This is a homemade recipe for the mystery Doner kebab meat you see rotating on vertical rotisseries in kebab shops. It’s a miniature version but what it lacks in size is made up in flavour – and authenticity!! Use to stuff into beef or lamb Doner Kebabs OR Gyros.
Excellent large format food for gatherings – make ahead and economical! Also see Chicken Doner Kebabs.
How many times have you walked past a Doner kebab shop and glanced at those giant punching bag-sized kebab meats rotating round and round, and wondered how long has that meat been out for?? I wonder if it’s really meat, or 90% fillers??
Well wonder no more!! Shops might use fillers, but WE don’t need to!
Doner Kebab Meat recipe – beef or lamb
This homemade version of rotisserie Doner Kebab Meat can be made with either lamb or beef. While beef is a firm favourite here in Australia, in Turkey (the home of Doner Kebabs) they are made with both lamb and beef. Both are delicious, I couldn’t choose a favourite!
Though this is a miniature version of the giant ones you see in the shops and we’ve adapted the cooking method for home kitchens, the end result is so similar to the real deal it is going to amaze you!
Stand it upright, carve it up thinly and fry it up gently to get golden edges. Your house is going to smell like a kebab shop!
What is Doner Kebab meat made of?
Ahh, you’ve always wondered, haven’t you?? 🙂 Here’s what you need. Bacon* is the surprise secret ingredient for this homemade version – more on this below!
* Note: I’ve received many emails/messages questioning the inclusion of bacon in this recipe. I acknowledge 100% that this is a non-traditional addition you would obviously NEVER find in a Muslim country (because Muslims do not eat pork for religious reasons). It’s added for the extra fat, because home cooks cannot get meat fatty enough to get the desired result. Without bacon, you will be disappointed with the results, unless you hunt down extra fatty meat – I’ve provided directions in the recipe card.
Beef or lamb – get 15% fat for best results. If you inspect those kebab shop meats closely, you will see they are DRIPPING with fat!! Ours is not as fatty, but when we tried it with lean meat, it just wasn’t the same. Also remember, the flavour of meat is all in the fat. Mix lamb fat into lean beef, and you’d swear you’re eating lamb!
Streaky Bacon* – the secret ingredient, as discovered by Kenji at Serious Eats whose Gyros recipe we used as a base for ours. It doesn’t make the meat taste bacony, but it adds salt into the meat and most importantly, it adds fat. It is key, do not skip it! (Or if you do, do not complain if disappointed with the recipe outcome 😂)
NON-PORK SUBSTITUTES for bacon – two options to replicate the purpose of bacon in this recipe:
If your meat is already sufficiently fatty, use turkey bacon; OR
Add duck fat or goose fat + extra 100g/4 oz meat + 1/2 tsp salt.
Spices – a mix we figured out ourselves by sampling the meat from our favourite kebab shops; and
Onion and garlic – essential flavour base!
* Note on BACON and authenticity – As doner kebabs are mainly from Muslim countries, bacon might seem out of place given pork is not consumed for religious reasons. The reason it is included is to make this recipe accessible for home cooks. Traditional doner kebab meat is made with loads of animal fat. When you watch You Tube videos of the layered version of kebab meat, they thread a layer of meat (like chicken) then they literally COVER that layer with chopped fat then thread chicken on, and again fat. SO MUCH FAT! 😂 Using bacon is a shortcut method and more accessible to ordinary home cooks – my butcher doesn’t sell buckets of chopped fat!
How to make Doner Kebab meat
And the best part – how to make it! It is easy. Once you get your head around manhandling a giant block of meat!
In a nutshell, the meat is pureed in a food processor which transforms it into a “paste” which gives it the unique carvable meat texture (as opposed to, for example, Meatloaf where ground/mince beef is just shaped by hand and has a more “crumbly” texture).
Then roll it into a log shape using foil – this holds the shape while suspended over a pan using skewers (without it, the meat sags when raw) – then cook it in the oven. Whip off the foil at the end to brown it, stand it upright and carve!!
Carving and pan frying
The texture of the cooked meat is such that it can be carved thinly – just like in kebab shops!
Shave it quite thinly and once you’ve cut off as much as you want/need, pan fry it gently to get a blush of gold on it. This is a magic touch that really transforms the meat because once you carve off the outer browned layer, the meat inside is just pink. It’s the same special finishing touch we do with Mexican Carnitas!
