This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
This Beef Rice Pilaf is the best I’ve tried. I appreciate discovering recipes that are a hit with my whole family (it’s never awesome to be in the kitchen for hours and then be the only one eating what you made because you feel too guilty to toss your efforts into the waste receptacle (doesn’t that sound better than garbage can?).
This recipe makes a big batch which is great since it reheats really well. That’s my favorite way to eat it; crisped over a skillet and served with a pickle. I’m not sure why but I crave pickles with plov.
We’ve been looking for a great beef plov recipe for a L-O-N-G time! Plov is originally an Uzbek dish, but every Ukrainian I know makes and loves plov and this is more the Ukrainian version. P.S. I do have a chicken plov recipe posted here (if you wanted a quicker plov recipe).
I discovered this recipe through Olga’s Blog. Guess what, she’s a nurse too! I guess nurses make good food ;), or maybe we just happen to have a lot in common. Olga is such an inspiration. I don’t think I would have ever gotten to know her if not for blogging. Olga your recipe was deeee-licious. My husband (being Mr creativity) tossed in some coriander which added a nice floral somethin’ somethin’. It’s a new favorite in our house!
Ingredients for Beef Rice Pilaf:
1 1/2 lbs Beef chuck, beef sirloin or good quality beef stew meat
1/3 cup canola oil, or extra light olive oil (not extra virgin)
2 medium onions, finely chopped
3 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks or grated
1 tsp salt for the meat and veggies + 1 1/2 tsp salt for the rice
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
3-4 bay leaves
1 3/4 cups hot water for braising meat
3 cups long grain rice (Basmati or Jasmin rice work great!)
4 cups hot water when cooking rice
1 head of garlic
1 tsp ground coriander
How to Make Beef Rice Pilaf:
1. Trim beef of excess fat and sinews (aka the chewy stuff), pat the meat dry with a paper towel and chop into 1/2″ to 3/4″ pieces.
2. Preheat your dutch oven (or your large soup pot with a heavy bottom), to high heat. Once it’s hot, stir in your 1/3 cup canola oil. Once oil is hot, add chopped meat and saute uncovered 7 min over high heat until meat is browned, stirring every minute or so so it doesn’t scorch to the bottom of the pan.
Note: it’s important to preheat the dutch oven first for the meat to sear over very high heat, otherwise it will juice out and become dry.
3. Reduce heat to medium and Add chopped onion, stirring often until onion is softened (5 minutes). Stir in sliced carrots, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp cumin, 3-4 bay leaves and continue to cook over medium heat 5 minutes until carrots are softened.
4. Add 1 3/4 cups hot water, cover & simmer over medium/low heat 45 min or until meat is tender.
5. Meanwhile, rinse rice until water runs clear, then drain and set aside (this gets rid of the starch so you won’t end up with a sticky rice). Did I ever tell you I love my OXO strainer? This thing is so versatile (from sifting flour, rinsing and draining, to wearing it as a helmet and chasing your toddler around the house?
6. Spread rice over the meat and add 4 cups hot water. Sprinkle the rice with 1 1/2 tsp salt (DO NOT STIR), bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and Let cook uncovered until most of the water is absorbed (10 min).
7. Cut off the base of your whole garlic head to expose the cloves. Put your head of garlic, cut side down into the center of the rice and sprinkle the top of the rice with 1 tsp ground coriander
8. Poke 7-10 holes through the rice to allow steam to escape to the surface, reduce the heat to low, then cover and cook an additional 15 minutes or until rice is cooked through. Remove the garlic head and bay leaves and stir everything gently to combine and you’re done.
You should make it. As soon as possible. If you share my pickle cravings, add them to your shopping list for this one!
Beef Plov (Beef Rice Pilaf) Recipe

Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs Beef chuck, beef sirloin or good quality beef stew meat
- 1/3 cup canola oil, or extra light olive oil (not extra virgin)
- 2 medium onions, finely chopped
- 3 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks or grated
- 1 tsp salt for the meat and veggies + 1 1/2 tsp salt for the rice
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 3-4 bay leaves
- 1 3/4 cups hot water for braising meat
- 3 cups long grain rice, Basmati or Jasmin rice work great!
