Seekh Kebab (Spiced Lamb Skewers with Mint Chutney)
Ground lamb and lamb fat ground smooth with onion, green chiles and cilantro, seasoned with garlic, ginger, roasted cumin, garam masala and Kashmiri chili, pressed onto skewers, roasted in a very hot oven with butter and finished with chaat masala, lemon and mint chutney.
Seekh means skewer (Wikipedia's koobideh article notes it is the Persian word), and a seekh kebab is spiced ground meat pressed into a long cylinder around one. Wikipedia describes it as a kebab of the Indian subcontinent, usually lamb, beef or chicken, seasoned with ginger, garlic, green chiles, chili powder and garam masala, with lemon, coriander and mint, and cooked on a mangal or barbecue or in a tandoor; it is served with raita, onion, lemon wedges or green chutney, with naan or paratha. Gola, kakori and gilafi seekh kebabs are its relatives.
This recipe is from Sanjeev Kapoor, the Indian chef and television host, who files it as a Hyderabadi snack: mutton mince with mutton fat, ground fine, roasted in a hot oven or tandoor and basted with butter. In India, "mutton" usually means goat; in the US, ground lamb is the closest easy match.
Why it works the kitchen science
Grinding the fat in
Lamb fat ground right into the meat keeps lean mince juicy in a very hot oven, the way the fat in a tandoor kebab does.
A rack in a hot oven
Hot air on all sides browns the kebabs like a tandoor, and the drips fall away instead of stewing the bottoms.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 475°F with a rack in the upper third. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and set a wire rack on it.
- Step 2
Grind the lamb, lamb fat, onion, green chiles and cilantro in a food processor in two batches, pulsing and scraping, until smooth and pasty, about 1 minute per batch.
- Step 3
Mix in the garlic and ginger pastes, cumin, garam masala, chili powder and salt by hand until evenly combined. Divide into 12 portions.
- Step 4
Wet a flat metal skewer (or a soaked bamboo skewer) and your hands. Press each portion around a skewer into a 5- to 6-inch cylinder of even thickness. Lay the skewers across the rack.
- Step 5
Roast 10 to 12 minutes, until set and starting to brown. Brush with melted butter, turn, brush again and roast 4 to 6 minutes more, until browned and 160°F in the thickest part.
- Step 6
Slide the kebabs onto a platter, sprinkle with chaat masala and lemon juice, and serve hot with mint chutney and lemon wedges.
Seekh Kebab (Spiced Lamb Skewers with Mint Chutney)
Serves 4 · 12 kebabs · 50 min total
Kebabs
- 1.1 lb (500 g) ground lamb (or goat)
- 1 3/4 oz (50 g) lamb fat, chopped (ask the butcher)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 6 green chiles (Indian or serrano), chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
- 1 tbsp garlic paste
- 1 tbsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp roasted cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp Kashmiri red chili powder
- Salt
To finish
- 2 tbsp butter, melted, for basting
- 2 tbsp chaat masala
- 2 lemons
- Mint chutney
Method
- Heat the oven to 475°F with a rack in the upper third. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and set a wire rack on it.
- Grind the lamb, lamb fat, onion, green chiles and cilantro in a food processor in two batches, pulsing and scraping, until smooth and pasty, about 1 minute per batch.
- Mix in the garlic and ginger pastes, cumin, garam masala, chili powder and salt by hand until evenly combined. Divide into 12 portions.
- Wet a flat metal skewer (or a soaked bamboo skewer) and your hands. Press each portion around a skewer into a 5- to 6-inch cylinder of even thickness. Lay the skewers across the rack.
- Roast 10 to 12 minutes, until set and starting to brown. Brush with melted butter, turn, brush again and roast 4 to 6 minutes more, until browned and 160°F in the thickest part.
- Slide the kebabs onto a platter, sprinkle with chaat masala and lemon juice, and serve hot with mint chutney and lemon wedges.
Adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor, "Seekh Kabab" (Tandoori Cooking at Home), SanjeevKapoor.com, serves 4. We follow it as written: 500 g mutton mince with 50 g mutton fat, onion, 6 green chillies and coriander leaves ground fine; garlic and ginger pastes, roasted cumin, garam masala, Kashmiri chili powder and salt mixed in; 12 portions on moistened skewers; a 240°C (475°F) oven, basting with butter when almost done; chaat masala, lemon juice and mint chutney to finish. Kapoor gives no cooking times; the times, the rack-over-sheet setup, the butter amount, the 160°F check and the use of lamb for mutton are ours. For comparison, J. Kenji López-Alt's Pakistani-style "Seekh Kebabs" at Serious Eats (August 25, 2016) toasts whole spices and squeezes the aromatics dry. Sanjeev Kapoor. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Kapoor serves them as a starter; tuck them into naan or paratha with onion rings for a meal.
- If the mixture is too soft to hold, chill it 30 minutes before shaping.
- Kenji's version finds amchur (dried mango powder) essential for its sourness; lemon juice and chaat masala (which usually contains amchur) do that job here.
- Under a hot broiler, 4 to 5 minutes a side, works too; turn carefully.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Seekh kebabs need a tandoor. Folklore: Wikipedia lists the mangal, barbecue and tandoor; Kapoor gives the oven as an equal option.
- Seekh kebab is Pakistani; seekh kebab is Indian. Disputed framing: Wikipedia places it in the Indian subcontinent as a whole; Serious Eats calls its version Pakistani, Kapoor calls his Hyderabadi.
- Seekh came from the Persian kebab. Disputed: no source we read gives a dated history; Wikipedia's koobideh article claims the opposite direction without a citation.
- Mutton means lamb. Folklore in the US sense: in India mutton usually means goat meat; we use lamb as the closest US match.
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