And here’s a close up of the Doner Kebab Meat being pan fried. Just lightly pan fried, not to crisp it, just to get a hint of gold on it like they do in Kebab Shops to freshen up the meat.
It only takes a minute or so because it’s so thin.
Doner Kebabs
And here is a big fat juicy Doner Kebab! Wildly popular here in Australia, particularly after a late night out at the pub with mates!
Made with Lebanese bread or other thin flatbreads, smeared with hummus, topped with Doner Kebab Meat, lettuce, tomato, onion and sauces such as yogurt, garlic and chilli sauce. Optional extras include cheese (which I think is a blasphemy!) and tabbouleh.
Imagine it over CHARCOAL!!
I’ve had to make do with a boring old oven to cook this. I would LOVE to to make this over charcoal one day! Imagine it on a spit, rotating slowly over hot coals….that smokey flavour would be to die for!
One day, one day…
Doner Kebab vs Gyros vs Shawarma
Gyro, shawarma and doner kebab all have the same meaning. Those words all translate to “turning” or “rotating meat” and they refer to the rotisserie cooking technique.
Which word is used depends which part of the Mediterranean or Middle East you’re in. Gyros is Greek. Shawarma is Israel and Arab countries (spicing is much stronger). Doner Kebab is what they call it in Turkey.
While there are of course some differences in the finished dish (type of flatbread, sauces used) and the seasonings used for the meat, they are similar in spirit!
As for what animal meat it is, it varies. Chicken, beef, lamb and pork are all used to varying degrees, depending on the country. Also whether it’s layered (like in Chicken Doner Kebab) or smooth meat style (which is what I’m sharing today) also varies depending where you are.
One thing’s for sure. I’m yet to meet a Doner Kebab/Gyros or Shawarma that I haven’t loved!
Recipes I’ve shared
Here in Australia, Doner Kebabs is common though you will find Gyros in ethnic areas. In America, it’s the other way round – Gyros is the common version. Harder to find Doner Kebabs!
Nowadays, you’ll find both all around the world. Last year, I had some amazing Doner Kebabs in the heart of Paris of all places!
Here are Gyros/Shawarma/Doner Kebab recipes I’ve previously shared:
Excellent large format food to make ahead
Two more big things this homemade Doner Kebab Meat has going for it:
Excellent for making ahead – it stays 100% fresh because the meat is so juicy (ahem! Fatty…… 😇). Cook the log through, cool, fridge or freeze, then reheat in the oven; and
Excellent for feeding a crowd – this makes lots! 1 kg / 2lb probably serves 8 people – shaved meat goes further. Maybe 6 if you stuff very generously. Fry the slices on a BBQ so you can cook lots at the same time, though you can also just pan fry it a bit in advance then reheat in the microwave (I did this, and it worked perfectly).
And if that’s not enough to convince you to make this, then just do it to get a kick out of how it is a dead set replica of the kebab shop meat. Or your favourite gyros cart. Depending on where you live! – Nagi x
PS I honestly cannot stress enough how your house is going to smell just like your local neighbourhood kebab shop!!
Watch how to make it
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Homemade Rotisserie Doner Kebab Meat – beef or lamb!
Ingredients
- 1 kg / 2 lb lamb or beef mince (ground meat) , preferably 15% fat (Note 1)
- 200g / 7oz streaky bacon , roughly diced (Note 2)
- 1 onion , diced (brown, yellow, white)
- 2 clove garlic , roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil or olive oil (for frying)
Seasoning Spices:
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 3 tsp salt , kosher/cooking salt (Note 3)
- 1 tsp black pepper
Doner Kebabs:
- 8 flatbreads (Lebanese bread authentic!)
- 1 iceberg lettuce , finely shredded
- 6 tomatoes , halved and sliced
- 2 red onions , finely sliced
- Hummus
- Yogurt sauce , optional (recipe Note 8)
- 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!
Recipe Notes:
- 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).
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 pepper 9. 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.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Same expression whether he’s gagging over a giant hunk of Doner Kebab meat or panting from exertion at the park….
Hi, can I use an air fryer to cook the meat. It’s summer where I live and I hate using the oven.