- 4 cups hot water when cooking rice
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 head of garlic
Instructions
- Trim beef of excess fat and sinews (aka the chewy stuff), pat the meat dry with a paper towel and chop into 1/2" to 3/4" pieces.
- Preheat your dutch oven (or your large soup pot with a heavy bottom), to high heat. Once it's hot, stir in your 1/3 cup canola oil. Once oil is hot, add chopped meat and saute uncovered 7 min over high heat until meat is browned, stirring every minute or so so it doesn't scorch to the bottom of the pan. Note: it's important to preheat the dutch oven first for the meat to sear over very high heat, otherwise it will juice out and become dry.
- Reduce heat to medium and Add chopped onion, stirring often until onion is softened (5 minutes). Stir in sliced carrots, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp cumin, 3-4 bay leaves and continue to cook over medium heat 5 minutes until carrots are softened.
- Add 1 3/4 cups hot water, cover and simmer over medium/low heat 45 min or until meat is tender.
- Meanwhile, rinse rice until water runs clear, then drain and set aside (this gets rid of the starch so you won't end up with a sticky rice).
- Spread rice over the meat and add 4 cups hot water. Sprinkle the rice with 1 1/2 tsp salt (DO NOT STIR), bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and Let cook uncovered until most of the water is absorbed (10 min).
- Cut off the base of your whole garlic head to expose the cloves. Put your head of garlic, cut side down into the center of the rice and sprinkle the top of the rice with 1 tsp ground coriander.
- Poke 7-10 holes through the rice to allow steam to escape to the surface, reduce the heat to low then cover and cook an additional 15 minutes or until rice is cooked through. Remove the garlic head and bay leaves and stir everything gently to combine and you're done.
This plov is really delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe!! The first time I ever made it, it was perfection! However, the next few times I’ve made it, the rice doesn’t cook through all the way even though I let it cook for much longer than what the recipe calls for (probably even 15 minutes longer).. not sure how my first try came out perfect and now it’s consistently undercooked.. still tastes amazing, but the semi hard rice ruins it a bit now..
Hi Esther, thank you for sharing. Did you change the type of rice that you used? Maybe it’s the timing that was changed or measurement of ingredients so I would just make sure that they’re all accurately followed.
I have cooked this recipe maybe 10-15 times. It’s always great but it varies.
Two things.
1. The proportion of meat to rice is off. 3 cups of rice is A LOT of rice. I have been messing with the proportion and am up to about 2.5 lbs of meat to 2 cups of rice.
2. I stopped rinsing the rice and it come out much better and cooks better.
3. MAke sure the meat looks browned like in Natasha’s pictures. It stays more juicy this way.
Also I like to mix beef with lamb and substitute paprika with smoked paprika It varies the flavors/textures.
Maybe it’s my dutch oven but I’m still perfecting it.
Great recipe overall!
5/5
Thanks a lot for sharing!
I agree meat should be 2.5 pounds and rice 2 cups. It is so delicious👌
How much water do you add then after adding rice ? 3 cups ?
Hi Dima,
When you do 2 cups of rice, you reduce the water to 2 cups, am I right?
I followed the recipe to the T and my rice was uncooked in the end. I kept having to add more and more water because the rice was still tough!
Did you make any substitutions or changes to the ingredients, timings or measurements or process? I haven’t had that happen before. Usually the grains stay together nicely and they are cooked to the right consistency. Did you maybe sub with brown rice?
The same thing happened to me. It was terrible. My husband said never make this again. All your other recipes I’ve made have been stupendous!
HI Mary, the cook time for the rice is correct as written. Substituting the rice will affect the cook time and/or the amount of water needed.
Your recipes never dissappoint! Part way into the recipe I panicked, realizing that I was out of coriander. I did substitute curry, and it was still delicious. Soon I will make it again with the coriander as I usually don’t make a recipe for the first time and then make a substitution. Thank you again for another great recipe!
