The Only Chicken Tehari Recipe You'll Ever Need

Tehari was never meant to be complicated. Its beauty lies in simplicity, bold aroma, tender chicken, fragrant short-grain rice, and the kind of comfort that makes you reach for a second plate.

In this recipe, we make traditional-style Bangladeshi Chicken Tehari using Kalijeera, Chinigura, or Gobindobhog rice, whole spices, green chilies, ginger, garlic, and a simple homemade Tehari masala. The result is deeply fragrant and flavorful without a single unnecessary step.

Tehari is one of those humble Bangladeshi dishes where a handful of everyday ingredients come together to create something truly special. ❤️

If you love Bangladeshi food, Bengali recipes, Tehari, Chicken Tehari, or easy rice dishes, give this one a try and let us know how it turns out!

A delicious plate of chicken tehari garnished with fried onions, served with slices of red onion, green chilies, and lime for added zest.

Ingredients

For the Tehari

• ¼ cup neutral oil

• 2 medium cinnamon sticks

• 5 cardamom pods

• 8 to 10 black peppercorns

• 2 bay leaves

• 1¾ cups thinly sliced onion

• 2½ tbsp ginger paste

• 1½ tbsp garlic paste

• Chicken, cut into small pieces

• 1¼ tsp salt, plus more as needed

• 10 to 12 green chilies

• 1 cup hot water

• ½ tsp MSG

• 3 cups Kalijeera, Chinigura, or Gobindobhog rice, soaked for 30 minutes and drained

• ½ tsp shahi jeera, lightly crushed

• 10 additional green chilies

• A big pinch of sugar

For the Tehari masala

• ½ tsp white pepper

• ½ tsp mace

• ⅛ tsp nutmeg

https://youtu.be/L_-0z3qEoG8

Method

Start with the onions. Heat the oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven over low heat. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper, bay leaves, and sliced onions. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. Keeping the pot covered lets the onions sweat and soften quickly without scorching.

Uncover, raise the heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are evenly golden brown. This is where much of the dish's flavour begins, so don't rush them.

Lower the heat and add the ginger and garlic pastes. Cook for about 1 minute, just until their raw smell disappears.

Add the chicken. Increase the heat slightly and add the chicken. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the outside of the chicken turns white.

Meanwhile, make the masala. Grind the white pepper and mace together until fine, then add the nutmeg. Stir the mixture into the chicken along with the salt and 10 to 12 green chilies.

Add 1 cup hot water, cover, and simmer gently over low heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the broth is deeply flavoured.

Stir in the MSG, then use a slotted spoon to transfer the chicken to a plate. Leave all the seasoned gravy in the pot. That gravy is the foundation of the rice.

Now comes the rice. Add the drained rice to the pot and stir gently so every grain gets coated in the remaining gravy.

Take a look at the liquid in the pot. With short-grain rice, you're aiming for roughly 1 part rice to 1½ parts total liquid. Since some gravy is already there, you don't simply add 4½ cups of water. Measure by eye. If you have about ½ cup of gravy remaining, add roughly 4 cups of hot water. A little variation is fine.

Add the crushed shahi jeera, the remaining green chilies, and enough salt to make the cooking liquid taste slightly saltier than you want the finished Tehari to be. Once the rice absorbs the liquid, the seasoning becomes more muted, so the broth should taste well seasoned at this stage.

Turn up the heat. Cook uncovered over high heat until the rice begins rising to the surface and vigorous steam holes start appearing. At this point, the mixture should look almost porridge-like and the liquid should be mostly absorbed.

Lower the heat to its lowest setting, cover tightly, and cook for another 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat and let the Tehari rest briefly. Gently fluff the rice, return the chicken to the pot, and fold everything together with a big pinch of sugar. Cover and let it sit for a few more minutes before serving.

The finished Tehari should be fragrant, tender, lightly spicy, and deeply savoury, with every grain carrying the flavour of the chicken and spices.

That's the beauty of Bangladeshi Tehari. Nothing complicated, nothing fussy, just really good food.