Chef John's Kofta Kebabs

There are thousands of different versions of this Middle Eastern-style meatball on a skewer; with different garnishes, and different spellings, but whether you enjoy yours with tahini, or yogurt sauce, or call it kofta, or kofte, or kefta, or kufta, or qofte, this is one my all-time favorite things to grill. I'll take a plain old meatball anyway, but a grilled meatball is a very special thing indeed.

Authentic versions are actually done using long, flat metal skewers, which are great at holding on to the meat, and make it possible to quickly turn these on the grill, but soaked bamboo skewers work just fine. Since we're going to use tongs to turn ours, the skewers are mostly ornamental here, but if we're going to call it a kebab, we need to pierce our meat with something. Otherwise, as I joked about in the video, we're just making grilled meat logs. And no one wants to be served something called, "grilled meat logs."

Besides the countless ways to season these, there are lots of different approaches to which "filler" we add to the meat, if any. Many versions are pure meat, but I do like to stretch my beef and lamb with some kind of flavor-absorbing starch. Various types of grains or seeds can be used, but my favorite filler is a slice of toasted whole grain bread. Plain breadcrumbs will work, but there's just something about the browned bread that seems to pair better. Speaking of bread, be sure to have plenty of pita or flatbread alongside, preferably homemade. But, no matter what you serve yours on or in, I really do hope you give these a try soon.