Homemade Rotisserie Doner Kebab Meat - beef or lamb!
Recipe video above. This is a homemade version of the giant punching bag size Doner kebab meats rotating on vertical rotisseries in kebab shops! It might be small, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in authenticity and flavour. Prepare to be amazed - it tastes JUST like the real deal (and your house will smell like a kebab shop!)Excellent food for gatherings - make ahead, wow factor, DIY wraps and economical.
More Sauce options: chilli sauce/Sriracha (I use this), BBQ, sweet chilli, tomato sauce/ketchup
Extra options: tabbouleh, shredded cheese
Instructions
Marinate Meat:
Mix beef or lamb with all the Spices - mix well using your hands.
Cover and refrigerate 2 hours minimum, or up to 24 hours.
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 170°C/ 325°F (150°C fan).
Line baking pan with foil.
Check to ensure skewers are long enough to prop on the sides of the pan. (Note 5)
Puree Meat:
Place onion, bacon and garlic in a 8 cup/2L+ food processor. Blitz until it becomes a paste (video at 29 sec),~30 sec on high, scraping down sides as you go.
Add meat and blitz on low until it becomes a paste (video at 42 sec), scraping down sides (~1 min for powerful food processors, 2 min for less powerful). (Note 4)
Shape Doner Kebab Meat:
Turn meat out onto work surface. Wet hands with water, then shape into an even block 20cm/8" long.
Place 2 x 60cm / 2 feet long pieces of foil overlapping each other by 1/3. (Note 6)
Place meat on the end of the foil, then roll it up, tightly wrapping it in the foil.
Twist the ends firmly to form a log 25cm/10" long, then snip off excess foil. Roll into even log.
Thread skewers through the log.
Place log elevated in pan by propping skewers on the edge of the pan. (Note 7)
Cooking:
Cook for 1 1/2 hours, turning once after 1 hour, until the log reaches 70°C/160°F (up to 80°C/175°F is fine). The log is cooked at this point. (Note 9)
Remove foil from log but leave skewers in place.
Increase oven heat to 250°C/480°F, or as high as your oven can go if it can't reach this.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, rotating once, until browned all over.
Shaving / pan frying (kebab shop style!):
Remove skewers then stand the meat upright.
Shave meat thinly - carve as much as you intend to use.
Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Cook shaved meat lightly coloured but still "floppy" (not crisped). Use immediately for Doner Kebabs!
Doner Kebabs:
Smear hummus on warmed flatbread. Top with lettuce, tomato, and onion.
Pile on Doner Kebab Meat. Drizzle with sauce(s) of choice.
Roll up tightly, wrap in foil if desired (to hold together). Grab and devour!
Notes
1. Meat - fattier is better for flavour and to keep the meat juicy. Shop kebab meat is VERY fatty - fattier than this recipe! Supermarket meat typically discloses fat % nowadays (look at the nutrition table), and butchers should know the fat % of their meat.Beef is most common in Australia, both are popular in Turkey 2. Bacon - ie. belly-only part of a bacon – no loin eye.Authenticity note: Doner kebabs are mainly from Muslim countries and pork is not consumed for religious reasons, so you may be querying inclusion. It's because home cooks cannot get meat with enough fat in it, so I add bacon to bring up fat content which is essential to truly replicate shop kebab meat. Do not skip it. It really makes all the difference. And no, it does not take bacony.Can't have bacon?? Use one of these options:
Get good quality 20% fat meat, get an extra 200g/6oz meat and add and extra 1/2 teaspoon salt. Best quality you can afford ie cheapest fattiest meat at the grocery store doesn't taste as good as high fat mince from the butcher;
Get 20% fat meat and use turkey bacon instead of pork bacon; or
duck fat or goose fat + extra 100g/4 oz meat + 1/2 tsp salt. Use 100g/4oz duck fat, unmelted straight from jar, mix it into the meat. Duck fat provides the fattiness that bacon provides tainting the meat with duck flavour (most other animal fat tastes like that animal, whereas duck fat tastes "clean" hence why they are so good for the famous Duck Fat Potatoes).
3. Salt - I know it sounds like a lot, but remember the meat is shaved thinly so you don't get much salt in each bite.If you only have table salt, decrease to 2 teaspoons.4. Pureed meat consistency - See video for how it should look - you should be able to do a smooth "smear" on the surface.5. Skewers optional - skewers enable the meat to be cooked in a cylinder shape by keeping it elevated off the pan. But if you don't have them, that's fine - just shape into a log and cook on the pan or on a tray (in foil).6. Foil - purpose is twofold: to hold the shape of the log as it cooks (otherwise raw log slides down through skewers) and hold in juices as it cooks.7. Propping issues - if your log is too long to fit in the pan / skewers not long enough to reach edges, use things like ramekins or scrunched up balls of foil in the pan to keep the log elevated. OR prop it on the diagonal.8. Lemon Yogurt Sauce - mix and set aside 20 minutes: 2 cups (500g) Greek yoghurt 2 garlic cloves, minced using garlic mincer or finely grated 1 tsp cumin (optional) 2 - 3 tbsp lemon juice 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper9. Uncooked meat - if you don't have an meat thermometer and you carve away and find the inside is a bit undercooked, don't worry, the thin slices cook in a flash on the stove!10. Storage - keeps exceptionally well due to the high fat content! Options:
Cook log but don't brown. Cool in foil, then unwrap and cling wrap (don't leave in foil). Refrigerate up to 5 days OR freeze. On day of, thaw, wrap in foil and reheat in oven (temp per recipe) until heated through (insert knife to check), about 20 minutes. Then unwrap and brown then use per recipe.
Use some now, save some for later - either store uncarved log or carved meat (not pan fried). Then pan fry fresh just before using.
Freezing - cooked log or carved meat can be frozen for 3 months. Thaw then pan fry before serving.
11. Recipe credit goes entirely to Kenji Lopez-Alt at Serious Eats for discovering this amazing technique! We used his method, added our seasonings and tweaked it to make it an authentic looking log (added foil, skewers etc etc).12. Nutrition per serving - meat only, assumes 8 servings.