Döner Kebab
Döner kebab (döner kebap in Turkish) literally means "rotating grilled meat" (any type of meat applies). They were first developed in Bursa. Authentic Turkish döner is made with bread, salad and meat from lamb; regardless, mostly beef or a mix of beef and lamb is used in Europe. Although frozen kebab is available at convenience stores, they don't match fresh home-made kebab and may not be consistent with your taste…
Ingredients
Meat
- 2 kg (4½ lb) ground beef or other minced meat
- 11–12 tsp chicken salt/season salt
- 6 tsp black pepper (amount depends on taste preference)
Iskender-style dressing
- 2–3 dl (⅘–1¼ cups) plain yogurt
- 1–3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp basil
- 1–1½ tsp black and/or white pepper
- Green-, lemon-, or red pepper (optional)
- Chile pepper or powder (optional)
- Cayenne pepper (optional)
- Tabasco sauce (optional)
Tomato sauce dressing
- 1 can (70 g / 2½ oz) tomato purée
- ½–1 tsp salt
- ½–1½ tsp white pepper
- ½–1½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp basil
- 1 pinch oregano
- Ketchup (amount depends on preference)
Serving
- Pita bread
- Salad (see notes)
- Rice
- Chips/French fries
Steps
Meat
- Mix all ingredients into farce-like chunk.
- Use mixer or hands to get air out of chunk.
- Optional: make hole in chunk with knife so excess fat drains out.
- Wrap tightly in more than 2 layers of aluminium foil to prevent rupture.
- Put in oven at 100 °C (210 °F). Cook 4 hours. Four hours applies to every size, including scaled-down recipes.
- Remove from oven. Open foil. Cool. Cut in thin slices with shredder or knife.
Sauce
- Combine all ingredients for sauce(s).
- Mix well.
Serving
- Sandwich-style: slice pita from middle. Layer salad, kebab and dressings as with hamburger.
- Reel-kebab: wrap in pita using burrito technique.
- Kebab pizza: prepare pizza. Top with kebab.
- Kebab with rice: fill a little over half a plate with kebab, rest with cooked rice. Dress with ketchup or any sauce recipe in the article.
- Kebab with chips: same as kebab with rice, replacing rice with chips (French fries).
Notes from the original
- If you want, you can add other spices to the meat like chili, cayenne, garlic, BBQ sauces, etc.
- A salad consisting of tomatoes, pickles, cucumbers, and Chinese cabbage with mayonnaise is probably the most common salad eaten with kebab in Europe. There are tons of variations, of course. If you want a healthy choice, make sure you balance the cereals class (pita), meat class (kebab), and vegetable class (salad) well! You can also add chile peppers, jalapeño, red onions and such for the salad to fit your taste!
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Döner Kebab” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-08-29, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Döner kebab.jpg by de:Benutzer:Wollschaf, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.