiffin for the kids. When I was a kid, I used to request my mom to pack the leftover tehari for my school tiffin. That was my favorite tiffin, and I used to be very excited to eat it until the tiffin period. I still take tehari in my office lunch sometimes. So, while cooking tehari you can add a little more portion for the next day’s lunch or your kid’s tiffin box.

When I invite guests over on short notice, this is the rice dish I always choose. I often have Shami kababs in the fridge, and there’s some chutney too if I’m lucky. While I cook the tehari, I also fry the kababs in the meantime and make a simple salad after that. That’s all, a delicious dinner is ready to be served on the table! So, you can already guess how much of a time-saving dish tehari is! I really hope you’ll try it sometime and enjoy how good it is.