---
title: 'Lazy Cheeseburger Kebabs | Food Wishes'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=0zkiNjCUjGA'
video_id: '0zkiNjCUjGA'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 521
---

# Lazy Cheeseburger Kebabs | Food Wishes

> Source: [Lazy Cheeseburger Kebabs | Food Wishes](https://youtube.com/watch?v=0zkiNjCUjGA)

## Summary

Chef John from Food Wishes demonstrates a quick and easy technique for making 'lazy cheeseburger kebabs' by wrapping seasoned ground beef and cheese in lavash bread, rolling it up, cutting it, skewering it, and baking it. The recipe is a twist on traditional Middle Eastern-style meat rolls, designed to deliver the flavors of a cheeseburger in a fun, kebab format.

### Key Points

- **Seasoning the beef** [0:28] — Season half a pound of ground beef with kosher salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Add 2 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese and mix gently to avoid overworking the meat.
- **Preparing the bread** [1:14] — Lay one piece of lavash bread (or a flour tortilla) on a cutting board. Moisten hands with water to prevent sticking, then spread the meat mixture evenly over the bread, leaving about an inch uncovered at the top and smearing the meat thinner near the edge.
- **Rolling and cutting** [2:11] — Sprinkle additional ingredients (e.g., minced green onions) over the meat. Roll the bread tightly into a log, cut it in half to make two kebabs, then score the center and cut each half into four pieces (total 8 pieces per kebab). Use two skewers per kebab for stability.
- **Baking process** [4:34] — Brush the kebabs with melted butter, place on a foil-lined baking sheet, and bake at 450°F for 7 minutes. Then broil for 2-3 minutes until browned and cooked through. Optionally, slather with pan juices before serving.
- **Secret secret sauce** [6:06] — Make 'secret secret sauce' by combining mayo, mustard, and ketchup (secret sauce) with buttermilk for a ranch-like flavor. Optionally add herbs and spices; Chef John prefers it as is.
- **Serving and portion impression** [7:38] — Each kebab contains only 4 oz of beef but looks impressive due to the bread and cheese. Serve over lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle for a 'cheeseburger bowl' eaten with a fork.

### Conclusion

Lazy cheeseburger kebabs are a simple, visually impressive way to enjoy cheeseburger flavors, using only 4 oz of beef per serving. The technique is adaptable to any ground meat and is a new favorite for versatile, quick weeknight meals.

## Transcript

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