Shish Kebab in the UK: what it is, how to order it, where to find it

Name: Shish Kebab
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 700 g lamb shoulder or leg, cut into 3 cm cubes; 1 onion, grated and the juice squeezed out; 2 tbsp olive oil; 2 tbsp natural yoghurt; 1 tbsp Turkish red pepper paste; 1 tsp salt, black pepper, half a tsp dried oregano; long green peppers and tomatoes to grill alongside; flat skewers

Quick answer

Shish kebab is cubes of marinated lamb or chicken threaded on a flat metal skewer and grilled over charcoal. It is the original kebab, the one the word was coined for, and on a UK ocakbaşı menu it is the benchmark dish: if the shish is good, the kitchen is good. It is served with rice or bulgur, grilled pepper and tomato, and sumac onions, and it is the order to make when you do not know the restaurant.

Calories and nutrition

Calories: 620
Protein: 42 g
Carbs: 45 g
Fat: 28 g
Salt: 2.0 g

Portion: One skewer of lamb shish (about 150 g cooked) with bulgur and salad.

Chicken thigh shish is around 520 kcal for the same plate; skip the bread and it drops by about 150.

Estimates for a typical portion, based on standard UK and USDA food composition data. Actual values depend on the recipe and the restaurant.

What shish kebab is

Şiş means skewer. The meat is cut into cubes the size of a walnut, marinated in onion juice, olive oil, yoghurt and a little pepper paste, and threaded onto a flat skewer so it does not spin when turned. It cooks in eight to ten minutes over charcoal, close enough to the coals to char the edges before the inside dries. Lamb shish uses shoulder or leg with the fat left on; chicken shish is thigh, never breast, in any kitchen that knows what it is doing. Some ocakbaşı houses alternate cubes of meat with pieces of tail fat, kuyruk yağı, which bastes the lamb as it cooks and is the sign of a traditional grill.

Shish, adana and kofte: which is which

All three come off the same skewer and the same grill. Shish is whole cubes of meat. Adana is hand-minced lamb with red pepper, shaped along a wide skewer. Köfte is minced meat with onion and bread, shaped into patties. Shish is the least seasoned and the most honest, because there is nothing to hide the quality of the meat behind, which is why Turks judge a grill house by it. A mixed grill, karışık, gives you all three and is the right first order for two people.

How to judge it

The cubes should be charred at the corners and pink in the middle if you asked for it that way, and juicy throughout; dry, grey shish means the meat was lean or the grill too far from the coals. It should taste of lamb and smoke with the marinade in the background. The skewer should come to the table hot, on bread that has caught the juices, with a grilled long pepper and a tomato that has blistered. Restaurants that serve shish on a plate with chips and no bread are aiming at a different customer.

Where in the UK it is done well

The ocakbaşı houses of North London, where the grill is an open charcoal pit in the middle of the room, set the standard; Green Lanes, Stoke Newington and Dalston have dozens. Outside London, the Turkish grills of Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool's city centre are the strongest clusters in our data. The ranking below counts Turkish restaurants in our directory whose name signals a grill or ocakbaşı.

How to order it

Order lamb shish 'orta' for medium or 'az pişmiş' for pink. Chicken shish should be thigh; if the menu says breast, order lamb. Take bulgur over rice and add a portion of grilled onion. For two people, karışık (mixed grill) is better value than two separate skewers.

Where it's done well

UK councils with the most shish kebab specialists, by restaurant name, in our directory.

Restaurants near you

Search by postcode or use your location to find restaurants likely to serve shish kebab near you.

Make it at home

Serves 4 · 40 min

Ingredients

700 g lamb shoulder or leg, cut into 3 cm cubes
1 onion, grated and the juice squeezed out
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp natural yoghurt
1 tbsp Turkish red pepper paste
1 tsp salt, black pepper, half a tsp dried oregano
long green peppers and tomatoes to grill alongside
flat skewers

Method

Mix the onion juice, oil, yoghurt, pepper paste, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat the lamb and marinate for at least four hours or overnight.
Thread the cubes tightly onto flat skewers, four or five per skewer, without gaps.
Grill over hot charcoal, or under the hottest grill setting, for eight to ten minutes, turning every two minutes, until charred outside and just pink inside.
Grill the peppers and tomatoes alongside until blistered.
Rest for two minutes on warm flatbread so the bread takes the juices, then serve with bulgur and sumac onions.

Flat skewers stop the cubes spinning; round ones turn while the meat stays still. Shoulder gives better shish than leg because of the fat.

Related dishes

Adana Kebab

Adana kebab is hand-minced lamb mixed with tail fat and red pepper, pressed along a wide flat skewer and grilled over charcoal. It comes from the city of Adana in southern Turkey, where the name is legally protected and the recipe is strict: lamb, fat, pepper, salt, nothing else. The UK version is spicier and more varied than the original, and it is the dish to order when you want heat and smoke rather than a clean cut of meat.

Ocakbasi

Ocakbaşı is not a dish but a kind of restaurant: a charcoal grill built into an open counter in the middle of the room, with seats around it so you watch the cook. The word means 'by the hearth'. In the UK the ocakbaşı houses of North London are where Turkish grilled meat is at its best, and the format has spread to most large cities. Knowing what an ocakbaşı is, and how to order in one, is the key to eating well in a Turkish restaurant.