So glad you loved it, Jamie! Thank you for the feedback. 🙂
My husband is ukranian and as soon as he took a bite he sat for a moment and looked at me and said this was as close to his Aunt’s as possible and he was instantly brought back to being a kid and eating her food. Like his Aunt, having people enjoy my food can fill me up without eating, it brings us closer and bonds memories. I’m thankful to have found “the” recipe for him and for our future kids so they can remember it with fondness too.
Two questions 1) when you poke holes in the rice, are you going only rice deep and not touching the beef part? and 2) is the garlic meant to be hard and raw after putting it in the rice, mine always is and I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be mushy or not, can I add it in earlier?
Hi Marisa, I’m poking all the way through on the rice – it doesn’t have to be precise though. Also, wit the garlic, it should be soft by the time the dish is done cooking. It should be soft enough that when you squeeze the head of garlic, the cloves slide out easily.
Hi Natasha,
I made this plov today it tasted flavorless/a little dry. I went by the recipe, but I wonder if I over rinsed the Jasmine rice. I rinsed it 4-5 times. How many times do you recommend to rinse it? Also even though I kept the Dutch on low when you said to, some of my beef got burnt. Maybe baking it in the oven after adding the rice would help the rib eye steak not to burn? I was so excited to eat the finish product, but I unfortunately was disappointed at the end. :/
Hi Luda, you do want to rinse the rice thoroughly until the water runs clear. That removes the starch and prevents the rice from getting too sticky. Also, make sure to add the correct amount of hot water – the proportions are important to ensure the rice cooks through without getting too dry. Lastly, the steak shouldn’t burn unless the heat is too high. It sounds like reducing the heat further might help with that. I hope those tips are helpful.
I made this, it came out with uncooked and overly mushy rice. As the previous comments, I think it’s too much water as there’s already lots of liquids from all the oils used to cook the beef in. My friend is from Kurdistan, she makes it best. Maybe, I’ll just let her cook it for me and pay her for a weeks worth since I wanted to use this for meal prepping. So sad since I spent lots of money on so much beef lol
Did you make any substitutions or changes to the ingredients, timings or measurements or process? I haven’t had that happen before. Usually the grains stay together nicely and they are cooked to the right consistency. Did you maybe sub with brown rice? If so, you might enjoy our instant pot plov better.
Unfortunately I had the same results today .. some of the rice was over cooked and some of the rice was undercooked ..:( and then I tried to still cook the rice that was uncoooked and it ended up like каша …
I’ve been making a version of this recipe for several years now and its my husband’s favorite dish. I like to use lamb in mine and I like to add some heat to the dish with red pepper flakes, even though some purists will call that inauthentic. Sometimes, instead of grated carrots I will add some spicy carrot salad instead (a lot of Russian grocery stores in NY call it “Korean” Carrot salad though I don’t know that it’s origins are entirely Korean.) I make a batch ahead of time and it keeps in the fridge for a while and its a great snack on its own or really awesome addition to Plov or stir frys.
I will say it’s unorthodox plov recipe for many plov making countries, but over last couple of years it become my go to recipe.
It yields me a pot of hearty meal every time.
Thanks you.
P.S. Also your Beef Borsht recipe is amazing.
That’s so great! Thank you for your great review!
I’m very sorry to say that, and I’m sure you meant well with this recipe, trying to make it more simple to cook for those who are not familiar with this dish. But it’s all wrong 🙁 It’s so far from the real Plov as it can get… You can use beef of course, but it should be lamb. No olive oil, forget about it!!! It must be lamb fat, if not available – sunflower oil, at least 200ml. Ratio is – for 1kg of rice (basmati only) you take 1,5kg of meat, 1kg of onions, 1kg of carrots. No bayleaf!! Only spices that go into plov are cumin, barberry, salt, pepper and sometimes turmeric. Onions should be cooked for a long long time, until dark brown (not burnt) – that what gives color to the rice in the end. Carrots should not be minced or grated, you need to have big chunks of them, so they are still intact after almost 2 hours of boiling. And there’s no need for additional water when you put the rice in, as you have enough of water that you added to cook meat and vegetables before. So…. Sorry, that is not plov you describe here
Hi Mary, this is how our family makes it and I think there are as many different versions of plov as there are regions and families who make it. It sounds like you are describing an Uzbek plov. I’ve never heard of adding barberry – interesting!
