The Persian rice dish layered with meat, vegetables, or fruit and cooked until fluffy is called polo.
In Persian cuisine, polo or polow refers to a family of elaborate rice dishes in which cooked rice is combined or layered with ingredients such as herbs, meat, beans, vegetables, dried fruit, or nuts. Examples include baghali polo with fava beans and dill, zereshk polo with barberries, and adas polo with lentils and raisins.
Persian polo is prepared using a technique that often parboils rice before it is steamed. This creates separate grains and may produce tahdig, the crisp bottom layer. Tahdig is a distinct part of the cooking result and is not the name of the entire rice dish.
The word is related to the broader pilaf family found across West and Central Asia. Persian versions are especially known for aromatic layering, careful steaming, and combinations of sweet and savory ingredients.