Turkish Adana Kebab with red pepper and sumac onion salad
Adana kebab (or kebap) is a ground meat skewer made with a mix of lamb and beef that's seasoned with red pepper, aleppo chili and garlic. My recipe is easy, authentic to the original Turkish kebabs and bursting with flavor!
Ingredients
Adana Kebab
- 1 lb lamb and beef with 20% fat (ideally from the fat from sheep's tail of available)
- ¾ red bell pepper, finely chopped use 2-3 kapia peppers if available to you
- ½ red or green chilli optional for heat
- 4 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1-2 teaspoon red chili flakes use Aleppo chili if available to you
- ¾ tsp paprika
Sumac Salad
- 1 red onion thinly sliced
- ½ cup parsley chopped
- 1-2 teaspoon sumac
- salt to taste
- squeeze of lemon or lime
Instructions
Method for Kebab
- Ask your butcher to mince your meat once, which is called a “single grind.”
- In your meat, add the spices and your strained red peppers. Straining is important to remove as much moisture to ensure your kebab doesn’t fall off the skewer. Use a sieve and press the chopped peppers down if you don’t have a cheesecloth. You can also use a paper towel like I did in the video.
- Instead of kneading the dough, we want to use a knife and chop it up real fine, which is traditionally the method used to prepare Adana kebab.
- If you can't be bothered with the above, just mix it with your hands until the web of fat runs through the meat and you're able to scoop up the meat in one massive mound.
- Divide the meat into 6-7 golf ball sized rounds and thread onto flat skewers. Wet your hands with water to massage the meat down the length of the skewer and create indentation marks with you thumb and forefinger.
- If you don’t have skewers, you can wrap 3-4 bamboo skewers in aluminum foil to mimic the flatness of the skewers traditionally used for Middle Eastern Kebabs.
- Cook on a charcoal grill or outdoor gas grill preheated to 450F for 11-15 mins. If using the oven, preheat it to 450F and cook for 15-18 mins. Towards the last 4-5 mins, I turn on the broiler setting of the oven to deepen the color of the kebabs.
Method for Salad
- For the salad, thinly slice onion and massage with some salt to soften them and then add parsley, sumac and salt. You can add a drizzle of olive oil and squeeze half a lemon to brighten the flavors. Serve this salad alongside the kebab on warm Lavash flatbread.