Kebabs are made of cut or ground meat, sometimes with vegetables, and various spices and herbs and served with different accompaniments such as tomatoes, cucumbers, lemon, and yogurt sauce. Usually, kebabs are cooked on a skewer over a fire but you can also bake kebabs in a pan in an oven. You can use lamb or mutton which is considered the traditional meat but regional recipes include goat, beef, chicken, and fish.
I love this recipe because of the spices used in this dish. I went to Morocco a few years ago and I had these kabobs in a restaurant and I can’t tell you enough that once I ate them I couldn’t stop and that’s how I learned the recipe.
These kebabs come together very quickly with a bit of preparation ahead of time. You can do everything a night before and when you are back from work all you have to do is bake them.
Ingredients:
For the marinade:
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced to a fine paste
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon red sumac*
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Sea salt to taste
*Sumac is a dried red spice that is bright in color and has a slightly astringent flavor. These days it is available in most of the grocery stores but if you can’t find it there is a substitute for it- you can use lemon zest or try lemon pepper seasoning.
For the kebabs:
- 2 Ibs ground lamb, beef or chicken (meat of your choice)
- 1 small yellow onion, chopped
- Few skewers, wooden or stainless steel/ metal whatever you have at home
Directions
In a large bowl combine the meat, onion, and all marinade ingredients. Work the ingredients together with your hands for a couple of minutes until they are fully mixed. Cover and keep in the refrigerator for a few hrs.
Make sure if you are using wooden skewers soak them in water for about half an hr as that will prevent them from catching fire.
Preheat your oven to 375°. Divide the meat mixture into equal portions, depending on the size of your skewers. You can simply squeeze them into long sausage shapes on the skewer. Keep a bowl of water handy to dip your hand in, if the meat starts to stick on your hand. Slide a portion of meat onto the skewer and stand the skewer upright – pointy side down – holding the top with one hand. Use the other hand to form the meat into a long sausage shape by gently squeezing it from top to bottom, and pressing the side of your thumb in as you go.
Lightly brush the baking dish/pan with vegetable oil. Make sure the size of your baking dish is long enough to hold the skewers straight. Place all the skewers in the baking dish and cook them for 25-30 minutes flipping the skewers about halfway through. The key to getting those little charred edges is to broil them for the last 5 mins. This helps to bring out the flavor. Make sure you keep an eye on them as you don’t want them to burn. Remove from the oven and serve hot with lemon wedges. You can serve them with my Cilantro-mint sauce (recipe in the blog) if you like or any kind of sauce you want to make.
