[0:01] Hello, this is Chef John from
[0:02] foodwishes.com
[0:04] with lazy cheeseburger kebabs.
[0:08] That's right. I absolutely love this
[0:10] easy technique where meat is wrapped in
[0:12] a flatbread before it's rolled and
[0:14] skewered. And while most of the versions
[0:16] feature a Middle Eastern style meat
[0:18] filling, I wanted to try a cheeseburger
[0:20] approach. And I was thrilled with how
[0:23] these came out, especially served with
[0:25] my famous secret secret sauce.
[0:28] But first things first, and to get
[0:30] started, we will season up half a pound
[0:32] of ground beef with some kosher salt,
[0:35] some freshly ground black pepper,
[0:38] plus a few shakes of cayenne to stay on
[0:40] brand.
[0:41] And then we'll finish up with a couple
[0:42] ounces of shredded cheddar cheese, which
[0:45] is my preference, but whatever your
[0:47] favorite cheese is to top burgers, it'll
[0:49] work the same here.
[0:51] And what we'll do is scatter that nice
[0:52] and evenly over the top, which makes it
[0:54] easier and faster to mix in uniformly.
[0:57] And then we'll take a fork and do just
[0:58] that.
[1:00] Gently folding and stirring until it's
[1:02] just mixed in,
[1:03] and then we'll stop because you don't
[1:05] want to overwork burger meat, which can
[1:07] make it a little bit tough.
[1:09] Although truth be told, using this
[1:11] method, that probably wouldn't make much
[1:13] of a difference.
[1:14] But anyway, once that's mixed, we'll
[1:16] head to the cutting board, and we'll lay
[1:18] down one piece of lavash bread, which
[1:20] could also be a flour tortilla, but I
[1:22] find this a little thicker and softer
[1:24] and more flexible.
[1:26] So that would be my first choice, and
[1:28] it's pretty easy to find in stores these
[1:29] days. But anyway, we'll turn it this
[1:32] way,
[1:33] and we'll moisten our hands with a
[1:34] little bit of water before we transfer
[1:36] over our meat mixture.
[1:38] And of course, the water's going to
[1:39] prevent the meat from sticking to your
[1:40] fingers, which is going to make this
[1:42] next step a lot easier.
[1:44] And what that step is is spreading this
[1:47] meat out as evenly as we can, all the
[1:49] way to the very edge,
[1:51] except as you'll notice, I like to leave
[1:53] about an inch uncovered at the top,
[1:55] since for that area, I like to smear the
[1:57] meat a little bit thinner.
[1:59] Since that's the direction we're going
[2:01] to roll to.
[2:02] So, once the other areas are covered,
[2:04] we'll take a little bit of the meat and
[2:06] sort of push it and smear it towards the
[2:08] edge.
[2:09] And that's going to help give our seam a
[2:10] nice seal.
[2:11] And once we have that spread out and
[2:13] patted down nice and flat, we can
[2:15] sprinkle over any additional ingredients
[2:17] we want, which for me are going to be
[2:18] some minced green onions.
[2:20] And of course, you could add pieces of
[2:22] bacon or mushroom or sautéed onions or
[2:25] pretty much anything else you wanted.
[2:28] I mean, you are after all the moms and
[2:29] dads of your lazy cheeseburger kebabs.
[2:33] But in any event, we'll go ahead and
[2:34] start rolling this up
[2:36] right nice and tightly,
[2:38] making sure we're getting as uniform a
[2:40] log as possible.
[2:41] Oh, and by the way, if you are going to
[2:43] use the round large burrito-size flour
[2:46] tortillas, I probably would trim a
[2:48] little bit off the sides to square it
[2:50] up. Since something close to a
[2:52] rectangular shape is going to produce
[2:54] something more uniform and
[2:55] neater-looking,
[2:56] but it will still work even if you
[2:58] don't. And there's a lot of viral videos
[3:00] using this lazy kebab method that do
[3:02] just that.
[3:04] But anyway, once we have that rolled up,
[3:06] finishing with the seam at the bottom,
[3:07] of course, and we've given it a little
[3:09] bit of a squeeze to fine-tune the shape,
[3:12] what we'll do is grab a knife and cut
[3:14] this exactly in half, since we're making
[3:16] two kebabs, which of course is two
[3:18] portions.
[3:20] And I almost made a big mistake here,
[3:22] since after the first cut, I noticed
[3:24] some meat on the blade, which I started
[3:26] to wipe off, and then I realized, "What
[3:28] are you doing?" Any and all meat should
[3:30] go back in the roll.
[3:32] So, I course-corrected and felt a lot
[3:34] better.
[3:35] And once those are halved, we'll go
[3:36] ahead and score the center,
[3:38] and then carefully slice each piece into
[3:40] two,
[3:41] and then cut them in half again to get
[3:42] four pieces total.
[3:44] And I did a test where I cut these in
[3:46] three, but cutting something evenly in
[3:48] thirds is way harder than cutting
[3:50] something evenly in quarters.
[3:53] Plus, if we cut them in four, they do
[3:54] cook a little bit faster.
[3:56] So, to me, this is the way to go.
[3:59] But, in any event, once those are cut,
[4:01] we will grab some skewers.
[4:03] And I'm using metal, but bamboo will
[4:05] work out just the same.
[4:07] And I'm going to impale these with two
[4:08] each,
[4:10] which is always more secure and makes
[4:11] them easier to turn.
[4:13] And we'll start the first one about a
[4:15] third of the way in from the edge.
