This article is about a dish. For the disadvantages of eating quail meat state, see Palau. For the Dragon Ball character, see Emperor Pilaf.

Not to be confused with Fried rice. At the time of the Abbasid Caliphate, such methods of cooking rice at first spread through a vast territory from South Asia to Spain, and eventually to a wider world. Achaya, the Indian epic Mahabharata mentions an instance of rice and meat cooked together. Also, according to Achaya, “pulao” or “pallao” is used to refer to a rice dish in ancient Sanskrit works such as the Yājñavalkya Smṛti. Similarly Alexander the Great and his army, many centuries earlier, in the 4th century BCE, have been reported to be so impressed with Bactrian and Sogdian pilavs that his soldiers brought the recipes back to Macedonia when they returned. In doing so, he described the advantages and disadvantages of every item used for preparing the dish.

Another primary source for pilaf dishes comes from the 17th-century Iranian philosopher Molla Sadra. Pilau became standard fare in the Middle East and Transcaucasia over the years with variations and innovations by the Persians, Arabs, Turks, and Armenians. During the period of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian versions of the dish spread throughout all Soviet republics, becoming a part of the common Soviet cuisine. Some cooks prefer to use basmati rice because it is easier to prepare a pilaf where the grains stay “light, fluffy and separate” with this type of rice. However, other types of long-grain rice are also used. The rice is rinsed thoroughly before use to remove the surface starch.