Adana Kebab
TURKISH · TURKEY

Adana Kebab

Adana kebabıMain

Hand-minced lamb kneaded with fat, blasted over coals until the outside chars and the inside stays loose and juicy. No binder, no breadcrumbs, no apologies: just meat, salt, chilli and fire.

Total
45 min
Heat
4/5
Serves
4

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Flavour profile

Heat
Funk
Acid
Richness
Umami
  • Charred
  • Rich
  • Savoury
  • Spicy

The real deal

Region
Adana, Çukurova plain, southern Turkey, where the kebab is named for the city and made from fat-tailed lamb.
Technique
Hand-minced with a zırh knife (or pulsed coarse), the mince kneaded with fat and worked until sticky, then moulded onto flat skewers and grilled hot and fast.
We kept
No egg, no breadcrumbs, no onion in the mix; the loose, juicy texture comes from fat and technique, with ground chilli and black pepper carrying the heat.

Ingredients

4 Serves

kebab

  • 700 g · from the shoulder or neck, not leg
  • 150 g · optional · lamb tail fat or kidney fat if you can get it
  • 200 g · optional · or extra lamb
  • 2 tsp
  • 2 tsp · mild Turkish or hot as you like
  • 1½ tsp · ground fresh
  • 1 · grated and squeezed dry

equipment

  • 8 · flat metal skewers if you have them

to serve

  • 2 tsp · optional
  • 20 g · optional
  • 4 · optional
  • 2 · optional · or long green peppers, grilled

Method

  1. Grate the and squeeze it hard in your fist or a clean cloth to get rid of the juice. Wet onion makes the mixture watery and it will fall off the skewer. Put the , the and the in the freezer for about 20 min, until firm but not frozen solid. Cold meat minces in clean grains instead of smearing into paste, and paste makes a tough kebab. Grind the finely.

    If you have a mincer, grind on the coarse plate. If not, pulse in a food processor in short bursts, stopping while it still looks like rough crumbs.

  2. Mince the chilled lamb, fat and beef coarsely into a wide bowl. You want small grains of meat, not a purée.

  3. Add the squeezed onion, the , and ground pepper. Knead with wet hands for 3 min, folding and pressing until the mixture turns tacky and holds together in a ball. If it feels crumbly, add a splash of cold water and keep kneading. Cover and rest in the fridge for 1 h so the salt seasons the meat and the spices bloom. Cold mixture also moulds onto the skewers far better.

    Chilli powder made for Adana is dark and mild; if you use a hot one, start with less and taste before grilling.

  4. Soak the in cold water for 30 min so they don't burn on the grill. If you use flat metal skewers, ignore this step.

  5. Wet your hands and press a handful of kebab mixture around each skewer in a long, flat sausage about 2 cm thick. Press and squeeze so it grips the skewer, then flatten the surface with wet fingers.

    Keep the layer thin and even. Thick blobs stay raw in the middle while the outside burns.

  6. Grill over glowing coals or on a very hot griddle, high heat, for 10 min to 12 min, turning every minute or so. The fat should drip and flare, the outside char in spots and the meat stay juicy inside.

    No lid, no low heat. If the coals flare hard, move the skewers to the edge rather than dropping the temperature.

  7. Slide the kebabs off the skewers onto warm , scatter with , torn and grilled . Serve immediately, while the fat is still running.

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