Traditional Adana kebab: the Turkish skewer of minced lamb with chili, grilled over charcoal

Adana, in southern Turkey near the Syrian border, is a city of heat, cotton and kebab. Its minced-meat skewer is so important it holds a geographical indication: only what is made from male lamb, hand-chopped together with tail fat, seasoned with local red chili and grilled on a wide flat skewer over oak embers can be called Adana kebab.

At home the rule can loosen without losing the essence: lamb with plenty of fat, coarsely ground, red bell pepper chopped very fine, chili flakes, salt and nothing else. No onion, no egg, no bread in the mixture. The meat is kneaded until sticky and shaped onto the skewer with a wet hand, long and marked by the fingers.

It is served over lavash bread that soaks up the fat from the grill, with grilled tomato and green pepper, raw onion with sumac and parsley, and a glass of ayran or şalgam, the fermented turnip juice that only Adana drinks. It is a dish for the barbecue and for a hot night.

Recipe card

• Origin: Adana, Turkey
• Category: Main course, grilled kebab
• Difficulty: Medium
• Preparation time: 30 minutes (plus 2 hours of resting)
• Cooking time: 15 minutes
• Serves: 4 (8 skewers)

Ingredients

• 800 g lamb shoulder or leg with fat, coarsely ground (or 600 g lean lamb plus 200 g lamb or beef fat)
• 1 red bell pepper chopped as finely as possible and squeezed in a cloth
• 1 tablespoon red chili flakes (pul biber or regular flakes)
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 8 flat, wide metal skewers (or doubled bamboo skewers)
• 4 lavash or large pita breads
• 4 tomatoes, halved
• 4 long green peppers
• 2 red onions, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon sumac
• 1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
• Lemon wedges

Method

1. Mix the meat with the squeezed bell pepper, chili flakes, paprika, cumin and salt and knead by hand for 5 minutes, until it becomes a sticky, uniform mass.
2. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up.
3. Mix the onion with the sumac and parsley and set aside.
4. Light the charcoal and wait for the embers to turn gray.
5. Divide the meat into 8 portions. With a wet hand, wrap each portion around a skewer, forming a long, flat kebab 1.5 cm thick, pressing with the fingers to mark ridges.
6. Place the skewers on the very hot grill, without touching the embers, and grill for 3 to 4 minutes per side, turning once, until browned and the fat drips onto the coals.
7. Grill the tomatoes and green peppers alongside.
8. Warm the bread on the grill, rest the kebabs on it for 1 minute to soak up the fat and serve with the tomato, pepper, sumac onions and lemon.

Tips and variations

• The meat needs at least 20% fat: lean kebab crumbles and turns dry.
• A flat skewer is what holds the meat; on a round skewer it spins and falls off. Two bamboo sticks together solve it.
• Without a barbecue, a very hot cast-iron griddle or the oven grill works.
• Urfa kebab is the same skewer without chili, for those who do not like heat.
• Coarsely ground beef with fat works, with a different flavor.
• Homemade ayran: yogurt whisked with ice-cold water and salt.
• The kebab is eaten rolled in the bread, with the onion and parsley inside, like a dürüm.

Adana kebab is smoke, lamb fat and chili over warm bread. Make it over embers, on a summer night, and serve straight off the skewer.