Tas Kebab, the combination of special meat stew with pilaf, is another favorite dish of Turkish people. If you ask someone in Turkey about his/her favorite kebab variety, most of them mention this one. This juicy kebab variety is also on my top 10 kebab list too.
Tas Kebab is a traditional kebab variety of the Anatolia Region of Turkey. There is no specific evidence that which city found the Tas Kebab first. When I discuss the origin of Tas Kebab with kebab chefs, Yozgat city seems one step ahead of the other Anatolia Region cities.
If you ever had a chance to make a road trip inside Turkey, you probably see restaurants on the intercity roads. Tas Kebabı is the only dish that you can find almost on every single restaurant’s menu on the roads. It is because Turkish people love to eat meat and pilaf together.
Important Tip
As I mentioned above, the combination of special beef stew and pilaf creates Tas Kebab. So, to make Tas Kebab, you need to make the special beef stew and pilaf at the same time.
Once you check my pilaf recipe, you will see that it takes 35 minutes to make proper pilaf. And this special beef stew takes 45 minutes. There are 15 minutes cooking time difference between these two and this is great for resting the pilaf.
My recommendation is to start making pilaf first. Because if the pilaf rests for about 10-15 minutes, its taste gets better. During my Tas Kebabi cooking, I always started with making pilaf.
Tas Kebab
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef with moderate fat cube cut (3cm x 3xm)
- 2 mid-size potato cube cut (2cm x 2cm)
- 1 carrot cube cut (1cm x 1cm)
- 1 mid-size onion dice cut
- 3 cloves garlic sliced
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp ground flour
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 cups hot water
- 1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
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Bring the heat to medium level first. Then; in frying pan, place the vegetable oil and melt the butter and add the beef cubes and sauté until tender (about 8-10 minutes).
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Add the dice cut onion and sliced garlic cloves and continue to saute for about 2 minutes.
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Add the ground flour and saute for about 2 minutes.
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Add the tomato paste and saute for about 1 minute.
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Add the salt, ground black pepper, potato cubes, and carrot cubes.
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And then add the 3 cups of hot water and mix them well and close the cast-iron pan lid.
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Bring the heat to a low level and cook for about 30 minutes.
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After it cooked, it is time to serve it in a traditional way. First, look at the main photo of this post to see how the serving looks like. And then follow the below steps.
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First, grab a soup bowl and then fill the soup bowl with pilaf. Then flip over the pilaf filled soup bowl to a plate. And then put 4 tbsp of kebab on the pilaf and pour the juice on top of the meat. And then SERVE.
