Sheet Pan Kebabs: Middle Eastern Kofta Without the Skewers

⏱ Prep: 15 min 🔥Bake + broil: 18 min 👤Serves: 4–6 🌍Origin: Middle East

Sheet pan kebabs give you everything that makes kofta worth making, ground lamb and beef seasoned with cumin, allspice, paprika and fresh parsley, juicy inside and lightly charred at the edges without a grill, without skewers, without standing over anything.

The spiced meat goes into a sheet pan, gets pressed flat and scored into strips, roasts at high heat until the edges caramelize, hits the broiler for two minutes to finish, and comes out ready to pull apart and stuff into warm pita with tahini sauce and a fast tomato salad. Thirty minutes, one pan, and the kind of Middle Eastern dinner that makes weeknights feel less like a compromise.

Ingredients

For the kofta

• 500g ground lamb, or all beef, or a 50/50 lamb-beef mix; lamb gives the most traditional flavor and fat content for juiciness
• 250g lean ground beef, balances the richness of the lamb; use 750g all beef if lamb is unavailable
• 1 medium onion, grated, squeeze the grated onion in a clean kitchen towel to remove as much liquid as possible before adding to the meat
• 4 cloves garlic, finely grated or minced
• ½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, very finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon Aleppo pepper or cayenne, optional, for gentle heat
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

For the tahini sauce

• 3 tablespoons tahini
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 small clove garlic, grated
• 3–4 tablespoons cold water, added gradually until smooth and pourable
• Salt to taste

For the sumac tomato salad

• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• ½ small red onion, very thinly sliced
• ½ cup flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon sumac
• 1 tablespoon olive oil + squeeze of lemon juice
• Salt to taste

To serve

• Warm pita or flatbread

Step by step

1. Squeeze the onion dry. Grate the onion on the coarse side of a box grater directly into a clean kitchen towel or cheesecloth. Gather the edges and squeeze firmly over the sink until almost no liquid comes out. The squeezed onion should feel almost dry.This is the single most important step. Raw onion contains a lot of water, if it goes into the meat wet, the kofta steams rather than roasts and comes out pale and soft instead of caramelized. Squeeze more aggressively than feels necessary.
2. Make the kofta mixture. In a large bowl, combine the ground lamb, beef, squeezed onion, garlic, parsley, cumin, paprika, allspice, cinnamon, Aleppo pepper if using, salt, black pepper and olive oil. Mix with your hands until just combined, everything should be evenly distributed.Mix until just combined and stop. Overworking the meat activates the proteins and produces a dense, tough kofta rather than a tender one. Twenty seconds of firm mixing is enough.
3. Press into the pan. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Lightly grease a quarter sheet pan or 9×13 baking dish. Transfer the meat mixture to the pan and press firmly and evenly into a flat rectangle, about ½ inch thick, use your hands or an offset spatula.
4. Score before baking. Using a sharp knife, score the meat all the way through to the bottom of the pan into strips or portions, about 1.5 inches wide. This is not optional: scoring creates clean separation lines that make slicing after baking effortless and prevents the slab from contracting unevenly as it cooks.
5. Roast then broil. Place on the center rack and roast for 15 minutes until cooked through and beginning to caramelize at the scored edges. Switch to the broiler on high and cook for a further 2–3 minutes until the surface is lightly charred. Watch closely, it goes from perfect to burnt quickly under a broiler.
6. Drain and rest. Remove from the oven. Carefully tilt the pan and pour off any rendered fat that has pooled in the corners. Let the kofta rest for 5 minutes before slicing along the scored lines. The rest is important, slicing immediately after the oven causes the juices to run out. Five minutes lets them redistribute back through the meat. Draining the fat first means the kofta separates cleanly rather than sitting in grease.
7. Make the sauces while it rests. Whisk the tahini with lemon juice and garlic, adding cold water a tablespoon at a time until smooth and pourable. Season with salt. Toss the tomato salad ingredients together. Warm the pita.
8. Serve. Lay kofta strips in warm pita, spoon tahini sauce generously over, add a heap of the tomato salad, and fold. Or serve everything separately for a build-your-own plate.

