Lazy Cheeseburger Kebabs | Food Wishes

[00:01] Hello, this is Chef John from

[00:02] foodwishes.com

[00:04] with lazy cheeseburger kebabs.

[00:08] That's right. I absolutely love this

[00:10] easy technique where meat is wrapped in

[00:12] a flatbread before it's rolled and

[00:14] skewered. And while most of the versions

[00:16] feature a Middle Eastern style meat

[00:18] filling, I wanted to try a cheeseburger

[00:20] approach. And I was thrilled with how

[00:23] these came out, especially served with

[00:25] my famous secret secret sauce.

[00:28] But first things first, and to get

[00:30] started, we will season up half a pound

[00:32] of ground beef with some kosher salt,

[00:35] some freshly ground black pepper,

[00:38] plus a few shakes of cayenne to stay on

[00:40] brand.

[00:41] And then we'll finish up with a couple

[00:42] ounces of shredded cheddar cheese, which

[00:45] is my preference, but whatever your

[00:47] favorite cheese is to top burgers, it'll

[00:49] work the same here.

[00:51] And what we'll do is scatter that nice

[00:52] and evenly over the top, which makes it

[00:54] easier and faster to mix in uniformly.

[00:57] And then we'll take a fork and do just

[00:58] that.

[01:00] Gently folding and stirring until it's

[01:02] just mixed in,

[01:03] and then we'll stop because you don't

[01:05] want to overwork burger meat, which can

[01:07] make it a little bit tough.

[01:09] Although truth be told, using this

[01:11] method, that probably wouldn't make much

[01:13] of a difference.

[01:14] But anyway, once that's mixed, we'll

[01:16] head to the cutting board, and we'll lay

[01:18] down one piece of lavash bread, which

[01:20] could also be a flour tortilla, but I

[01:22] find this a little thicker and softer

[01:24] and more flexible.

[01:26] So that would be my first choice, and

[01:28] it's pretty easy to find in stores these

[01:29] days. But anyway, we'll turn it this

[01:32] way,

[01:33] and we'll moisten our hands with a

[01:34] little bit of water before we transfer

[01:36] over our meat mixture.

[01:38] And of course, the water's going to

[01:39] prevent the meat from sticking to your

[01:40] fingers, which is going to make this

[01:42] next step a lot easier.

[01:44] And what that step is is spreading this

[01:47] meat out as evenly as we can, all the

[01:49] way to the very edge,

[01:51] except as you'll notice, I like to leave

[01:53] about an inch uncovered at the top,

[01:55] since for that area, I like to smear the

[01:57] meat a little bit thinner.

[01:59] Since that's the direction we're going

[02:01] to roll to.

[02:02] So, once the other areas are covered,

[02:04] we'll take a little bit of the meat and

[02:06] sort of push it and smear it towards the

[02:08] edge.

[02:09] And that's going to help give our seam a

[02:10] nice seal.

[02:11] And once we have that spread out and

[02:13] patted down nice and flat, we can

[02:15] sprinkle over any additional ingredients

[02:17] we want, which for me are going to be

[02:18] some minced green onions.

[02:20] And of course, you could add pieces of

[02:22] bacon or mushroom or sautéed onions or

[02:25] pretty much anything else you wanted.

[02:28] I mean, you are after all the moms and

[02:29] dads of your lazy cheeseburger kebabs.

[02:33] But in any event, we'll go ahead and

[02:34] start rolling this up

[02:36] right nice and tightly,

[02:38] making sure we're getting as uniform a

[02:40] log as possible.

[02:41] Oh, and by the way, if you are going to

[02:43] use the round large burrito-size flour

[02:46] tortillas, I probably would trim a

[02:48] little bit off the sides to square it

[02:50] up. Since something close to a

[02:52] rectangular shape is going to produce

[02:54] something more uniform and

[02:55] neater-looking,

[02:56] but it will still work even if you

[02:58] don't. And there's a lot of viral videos

[03:00] using this lazy kebab method that do

[03:02] just that.

[03:04] But anyway, once we have that rolled up,

[03:06] finishing with the seam at the bottom,

[03:07] of course, and we've given it a little

[03:09] bit of a squeeze to fine-tune the shape,

[03:12] what we'll do is grab a knife and cut

[03:14] this exactly in half, since we're making

[03:16] two kebabs, which of course is two

[03:18] portions.

[03:20] And I almost made a big mistake here,

[03:22] since after the first cut, I noticed

[03:24] some meat on the blade, which I started

[03:26] to wipe off, and then I realized, "What

[03:28] are you doing?" Any and all meat should

[03:30] go back in the roll.

[03:32] So, I course-corrected and felt a lot

[03:34] better.

[03:35] And once those are halved, we'll go

[03:36] ahead and score the center,

[03:38] and then carefully slice each piece into

[03:40] two,

[03:41] and then cut them in half again to get

[03:42] four pieces total.

[03:44] And I did a test where I cut these in

[03:46] three, but cutting something evenly in

[03:48] thirds is way harder than cutting

[03:50] something evenly in quarters.

[03:53] Plus, if we cut them in four, they do

[03:54] cook a little bit faster.

[03:56] So, to me, this is the way to go.

[03:59] But, in any event, once those are cut,

[04:01] we will grab some skewers.

[04:03] And I'm using metal, but bamboo will

[04:05] work out just the same.

[04:07] And I'm going to impale these with two

[04:08] each,

[04:10] which is always more secure and makes

[04:11] them easier to turn.

[04:13] And we'll start the first one about a

[04:15] third of the way in from the edge.

