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Chicken Adana Chicken Kofta Kebab Recipe

We went out for a Sunday Turkish Meze lunch with friends and the menu was such that you could choose from a selection of starters and mains. Each family chose their favourites and everyone on the table got to enjoy something they loved and something new.

My friend’s husband chose Chicken Adana, which is minced chicken kofta kebab. I have never heard of or tried, this style of kebab before and did a little research to recreate it at home, as it was really tasty.

Adana is the 5th largest Turkish city and the dish in Adana is called Kiyma Kebab. Traditionally the chicken is chopped to resemble mince and mixed by hand, so it would have a coarser texture to what I have recreated. The dish is now served internationally and is named after the originating city Adana that invented the kebab.

Usually when you make lamb kofta the flavourings are in the background and the dominant flavour is the lamb mince. With the Chicken Adana because the chicken mince is a mild flavour to lamb, the spicing takes on a more star role and makes for a delicious and unusual kebab.

The kebab is formed into a long sausage shape and it is traditionally wrapped in a pita like a Greek Giro, I used more readily accessible pita pockets.

Supermarkets don’t tend to stock chicken mince, so if you can’t get to a butcher to make the mince for you, use turkey or lamb mince instead.  If you wanted to you could add chicken breasts to a food processor and blend until your chicken is minced, it takes a little time but is easy to do. I served the meal with easy to make No Cook Chilli Sauce and No Cook Garlic Sauce using only 4 ingredients.

Chicken Adana Chicken Kofta Kebab Recipe
 
Preparation time
Cooking time
Total time
 
A chicken mince kebab from the city of Adana in Turkey. An easy to make midweek dinner and fun BBQ main course in the summer.
Marissa:
Recipe type: Mains
Cuisine: Turkish
Servings: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 kg chicken mince
  • 2 garlic cloves,
  • 1 small onion, cut into quarters
  • 70g day old white bread (+- one end piece)
  • 1 medium red or green pepper, cut into chunks
  • 20g flat leaf parsley including the stalks
  • 2 Tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon chilli powder (or to taste)
  • 1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano
  • salt and pepper, to taste
Method
  1. Add all the ingredients to food processor except the chicken mince.
  2. Process everything until the mixture is finely chopped.
  3. Add the chicken mince and blend everything together.
  4. The mixture will form a sausage shape and swirl around the blender when it is mixed together.
  5. Form the chicken mixture into long sausage shapes and press onto skewers or placed directly into an tray like a thin meat loaf.
  6. With the side of your hand make indents.
  7. The chicken adanas can be baked in a hot oven for 15-30 minutes depending on the thickness of your kebabs, or they can be grilled on the BBQ 5-7 minutes.
  8. My mixture was2 inches thick and took 25 minutes to cook in a 200 degree oven.
Tips
To make this recipe gluten free, replace the bread quantity with raw gluten free oats and mix as per the method.
This recipe feeds 6 adults.
I served my family of 4 with a generous 30cm kebab and we made to packed lunched with the balance of the kebabs.

Chicken Adana when removed from the food processor

 

Plated Chicken Adana with Salad, Pita Bread and Homemade Kebab Shop Chilli Sauce

I hope you try this recipe next time you need a different to take to a picnic, it is delicious cold, easily made for a mid week meal. If you are looking for something different to serve to friends for a casual BBQ gathering this is a talking point meal.