What kofta actually is and why the sheet pan works

Kofta, also spelled kefta, kafta or kofte depending on the region are ground meat kebabs spiced and shaped onto skewers, a street food found across the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans and Central Asia.

The traditional cooking method is over charcoal, which gives the outside a smoky char that the oven can’t fully replicate. What the sheet pan version gives you instead is that same juicy, spiced interior with a caramelized crust from high-heat roasting and a broiler finish that comes close to the charred edge of the real thing, close enough for a Tuesday night, and genuinely for a dinner party served on a platter with all the accompaniments laid out alongside.

Make it your own

Claire’s note

The mixture can be made up to 24 hours ahead and kept covered in the fridge, pressing and scoring it into the pan just before baking. The flavors actually deepen overnight, making this a very good make-ahead dish. For a slightly more tender result, add a slice of stale bread soaked in water and squeezed dry to the meat mixture, it adds moisture without making the kofta wet. Leftover kofta strips reheat well in a dry skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes per side, much better than the microwave which makes the meat rubbery. They also work sliced thin over rice with the tahini sauce as a next-day bowl.

Serve with

Sheet pan kebabs pair naturally with the Lebanese garlic sauce (toum) instead of or alongside the tahini, and the Lebanese moussaka makes an excellent base for a plate. For more from the Middle Eastern collection the complete Lebanese recipes guide has it all.

Add sheet pan kebabs to your weekly meal planner, mix the kofta the night before and it bakes in under 20 minutes from the fridge. And for more recipes, follow us on Pinterest.

Sheet Pan Kofta Kebabs

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• Author: Claire Bennett
• Total Time: 33 minutes
• Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
• Diet: Healthy, Low-Carb

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Description

Juicy kofta kebabs made with a mix of ground lamb and beef, seasoned with spices and roasted in a sheet pan for an easy, delicious meal.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 500g ground lamb
• 250g lean ground beef
• 1 medium onion, grated
• 4 cloves garlic, finely grated or minced
• ½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, very finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon Aleppo pepper or cayenne (optional)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 tablespoons tahini
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 small clove garlic, grated
• 3–4 tablespoons cold water (added gradually)
• Salt to taste
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• ½ small red onion, very thinly sliced
• ½ cup flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon sumac
• 1 tablespoon olive oil + squeeze of lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• Warm pita or flatbread

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Instructions

1. Squeeze the onion dry by grating it on a coarse grater into a cheesecloth and squeezing out the liquid.
2. Make the kofta mixture by combining the ground lamb, beef, squeezed onion, garlic, parsley, cumin, paprika, allspice, cinnamon, Aleppo pepper, salt, black pepper, and olive oil.
3. Press the meat mixture into a lightly greased sheet pan, forming a flat rectangle about ½ inch thick.
4. Score the meat with a sharp knife into strips, about 1.5 inches wide.
5. Roast in a preheated oven at 425°F (220°C) for 15 minutes until cooked through and caramelized.
6. Broil for an additional 2-3 minutes until the surface is lightly charred.
7. Drain any rendered fat from the pan and let the kofta rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
8. Whisk the tahini sauce ingredients together while the kofta rests.
9. Toss together the tomato salad ingredients.
10. Serve kofta strips in warm pita with tahini sauce and tomato salad.

Notes

The kofta mixture can be made up to 24 hours in advance for deeper flavor. For a more tender result, add a slice of stale bread soaked in water and squeezed dry to the mixture.

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 18 minutes
• Category: Main Course
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 serving
• Calories: 450
• Sugar: 3g
• Sodium: 500mg
• Fat: 20g
• Saturated Fat: 7g
• Unsaturated Fat: 10g
• Trans Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 30g
• Fiber: 4g
• Protein: 30g
• Cholesterol: 70mg