Last Sunday was my birthday and in the afternoon, my friends came to give me a surprise. I had no idea what I could have served them to eat but my mom was chilled as ice as she was ready with her special dishes. She cooked her ‘infamous’ Mutton Tehari. It’s so good that it’s intoxicating. My friends loved it and sent her above the moon with compliments. My mom’s mutton tehari recipe is just out of this world, and all my friends approved of that! 

Tehari is typically a rice dish cooked together with any kind of protein or veggies and a lot of spices. The one recipe that we are going to talk about here, is a mutton (goat meat) rice recipe. When I want to make something wonderful on the weekend but can’t manage the time and effort, I go for this recipe. When you are on a budget and time crisis, you can always use a pressure cooker for a balanced dinner with wonderful flavor real quick.

Tehari is not just a famous Hyderabadi food, but it is also known throughout the world and was a specialty among Muslim nawabs. This is a one-pot meal meaning you cook all of the ingredients together in one pot, as opposed to biryani, which needs the yakhni and rice cooked separately and later combined to make the final “dum”. 

We can also make a vegetarian version of the Mutton Tahari or Tehari recipes by swapping veggies of your choice for the mutton chunks. A slight difference is that at the end, the veg tehri is put under ‘dum; or pressure at the end for the final cook. You’ll also locate a variety of distinct regional variants. And they’re all stunningly similar while also being vastly distinct if you understand what I’m saying. Rice or biryani recipes are quite widespread in India, particularly in the south, and most of us are unfamiliar with the names ‘tahari’ or ‘tehari.’ So,  I decided to spread the word about this food item via my blog and make people aware of various recipes and their terms.

Tehari can be prepared with either regular or basmati rice. In the end, it goes well with any rice. I generally make it with jasmine rice, but in this article, I’m using basmati rice. The dish can be prepared quickly in a pressure cooker or slowly in a saucepan. You can use a rice cooker as well if that’s more convenient. An important note, you wouldn’t want to add too much water because it’s either going to be too watery or overcooked and mushy. Now that the basic education on Tehari is done, let’s get on with the cooking.