Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Chapli Kabab
Flat, spiced minced-beef patties studded with tomato and pomegranate, shallow-fried crisp, a Khyber specialty.
Pakistani · easy · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 15 min
~635 cal · 50g protein · 16g carbs · 40g fat · 3g fiber · 4g sugars · 12g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
The chapli kabab is a specialty of Peshawar and the wider Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, now loved across Pakistan. Its name comes from the Pashto word for flat, chaprikh, describing its distinctive thin, wide shape; the kababs are fried on a huge flat griddle.
The minced beef is loosely bound with and enlivened with crushed coriander seed, chili, tomato, onion, and, in the best versions, pomegranate seeds that pop with tartness. Fried in a shallow pool of fat until the edges are lacy and crisp, the kababs are eaten hot, tucked into naan with sliced onion and a squeeze of lemon.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 1/2 lb finely minced beef, at least 20 percent fat
1 egg
1/3 cup gram (chickpea) flour
3 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
1 tomato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp anardana (DRIED pomegranate seeds)
Hard to find? a spoonful of pomegranate molasses worked into the mince - gives the sour-fruit note; the little crunchy seeds, half the pleasure, are lost
1 tsp red chili flakes
4 cloves and 1/2 in garlic and ginger, crushed
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 green chilies
1/2 cup oil, for shallow frying
Instructions
1
Toast the coriander, cumin and carom seeds in a dry pan until fragrant and darkened, then crush them coarsely with the anardana, stopping well short of a powder.
✎ Chef’s note
Coarse, not ground. Half the character of a chapli kabab is the crunch of cracked coriander seed and dried pomegranate against soft meat, and anardana must be the dried seeds, not fresh arils; fresh ones simply add water.
2
Toast the gram flour in the same dry pan until it darkens and smells nutty, and let it cool.
3
Chop the onion very fine and squeeze the moisture out of it in your hands, and deseed the tomato and dice it small, discarding the juice.
✎ Chef’s note
Wet mix, broken kabab. Squeezing the onion dry and taking the seeds and pulp out of the tomato is what lets these thin patties hold together in the pan; if the mixture still feels loose, add another spoonful of toasted flour.
4
Mix everything into the meat with the egg, garlic, ginger, chilies, cilantro, chili flakes and salt, and knead it for 3 or 4 minutes until it turns stringy and lacy rather than crumbly, then rest it in the fridge at least 30 minutes.
5
Shape into thin, wide flat patties, larger than an ordinary kabab, and press a slice of tomato into the top of each.
✎ Chef’s note
The name comes from the Pashto for flat. Keep them thin and broad, which is what gives the lacy crisp edges and the melting middle.
6
Shallow-fry in a good pool of hot oil, or beef tallow if you have it, 5 to 6 minutes a side, flipping only once, until deep brown and crisp.
✎ Chef’s note
Tallow is the traditional fat in Peshawar and it is a large part of why street chapli kababs taste the way they do. Flip once, with two spatulas so the patty does not fold.
7
Serve hot with naan, a kachumber of onion, tomato and cucumber, mint raita and lemon.
Peshawari and Pakistani tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lahore (Punjab). A good deal of what Lahore now eats arrived in 1947. Kashmiri families displaced from Amritsar settled around Gawalmandi and opened shops in the front rooms of their houses, bringing gram-flour battered fried fish, hareesa and Amritsari sweets that the old city has long since claimed as its own.
🗺️
Pakistan. Partition rewrote Pakistani menus. Muhajir families arriving from northern India after 1947 brought their own biryani, which is why Karachi's version is its own thing, heavier on potato, tomato and sourness than the Sindhi or Lahori styles. The tandoor remains a neighbourhood facility as much as a kitchen fixture, with dough carried to it and bread carried back.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Pakistan
Lahori Chicken KarahiChicken flash-cooked in a wok-like karahi with tomatoes, ginger, and black pepper, no onions, no shortcuts.
Halwa PuriA festive Lahori breakfast of puffed fried puri, sweet semolina halwa, and spiced chickpeas.
KheerA slow-cooked rice pudding perfumed with cardamom and scattered with nuts, the comforting sweet of every occasion.
Browse all Pakistan recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Pakistan meal
Lahori Sweet LassiDrink
KheerDessert
Lahori Chicken KarahiDinner
Similar dishes from around the world
MilanesaUruguay
Empanadas ColombianasColombia
TibsEthiopia
Enchiladas HondureñasHonduras
Mbatten (Stuffed Potato Fritters)Libya
Khuushuur (Fried Meat Pastry)Mongolia
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Chapli Kabab?
Flat, spiced minced-beef patties studded with tomato and pomegranate, shallow-fried crisp, a Khyber specialty.
Where does Chapli Kabab come from?
Chapli Kabab is a Pakistani dish from Lahore (Punjab), Pakistan.
Can Chapli Kabab be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Chapli Kabab recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Chapli Kabab safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Chapli Kabab take to make?
About 40 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.