Easy Plov Recipe -
The Popular Dish in Kazakhstan

Find a simple plov recipe just here.

One of many popular dishes in Kazakhstan is Plov. It's the dish that many people cook especially when they have lots of guests. I think the reason is because it's easier to cook and to serve in big quantities.

Although I say it's easier to cook, it's not that easy to get it perfectly right to professionally qualify it as Plov.

For people who don't know what plov is, I would like to share my way of cooking it.

Although you can cook it with beef or any other types of meat, I find it tastier making it with lamb. Anyway try this. It's easy, simple and tasty.

You can always make it to suit your own taste buds by adding other spices and stuff. However, the following ingredients I used are must-use components for plov. Here we go.

Plov Recipe For One Cup of Rice

Plov - Central Asian Rice Dish

350-400gr of lamb
1 onion
3-4 carrots
1 cup of rice (200 gr)
1½ cups of water
1 tsp of salt

Steps for Cooking Plov

  • Prepare your meat and vegetables:

1. Cut your lamb in cubes

2. Chop your onions in strips

3. Carrots cut in strips

  • Start cooking

4. Fry the onions until brown in high..ish heat. Then lift them into a plate.

5. Using the same pan fry the meat on high heat to brown and until its juice has evaporated.

6. Add the carrots and fry together with the meat for about 10 minutes.

7. Add salt and pepper. Mix it a bit.

8. Bring the onions back into the pan.

9. Slowly add your water and bring it to boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 20 minutes.

  • Meanwhile prepare your rice (don't use "boil in a bag" rice, as it's the real rice that gives plov its original textured flavour) by washing three times in cold water. Rinse it a few times more if the water is dirty after the rinse, as the water has to be clear..ish the last time you wash.

10. Now try the sauce/stock/juice. It has to be a bit oversalted as your rice will absorb it. Be careful, don't overdo it. It's better to have less salt than too much of it. You can always add some salt if needed into your plate. If you have overdone with the salt, it's not easy to get rid of it, is it?

11. Add the rice and DO NOT mix it. Just let the rice sink into the juice by spreading it carefully. Rice should be covered with water about 2 cm above it. Cook it gently with the pan covered until the rice has absorbed the juice. It should take about 15 minutes.

12. At this point top layer of rice is not cooked yet, so you need to flip the top layer and bring the sides to the center by covering the top layer at the same time. Make a few holes all the way through to the bottom, so that the steam can come through from the bottom of the pan to get all the rice properly cooked. Leave it to gently cook for another 8-10 minutes.

13. Now try your rice it should not be too soft/overcooked and not too hard. You want it just right. If you feel the rice is ready, you can now mix the meat and carrots by bringing them from the underneath the rice to the top. Gently mix all together. Try to keep more meat and carrots on the top for a better presentation.

14. Enjoy your meal and let me know how you get on with my simple plov recipe or add your own recipe just here.

Just before you go, you might want to watch this video one of the other types of plov recipe, but this time it is made by professionals. The video is about 10 minutes and it is in the Russian language, however it's very well presented. You can understand without the words. If you do have any questions about the video, ask me and I'll try to help you.








Leave Plov Recipe page to go back to Kazakhstan Food main page

Return to Kazakhstan Discovery home page