Oven Chicken Kebabs
Published May 14, 2025
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
- Total Time
- 1 hour 35 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10
- Cook Time
- 1 hour 25 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
2 pounds ground chicken (not breast meat)
1 medium onion, grated or very finely minced
2 tablespoons red-pepper flakes, such as maras
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon sumac
1 tablespoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal), more for serving
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing the kebabs
½ cup roughly chopped parsley
Nutritional analysis per serving
3 grams carbs; 98 milligrams cholesterol; 208 calories; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 13 grams fat; 1 gram fiber; 319 milligrams sodium; 20 grams protein; 1 gram sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Place chicken, onion, red-pepper flakes, paprika, cumin, sumac and salt into a bowl. Mix well with wet hands, then add olive oil and mix again to blend. The mixture will be sticky. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Step 2
With wet hands, divide into 8 (4-ounce) pieces, then form into long sausage shapes, about 1 inch in diameter.
- Step 3
Insert a metal or presoaked bamboo skewer, or a disposable chopstick, lengthwise into each shape, flattening and lengthening the meat against the skewer. The mixture will be soft but will firm up when chilled. Lay on a parchment-lined baking sheet and refrigerate until ready to cook, about 30 minutes.
- Step 4
As the skewers refrigerate, heat the oven to 450 degrees. Brush the kebabs generously with olive oil and roast for 15 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned. For a bit more color, run them under the broiler for 2 more minutes. (Alternatively, heat the broiler or prepare a medium-hot charcoal grill. If grilling, use a fine meshed grate or perforated vegetable grilling pan. Broil or grill kebabs for about 5 minutes per side, until cooked through and lightly charred.)
- Step 5
Transfer to a platter and sprinkle with parsley and a pinch of salt.
Private Notes
Comments
Instead of the spices and salt you can use Penzey's Turkish seasoning. Serve the kebabs wrapped in a warm pita with chopped cucumber and tomato and slices of red onion and drizzled with a garlicky yogurt sauce flavored with dill, cumin, mint and lemon.
These kabobs were easy and really delicious! We like spicy and they did the trick. Served them with pita, hummus, tzatziki, cucumbers and tomatoes.
We prefer our picnics indoors — air-conditioned and no ants — and this was a delicious meal. This is a spicy meat mix, so if you are cooking for the timid of palate, you may want to tone it down a bit. Thanks, Julie, for the suggestion of tzatziki sauce. I suppose you could turn the meat into burgers or meatballs, but the skewers are fun. What to drink? Rose, of course!
This was really good. Adjusted for two. Used 1 lb of ground chicken, adjusted red pepper flakes to just over 1 teaspoon, 1-1/2 teaspoon salt and 3/4 of T of paprika. Kept the sumac and cumin seeds the same, as I love to toast and grind those seeds by hand. I also added three small minced garlic cloves, as you have to! Did not use skewers and did more of a quenelle shape. Froze half for the next meal, too....had some olive yogurt sauce left over from another NY Times recipe and used that up. Yum!
This was great. I used what I had: smoked pepper flakes (1T was enough for us) instead of plain plus zatar instead of oregano, and then the rest of the seasoning as stated, and these turned out terrific. I baked them into little sliders to tuck into pitas and served with olives, hummus, and Melissa Clark's grilled eggplant salad and they were devoured.
These were a little labor/time intensive, but really yummy. I cooked for a group, so used 3lbs chicken and 1.5x's the spice amounts. Used ground cumin, and could not find Sumac so used Za'atar instead, then went a little light on the cumin as a result. I am sensitive to spice so only used 2.5tsp pepper flakes for 3lbs meat. Turned out perfectly! Put them on greased foil instead of parchment since I was going to broil at the end. They were really delicious served on warmed pita with tzatziki.