Adana kebabı — Recipes

In 2021 I bought some serious kebab skewers. After one year I finally used them for an Adana kebabı. Not exactly a proper authentic Adana kebabı because I used sumac, cumin and urfa biber in the kebabs. I understand my version is referred to as urfa kebab. If you really dig into the taxonomical classification of kebab things get more complicated. For the original Adana kebabı you should only use salt and sweet red peppers. Also the lamb should be mixed with 30% tail fat. The Turkish butcher didn’t have tail fat so I asked him to mix the lamb meat with 20% fat. He put everything through the meat grinder and I walked out with minced 20% fatty lamb meat.

I mixed 500 gram of minced lamb meat with 5 grams salt (about 1 teaspoon), 1 teaspoon cumin, 2 teaspoons sumac, and 1 tablespoon urfa biber. Urfa biber is also called Isot biber. Urfa biber is a red chili pepper, ripening to a dark maroon on the plant. After harvest the pepper is sun dried and tightly wrapped afterwards. This pepper is only 7,500 SHU on the Scoville scale. 500 gram is about 6 skewers and 1 skewer is really enough for one person.

If you don’t mix the cumin, sumac and urfa biber with the meat you can sprinkle those spices on top of the meat on your plate. Next time I will probably just use urfu pepper and salt. Careful with salt. Once it’s in, you cannot adjust for less salt.

The salt has the function to dissolve the muscle protein, which helps the meat stay on the skewer. During the mixing of the meat you add water and knead this into the mass. The result should be an almost clay like meat-mixture. Chill in the fridge. If you follow these steps you can mould the meat around the skewers like clay and it will not fall off during the grilling.

Cooking time should be around 12 minutes. You serve the kebabs with Turkish flat bread, a tahini-garlic sauce and a salad made of red onions and sumac. Grill some green pepper on the charcoal for extra vegetables. An easy addition is buying a jar of Türlü Turşu (mixed vegetables pickles), which goes great with the fatty meat.

The tahini sauce is easily made by mixing tahini with garlic, salt, lemon juice and enough water to make a nice sauce-like consistency. Use an electric mixer for the best result.

Sumaklı soğan salatası

The red onion salad is quite simpel as well. The ingredients are: red onion, sumac, salt, lemon juice and parsley. Add the parsley only just before serving!