[4:17] And as long as we start the skewer
[4:18] nicely centered up and down, and we keep
[4:21] the skewer nice and flat, if everything
[4:23] goes according to plan, it should come
[4:25] out in the right spot in the last roll.
[4:27] But, as they say in golf, there's no
[4:29] pictures on the scorecard.
[4:31] So, as long as they stay together, you
[4:32] did good.
[4:34] And once that's been accomplished, we'll
[4:35] go ahead and transfer those onto a
[4:37] foil-lined baking sheet.
[4:39] And then, to keep things moist and help
[4:40] them brown later, we'll give them a nice
[4:42] brushing with some melted butter.
[4:44] Starting with the best-looking side
[4:45] facing up. And once that's brushed,
[4:48] we'll flip them over and do the same
[4:49] thing to the other side.
[4:51] At which point, I'm going to cook these
[4:53] in a hot oven for about 7 minutes. And
[4:56] then, we'll brown them up under the
[4:57] broiler for another two or three.
[4:59] Which I think is probably the fastest
[5:01] and simplest way to do this.
[5:03] Or you can cook them in a pan or on a
[5:04] grill pan on the stove. Or outdoor on
[5:07] the grill, but that's a lot trickier.
[5:09] So, as promised, once I had those
[5:11] buttered and spaced out a little bit, I
[5:13] transferred those into the upper center
[5:15] of a 450° oven
[5:18] for just 7 minutes, at which point they
[5:20] look like this.
[5:22] Which, no, is not super attractive yet.
[5:24] But, that's okay.
[5:26] Because what we'll do is flip these
[5:27] over.
[5:28] We'll switch our oven to broil.
[5:30] And we'll pop these underneath for about
[5:32] 2 to 3 minutes,
[5:34] or however long it takes for these to
[5:36] get cooked through and beautifully
[5:37] browned.
[5:39] And hopefully looking like this.
[5:41] Which is way more appetizing than a
[5:43] couple minutes ago.
[5:45] And then, if we want, we can take some
[5:46] of that butter and melted cheese and
[5:48] beef fat from the pan and we can slather
[5:51] that all over
[5:52] before we serve these up nice and hot.
[5:55] Which I'm going to do on a plate covered
[5:57] with my favorite cheeseburger
[5:58] accompaniments.
[6:00] Oh yeah, you got your lettuce, tomato,
[6:02] onion, and pickle.
[6:03] But what about the secret sauce?
[6:06] Well, that would be fine, but let me
[6:08] show you how to make secret secret
[6:09] sauce. Which starts with regular secret
[6:12] sauce, which as everybody knows is mayo,
[6:15] mustard, and ketchup.
[6:17] But if you then stir in some buttermilk,
[6:19] you turn secret sauce into secret secret
[6:22] sauce. And that buttermilk sort of gives
[6:25] things a little bit of a ranch vibe.
[6:27] And at this point you'd go ahead and add
[6:29] whatever else you wanted in the way of
[6:31] herbs and spices.
[6:33] But I actually like mine as is.
[6:35] And I went ahead and spooned some over
[6:37] my lazy cheeseburger kebabs.
[6:39] With a by the way apologies to food
[6:41] stylist everywhere.
[6:43] Okay, I usually use a squeeze bottle.
[6:45] And as I finish spooning this over,
[6:47] you're going to see why.
[6:48] Right, the pros would call that a little
[6:50] bit horsey. Which basically means sort
[6:52] of clunky and unrefined.
[6:54] But anyway, at this point I couldn't
[6:56] pretend to care. Because once you pull
[6:58] these off the skewers and you go in for
[7:00] a bite, you're going to be experiencing
[7:03] some incredible cheeseburger goodness.
[7:05] Oh and if you're going to serve it on a
[7:07] platter of veggies like this, you
[7:08] probably wouldn't eat it with your
[7:09] hands. All right, you probably want to
[7:11] build yourself a nice lazy cheeseburger
[7:13] kebab bowl. And eat this with a fork.
[7:16] But no matter how this goes down, the
[7:19] results really are very impressive.
[7:21] Okay, it really does somehow taste like
[7:23] a proper cheeseburger. Although I'd say
[7:25] more of the smash burger variety, since
[7:27] the meat is going to be pretty much
[7:28] cooked through. And the rendered fat
[7:30] from the beef and the butter fat from
[7:32] the cheese is going to be soaked into
[7:34] that lavash.
[7:35] And I think everything's working in
[7:37] perfect concert.
[7:38] And believe it or not, there's only 4 oz
[7:41] of beef in one of these kebabs, but
[7:43] because we added the cheese and rolled
[7:45] it in the bread, it looks to be a very
[7:47] impressive portion. Okay, if you hand
[7:49] someone a 4 oz cheeseburger, they'll
[7:51] smile and say thank you, but we all know
[7:53] what they're really thinking. Oh man,
[7:55] that is a small burger. So, with
[7:57] basically the same ingredients, I do
[7:59] think this looks more impressive.
[8:02] And of course, before I sign off, let me
[8:04] state the obvious, that this will work
[8:06] with literally any kind of ground meat.
[8:08] But whether you adapt this method or
[8:09] not, lazy kebabs are one of my new
[8:12] favorite things to make, and I really do
[8:14] hope you give them a try soon.
[8:16] So, please follow the links below for
[8:18] the ingredient amounts, [snorts]
[8:20] a printable written recipe, and much
[8:21] more info as usual.
[8:24] And as always,
[8:26] enjoy.