Home-style İskender Kebap: Döner Kebabs with Flatbreads
In this home made döner kebab recipe, thin slices of marinated meat are roasted until deliciously charred and served over flatbread with tomato sauce and hot butter.
Introduction
One of the much-loved kebabs at home, İskender kebap takes its name from its creator, İskender Efendi, and dates back to the late 19th century Ottoman period. The İskenderoğlu family still run the original restaurant Kebapçı İskender in Bursa, but the popularity of the dish has spread far and wide in İstanbul, as well as throughout Türkiye. The dish consists of succulent, thin slices of döner kebab cooked on a traditional vertical rotisserie, served over flatbreads topped with tomato sauce and grilled vegetables and yoghurt on the side. What makes İskender kebap particularly special is the hot butter that is drizzled over when serving. I don’t have a vertical rotisserie, but even so this home-style version is rather delicious and certainly delivers İskender kebap vibes. Marinating the thinly sliced meat in onion juice, olive oil and seasoning is a must and well worth the effort, as it tenderises the meat and adds oodles of flavour. Freezing the meat before slicing makes it much easier to achieve thin slices.
Ingredients
| 900g (2 lb) | beef or lamb tender loin |
| 280g (10 oz) | sivri biber, cut in half widthways or padron peppers, kept whole |
| 3 | medium tomatoes, quartered |
| 2 tbsp | olive oil |
| salt and freshly ground blackpepper | |
| For the marinade | |
|---|---|
| 2 | large onions |
| 2 tbsp | olive oil |
| 2 tsp | dried oregano |
| ½ tsp | pul biber (Aleppo pepper) |
| 1 tsp | salt, or to taste |
| For the tomato sauce | |
| 2 tbsp | olive oil |
| 2 tbsp | double concentrated tomato purée (paste) |
| 1 tbsp | biber salçası (red pepper paste, see page 233 of Istanbul for homemade) |
| 225ml (8 fl oz) | water |
| salt and freshly ground blackpepper | |
| To serve | |
| 5 | flatbreads or 1 ½–2 Tırnaklı Pide Ekmek (page 56 of Istanbul), cut into 6 x 6 cm (2 ¼ x 2 ¼ in) pieces |
| 255g (9 oz) | natural (plain) Turkish or Greek yoghurt, to serve |
| 60g (2 oz) | salted butter, melted, to serve |
Method
Prepare the meat a day ahead. Cut the tenderloin into three chunks, place in a freezer bag, seal and freeze for 2 ½–3 hours. The meat will be semi-frozen, which will make slicing it thinly much easier.
Finely grate the onions and squeeze out the juice through a fine sieve or clean muslin (cheesecloth) cloth into a non-metallic bowl (you can use the onion pulp that is left in soups, etc). Add the olive oil, dried oregano and pul biber, season with salt and combine well.
Take the meat out of the freezer and, using a sharp knife, slice it as thinly as you can, ideally no more than 5 mm (¼ in) thick. Then pound the slices with the back of a wooden spoon or with a meat tenderiser, so they measure about 10 x 7 cm(4 x 2¾ in) and have a thickness of 2 mm (⅛ in). Place the slices in the onion juice mixture and, using your hands, gently coat the meat slices with the onion juice marinade. Cover the bowl with cling film (plastic wrap) and allow the meat to marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180˚C fan/200˚C (400˚F). Place the peppers and tomatoes on a large baking tray (pan), drizzle with the olive oil, season with salt and ground black pepper. Roast in the oven for 25–30 minutes, until charred around the edges. About 5 minutes before the end of roasting, lay the sliced flatbreads on another large baking tray and place in the oven to warm. Remove both trays and cover with foil to keep warm until serving.
Meanwhile, prepare the tomato sauce. Pour the olive oil into a medium pan and place over a medium heat. Stir in the tomato purée and biber salçası and heat for 2 minutes. Pour in the water, season with salt and ground black pepper and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 5–7 minutes.
Remove the marinated meat from the refrigerator. Place a large (26 cm/10 in)heat-resistant non-stick pan over high heat for a minute to get hot, then lay the meat slices side by side in the pan, without overcrowding it, and cook for 1–1½ minutes (depending on the thickness of the slices), then flip over the slices and cook for a further minute or so on the other side (try not to overcook). Place on a large plate and cover to keep warm whilst you cook the remaining slices.
Quickly warm the tomato sauce if it needs warming and return the vegetables and bread trays to the warm oven. Heat the butter in a small saucepan until it starts to bubble, then lower the heat. Working quickly, assemble the İskender kebap either on a large serving dish or on individual plates. Lay the warm bread slices over the dish or plates and place the meat slices on top. Place the roasted peppers and tomatoes and a few dollops of yoghurt on the side of each, then pour the hot tomato sauce over the meat. Finally, just as you serve, drizzle over the hot butter.
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