Ok, I followed a air fryer meatloaf timing. Did 390f at 20m (preheated for 5 min) and 3+3 without the foil. Tasted great. Next time, I would do 390f at 18m. Hardest part was finding my knife sharpener, 😂 thank you for the recipe.
I haven’t tested that Sandy, sorry! N x
As an add on, what type of cinnamon should I buy? My other email seems to have disappeared. What sized food processor, litre wise, should I be buying?
For this recipe John, I just use regular ground cinnamon from the grocery store spice section. The food processor that I have is listed here in my post on kitchen essentials but may not be available if you are not in Australia. Maybe you can find something similar where you are. I have a fairly large sized one as I do recipes like this often and you can always make a small batch in a big one, but not the other way around! N x https://promotown.info/recipetin-eats-essential-kitchenware/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi Nagi, can a 1.5litre blender work, instead of a food processor?
Hi John! I think that this will be difficult to do in a blender…you’re going to get completely pureed meat at the base and most blenders just don’t have the power and space that a food processor does to handle meat…so sorry! N x
As an add on, what type of cinnamon should I buy?
Thank you Nagi for your reply, may I ask what type of food processor, litre wise, would be sufficient to complete this recipe please
Syrian taftoon bread, middle eastern pickles……wow, I’m in heaven, what a great recipe!!
Hi Nagi, do you think its ok to make this without the metal skewers? If I could just put the foil wrapped meat straight into the oven? Thank you!!
Hi Nagi. I’m thinking of mixing lamb and beef mince. What do you think of combining those flavours? I love your recipes. Have made quite a few with great success. Thankyou.
I think that would be delicious Shirley! N x
The taste….just like a donner kebab at the kebab shop…lovely
I had a few teething problems with this one in that during the blending process I found the mince just rolled around….I added a little water and this seemed to make it blend better. (I only had a 1L processor so I dis this in 3 batches and mixed together at the end).
The meat was a tad dry for me (possibly the way I cooked it) that said, as mentioned above you need to get the fat and the bacon is a must.
All in all I enjoyed crafting all this together to make me and the wife kebabs for tonight (UK)
Will certainly be making a couple of batches for summer BBQ sessions round at the Line family home 👍
Would using 20% fat mince beef be ok, it’s cheaper than 15% and I’m counting the pennies at the moment
Tried this using cheap mince with the same fat percentage! Definitely works! I’ll be eating kebab for days. Def more affordable than eating out <3
Delicious and deeply satisfying. I found waygu ground beef on sale and used that sans bacon, just wow. The spice blend is on point. Thank you for sharing this!
this was amazing! couldn’t believe you could make legit gyro meat at home
This turned out great! Hit the spot. Very yummy indeed.
We have been living for this recipe this summmer, eating it at least once a week and it lasts a couple of days. Not sick of it yet, and trying the chicken version next. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe and can’t wait for your book!
Cooked this amazing recipe. My wife loves doner kebabs, and couldn’t believe it wasn’t from the take away. Deffo be making it again.
I have this in the oven and I am so excited for lunch! My daughter says it smells really good. All of your recipes are a hit in this house of 5 picky eaters with very different tastes!!! Thank you!
The BEST EVER! Excellent recipe, this is BETTER than a kebab that you buy at the shop!
Hey Nagi! This is a wonderful recipe, I find all your recipes never fail and I respect how much effort you put into each one. I was wondering, after you unwrap the the meat and put it back into the oven if you could use a grill instead on a medium/low heat or if that would ruin it. I just have an older oven and it takes a really long time to heat up. Thanks!
Hi Becca – you just want to brown the outside so if your oven works better doing that on a grill setting then it should be fine. Just keep an eye out that it doesn’t burn. N x
In Canada we serve this with Donair (Doner) Sauce- 2/3 cup of condensed milk, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1/2 tsp of garlic powder. Mix together and let sit in the fridge for an hour. Making Donairs using your recipe for the first time tomorrow!
This is a brilliant recipe! Thanks Nagi! Xo
You are welcome Julie! N x
Could this be cooked sous vide first and than finished in the oven or BBQ? Any idea temp/time?
I have made this recipe for family and friends a few times and it an absolute hit. It has so much flavor and it looks beautiful as well. Highly recommend grilling this! Your recipes are so amazing all the time! I love all your detailed instructions, just can’t go wrong!