Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Adana Kebap
Hand-minced spiced lamb pressed onto skewers and grilled over charcoal, served with flatbread and sumac onions.
Turkish · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 15 min
~609 cal · 57g protein · 5g carbs · 39g fat · 1g fiber · 2g sugars · 17g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Adana kebap is one of Turkey's most famous kebabs, named for the southern city of Adana and protected as a regional speciality. It is a serious, spicy affair, defined by hand-minced meat and the fire of red pepper.
Lamb, and traditionally tail fat, is chopped by hand with a heavy zırh knife rather than machine-ground, then seasoned generously with hot Turkish red pepper flakes and pressed by hand along wide, flat skewers. Grilled over charcoal until charred and juicy, it is served with grilled tomato and pepper, thin lavash or pide bread, and a heap of -dressed onions and parsley.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, egg-, 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
2 lb lamb, hand-minced with some fat
2 tbsp Turkish red pepper flakes (pul biber)
Hard to find? 2 tbsp sweet paprika with a pinch of cayenne - pul biber is mild, fruity and slightly oily rather than fiercely hot, so paprika carries more of it than plain chilli flakes do
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp , to dress the onion
4 lavash or pide bread
1 onion, sliced and dressed with
1 handful fresh parsley
Instructions
1
Knead the minced lamb with the pepper flakes, garlic, cumin, and salt until sticky and well combined.
2
Press the mixture firmly along wide flat skewers into long kebabs.
✎ Chef’s note
Work the meat until it is tacky and grips the skewer. If it is too loose or lean, it slides off on the grill; a little fat holds it together.
3
Grill over hot charcoal, turning, until charred outside and just cooked within.
4
Serve on or with warm flatbread, topped with the sumac onions and parsley.
Turkish Adana tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Gaziantep. The city cooks what the land around it grows. Pistachios come off the surrounding hills, red peppers are dried and flaked, sour pomegranate molasses does the work lemon does elsewhere, and the wheat becomes bulgur for kisir and for the very many kinds of kofte made here.
🗺️
Turkey. Turkish breakfast is called kahvalti, from kahve and alti, literally what goes under the coffee, because it began as the small spread eaten before the day's first cup. It has since expanded into an event: cheeses, olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, eggs, honey with clotted cream, jams, borek and bread, with tea poured continuously throughout.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Turkey
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LahmacunPaper-thin flatbread blistered under a spiced lamb, pepper, and parsley crust, rolled with lemon and herbs.
MantiTiny hand-pinched meat dumplings under garlic yogurt and paprika-mint butter, Kayseri’s legendary labor of love.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Grill or barbecue.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Adana Kebap?
Hand-minced spiced lamb pressed onto skewers and grilled over charcoal, served with flatbread and sumac onions.
Where does Adana Kebap come from?
Adana Kebap is a Turkish dish from Gaziantep, Turkey.
Can Adana Kebap be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Adana Kebap 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 Adana Kebap 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 Adana Kebap take to make?
About 45 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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