[04:17] And as long as we start the skewer

[04:18] nicely centered up and down, and we keep

[04:21] the skewer nice and flat, if everything

[04:23] goes according to plan, it should come

[04:25] out in the right spot in the last roll.

[04:27] But, as they say in golf, there's no

[04:29] pictures on the scorecard.

[04:31] So, as long as they stay together, you

[04:32] did good.

[04:34] And once that's been accomplished, we'll

[04:35] go ahead and transfer those onto a

[04:37] foil-lined baking sheet.

[04:39] And then, to keep things moist and help

[04:40] them brown later, we'll give them a nice

[04:42] brushing with some melted butter.

[04:44] Starting with the best-looking side

[04:45] facing up. And once that's brushed,

[04:48] we'll flip them over and do the same

[04:49] thing to the other side.

[04:51] At which point, I'm going to cook these

[04:53] in a hot oven for about 7 minutes. And

[04:56] then, we'll brown them up under the

[04:57] broiler for another two or three.

[04:59] Which I think is probably the fastest

[05:01] and simplest way to do this.

[05:03] Or you can cook them in a pan or on a

[05:04] grill pan on the stove. Or outdoor on

[05:07] the grill, but that's a lot trickier.

[05:09] So, as promised, once I had those

[05:11] buttered and spaced out a little bit, I

[05:13] transferred those into the upper center

[05:15] of a 450° oven

[05:18] for just 7 minutes, at which point they

[05:20] look like this.

[05:22] Which, no, is not super attractive yet.

[05:24] But, that's okay.

[05:26] Because what we'll do is flip these

[05:27] over.

[05:28] We'll switch our oven to broil.

[05:30] And we'll pop these underneath for about

[05:32] 2 to 3 minutes,

[05:34] or however long it takes for these to

[05:36] get cooked through and beautifully

[05:37] browned.

[05:39] And hopefully looking like this.

[05:41] Which is way more appetizing than a

[05:43] couple minutes ago.

[05:45] And then, if we want, we can take some

[05:46] of that butter and melted cheese and

[05:48] beef fat from the pan and we can slather

[05:51] that all over

[05:52] before we serve these up nice and hot.

[05:55] Which I'm going to do on a plate covered

[05:57] with my favorite cheeseburger

[05:58] accompaniments.

[06:00] Oh yeah, you got your lettuce, tomato,

[06:02] onion, and pickle.

[06:03] But what about the secret sauce?

[06:06] Well, that would be fine, but let me

[06:08] show you how to make secret secret

[06:09] sauce. Which starts with regular secret

[06:12] sauce, which as everybody knows is mayo,

[06:15] mustard, and ketchup.

[06:17] But if you then stir in some buttermilk,

[06:19] you turn secret sauce into secret secret

[06:22] sauce. And that buttermilk sort of gives

[06:25] things a little bit of a ranch vibe.

[06:27] And at this point you'd go ahead and add

[06:29] whatever else you wanted in the way of

[06:31] herbs and spices.

[06:33] But I actually like mine as is.

[06:35] And I went ahead and spooned some over

[06:37] my lazy cheeseburger kebabs.

[06:39] With a by the way apologies to food

[06:41] stylist everywhere.

[06:43] Okay, I usually use a squeeze bottle.

[06:45] And as I finish spooning this over,

[06:47] you're going to see why.

[06:48] Right, the pros would call that a little

[06:50] bit horsey. Which basically means sort

[06:52] of clunky and unrefined.

[06:54] But anyway, at this point I couldn't

[06:56] pretend to care. Because once you pull

[06:58] these off the skewers and you go in for

[07:00] a bite, you're going to be experiencing

[07:03] some incredible cheeseburger goodness.

[07:05] Oh and if you're going to serve it on a

[07:07] platter of veggies like this, you

[07:08] probably wouldn't eat it with your

[07:09] hands. All right, you probably want to

[07:11] build yourself a nice lazy cheeseburger

[07:13] kebab bowl. And eat this with a fork.

[07:16] But no matter how this goes down, the

[07:19] results really are very impressive.

[07:21] Okay, it really does somehow taste like

[07:23] a proper cheeseburger. Although I'd say

[07:25] more of the smash burger variety, since

[07:27] the meat is going to be pretty much

[07:28] cooked through. And the rendered fat

[07:30] from the beef and the butter fat from

[07:32] the cheese is going to be soaked into

[07:34] that lavash.

[07:35] And I think everything's working in

[07:37] perfect concert.

[07:38] And believe it or not, there's only 4 oz

[07:41] of beef in one of these kebabs, but

[07:43] because we added the cheese and rolled

[07:45] it in the bread, it looks to be a very

[07:47] impressive portion. Okay, if you hand

[07:49] someone a 4 oz cheeseburger, they'll

[07:51] smile and say thank you, but we all know

[07:53] what they're really thinking. Oh man,

[07:55] that is a small burger. So, with

[07:57] basically the same ingredients, I do

[07:59] think this looks more impressive.

[08:02] And of course, before I sign off, let me

[08:04] state the obvious, that this will work

[08:06] with literally any kind of ground meat.

[08:08] But whether you adapt this method or

[08:09] not, lazy kebabs are one of my new

[08:12] favorite things to make, and I really do

[08:14] hope you give them a try soon.

[08:16] So, please follow the links below for

[08:18] the ingredient amounts, [snorts]

[08:20] a printable written recipe, and much

[08:21] more info as usual.

[08:24] And as always,

[08:26] enjoy.