Persian Kabobs (Koobideh Kabob)

A Koobideh Kabob, also know as Persian Kabobs, is a traditional Persian cuisine minced meat kabob cooked over an open charcoal flame. It is full of flavor and lite on ingredients. The combination of ground lamb and ground beef will make these Persian Kabobs a crowd pleaser!

Persian Kabobs (Koobideh Kabob) Preparation

For starters, you are going to want to look at what kind of flat metal skewers you are using. I have been using this flat metal Koobideh skewers from Amazon, they are very basic but serve the purpose and are exactly what you need to form the meat kabobs in a proper manner.

As far as getting the grill ready, you are going to do this over open flame charcoal. I used my Weber Kettle for this one, and it was a prefect fit, that the 23″ skewers, fit right across the 22″ Kettle. Admittedly it does get tight for those couple of skewers in the middle but it works. While this recipe calls for making these over a charcoal grill, if you only have a gas grill that could also work, so don’t shy away from this if you only have a gas grill.

For this recipe, I am starting out with one pound of ground beef and one pound of ground lamb. You can choose to go with either 100% beef or 100% lamb but the meat mixture combination tends to be more traditional and adds some wonderful flavor to the kabobs.

When doing this you are going to want leaner selections of ground meat. When you use meat with a higher fat content, as the fat renders it will cause the meat to fall off the skewers. So as much as the fat adds more flavor, when its all said and done you may not have a kabob left to eat, so go with the leaner ground beef and lamb. Place the meat in a bowl and put it off to the side while we get the rest of the ingredients together.

Before we start mixing the meat, you are going to take one onion and grate the entire onion. After you have finished grating the onion, we are going to use either a cheese cloth or strainer and we are going to take as much of the liquid out of the onion as we can. If you are using a cheese cloth, place the grated onion in the cheese cloth and press the liquid out into a bowl.

If you are using a food strainer, place the onion in and press the onion juice out into a cup. Continue with either method until you have pressed as much of the onion juice you feel you can. Save the onion juice as we are going to use that for a baste before we put the kabobs on the grill.

After the grating and removing the liquid from the onion we are going to gather the other spices and mix them into a bowl. We are going to need the following:

• 1/2 tsp. of turmeric
• 2 tsp. of salt
• 1 tsp. of pepper

And that is it! Those are the only spices we will need for this recipe. So gather them together and mix them into the bowl with the meat. You can then start to add in the onions to the bowl. Keep mixing the meat, onions and spices, you want to have it mix and blended, as tightly as possible. If you can almost get it into a paste like mixture that would be ideal.

Once you are done with the meat, you can start with the baste. You will just need to mix the following together for the baste:

• 4 tsp. of onion juice
• 2 tbsp. of olive oil
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. of salt

After mixing, go ahead and place it off to the side.

Kabob Koobideh Persian Ground Meat Kabobs On The Grill

As you get the grill going, there will be no offset smoking/grilling here. We are going to get the coals going on the bottom of the Kettle or whatever charcoal grill you are using. Layer the bottom on the Kettle and get those coals nice, hot and ashed over. Be warned that the fat coming off the meat will cause the flames to possibly flare up.

If you are going to end up using the same skewers I mentioned above, they are 23″, you only need about 7-8″ of meat on the skewer. You will want to start forming the meat around the skewer, packing it around nice and tight. As you complete forming the meat around each skewer put them off the side so that they can all be basted prior to going on the grill.

As you put the skewers on you are going to only need about 3-4 minutes on each side. No need to baste while they are on the grill, just one baste before going. After you have them on for 3-4 minutes each side, go ahead and pull them. If you need to keep them warm, you can put them in the oven at 170°, covered with foil. You can also layer with some Naan bread to keep the heat in and is a great complement as you are eating these.

So that is it, your Persian Kabobs (Koobideh Kabob) recipe. These are easy to prep, quick to make and are something a little different on the grill.

If you are looking for the full Middle Eastern meal experience, here are some ideas for sides to pair with this meal:

• naan bread
• Jasmine rice
• Persian saffron rice
• Basmati Rice
• grilled tomatoes
• grilled onions
• grilled green peppers

Thanks for being here, I hope you enjoy this Persian Kabobs recipe. If you are interested in some other ideas and recipes for main meals take a look at some of these:

• Smoked Pork Loin recipe
• Smoked Boneless Turkey Breast
• Smoked Pulled Chicken Breast

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