Mine always comes out good! Sometimes i add more seasonings tho but thats it, idk what everyone else talking about it being mushy or undercooked mayabe some of you guys not that good at cooking lol спасибо Наташа рлов очень вкусно
I’m so happy you loved it, Vika!
Well I tried so many different Uzbek recipes and it never worked(like similar recipes you described here Mary)I don’t know why ,maybe people from Uzbekistan have some other secret and they don’t tell us:) Any way after I tried so many recipes I was like I have to try Natasha’s recipe she’s not from Uzbekistan but all her recipes are amazing and it always works for me and my family.My husbands side is from Uzbekistan and they loved my plov (Natasha’s recepie)that I made today, too bad I don’t have an option here to post their pictures especially grandma with her thumbs up.Finally meat is so tender rice is cooked and its just delicious!I also like pickles on the side with that or some good organic tomatoes .The only question I have after I finish cooking should I keep it covered or no?
I’m so glad you all enjoyed it, Liza. You can keep it covered if you’d like to keep it warm.
Do you have recommendations for proportions to make a smaller batch? Like how much water do you need for only one cup of rice and half the beef?
Hi Vera, I recommend clicking “Jump to recipe” at the top of the post, it will take you to our printable recipe where you’ll have the option to change the number of servings. Hover over the number of servings highlighted in red and slide it to how many servings you would like to make. I hope that helps!
Made this today. I used short grain Arborio rice as in Almaty they made it with smaller size rice grain. Used to eat this in Kazakhstan, usually with lamb. This recipe was easy and delicious!
Yum! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Dasha! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
Hi! I’m from Kazakhstan also! I love when i see other ppl from Kazakhstan, i dont know many in nc.
This looks great! Thank you. I’ve been looking for a recipe in English for some time. I understand this dish has close to a gazillion versions – and my Ukrainian mother in law, whose family lived in Azerbaijan for a while adds raisins and cloves as well. Also highly recommended! (She tried to explain how to make plov but mine was always a sticky mess – so I really appreciate your extra notes on this). Best, Suzie
Slava Ukraini 💛💙
That’s great, Susan. I’m so glad it was helpful.
Inna
I like the look of this meal, but what size dutch oven does it need?
Mal
Hi Mal, we used a large dutch oven. A 6-8 quart one would work great! We have our favorite dutch ovens listed in our Amazon Affiliate Shop HERE.
I have been making it for years because of consistent results. Never fails. Many thanks!
Good to hear that, Inna! Thank you for your good comments and feedback.
I make plov not often enough- once a year or so. But when I do, like today, I always look specificity for this recipe. Thank you for sharing! 🙂☀️ 🍽
Aww, that’s so great! I’m so glad to hear this is your go-to!
This is so simple and delicious. Definitely a keeper. Both my kids had it without any trouble.
That is the best when kids love what we parents make. That’s so great!
I am doing a report and i need to have a food from and I think I am doing to make this, is that ok?
Go for it, I hope it becomes a success!
This recipe is more delicious than the sum of its parts! I never would have combined those seasonings in one dish and I’ve never cooked beef and rice in one pot before without stirring. But now this is in my family’s regular rotation. The only changes I make are to double the beef and use homemade chicken broth in place of some of the water. You are so right that leftovers crisped in a frypan are the best! Thank you!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Michelle!
So good! My store did not have beef stew meat the other day, so I purchased pork stew meat. Followed directions otherwise exactly. Will try next time wits beef. Excellent next day with a runny fried egg on top. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Thank you for your good comments and feedback, Amanda. yes, feel free to try this recipe with beef, it is so good too!
Delicious. My 14 year old enjoys making this dish for us, with some changes.
Vegetarian: Uses Beyond Beef
Rice: Changed it to long-grain brown rice. This requires more time. Also, reduce to 2 cups.
Water: Reduced to about 2.5-3 cups
Mushrooms: Add chopped mushrooms, even plain white mushrooms are good.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us!