Sweet Chilli Beef Kebab Recipe

This is a simple sweet chilli beef kebab recipe that I put together sometimes in the summer – usually when I’ve an idea I “might” be invited to a BBQ, or if I’ve found beef mince on special offer and want to cook something summery so as to not miss a bargain!  On this occasion a barbecue had been spoken of, so it was time to “roll the kebabs into sausages shapes” that other people might see, rather than my usual “cow pat shape” approach to quick cooking from scratch!

As a rule I don’t use skewers in barbecue meat, as that’s something else you have to source/buy and then use or find cupboard space for – but I will sometimes shape it as if it’s for a skewer, although often I’ll just pat it down into “rough rounds” of burger shapes.

I’ll often toss in a few extra ingredients as my eye falls upon them, rather than sticking rigidly to one recipe, below these items are marked as optional.

I’ll typically roll these into sausage shapes weighing about 75-80 grams each, or kebab bites at ~40 grams each

Ingredients: 

• 1 500 gram pack of low fat beef mince
• 1 teaspoons of chilli powder, OR, a fresh chilli, grated finely (any colour)
• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• 4-6 teaspoons of sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs (optional)
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
• ½ teaspoon oregano (optional)

Method: 

1. Tip the minced beef into a mixing bowl and break it up into smaller pieces – I do this by hacking at it with a knife or serving spoon.
2. Sprinkle the rest of the ingredients over the mince and mix them all together thoroughly.  Ideally this is done by hand, but as I can’t bear to touch raw meat I use a large serving spoon to systematically squash it down, break it all up, mix it around and squash it again.
3. Shape into long sausage shapes, or flatter burger shapes. I calculate the number based on each sausage shape weighing about 75-80 grams each, but it’s usually by eye, with the final sausage of kebab meat being larger or smaller than the rest that were neater 🙂
4. Store the kebabs in an airtight container in the fridge, where they will be fine until the date that was written on the front of the beef mince packaging when you bought it!

Cooking Kebabs: 

Having made your sweet chilli kebabs, you can cook them by a variety of methods:

• Under the grill for ~15 minutes
• Oven baked kebabs for ~20 minutes
• Fry in a frying pan, over a medium heat, for 12-15 minutes
• BBQ Kebabs, by either pre-cooking them and then finishing off on the BBQ just for 3-4 minutes to get that flame licked look, or entirely on the barbecue in ~15-20 minutes.

Microwave Sweet Chilli Kebabs:

Ah, yes…. and this is how I mostly cook these!  Can you microwave sweet chilli kebabs? Yep!  And, in my opinion, this is the quickest way to cook them!  I cook kebab meat in the microwave 99% of the time.  They take just 2-3 minutes each in a lidded microwave safe container, depending how many you’re cooking.

How to Serve Chilli Kebabs:

You can serve these as part of a wrap, or to fill a pitta bread – as a sandwich filling or shave them once cooked and stack into a bread roll.

These are also great served with chips, or on a bed of basmati rice, or even a spicy rice.

Coleslaw goes well with them too, whether that’s a plain coleslaw or spicy.   Kebab meat and salad is quite a low calorie and tasty option too.

For party food – shape the meat into small meatballs, put cocktail sticks into them and serve with a chutney or dipping sauce.

Hot or Cold:

Once cooked, you can eat sweet chilli beef kebab meat hot or cold.  I LOVE it cold and will often just open up the fridge and help myself to a little bit in passing!  If I’ve made small meatball shapes then these disappear far too quickly in this way.

Can You Freeze Raw Kebabs?

Yes, just wrap them up individually in foil (so you can pull out how many you want and they aren’t just a big mountain of meat) – then toss them into the freezer.  Defrost by taking them out of the freezer and putting them into the fridge the day before you want to cook them, or remove them from the foil wraps and defrost in the microwave on low power for ~2 minutes.

Storing Cooked Kebabs: 

If you’ve cooked the kebabs and got leftovers, get them into the fridge ASAP, in an airtight container, or wrapped in foil  You can freeze them too, if you wish.

To reheat previously cooked kebab meat, either wrap it in foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at ~180C, or microwave it for 1-2 minutes in a covered microwave safe dish.