Charcoal-grilled lamb skewers — fat-tail lamb cubed and marinated with onion, vinegar, ground coriander, salt.
Central Asian standard adapted from Caucasian shashlyk; the word is Russian-Tatar šiš (skewer). Uzbek style differs from Caucasian by demanding fat-tail mutton and alternating lean cubes with kurdyuk fat cubes on the same skewer.
The Chorsu Bazaar shashlik row in Tashkent sells 12,000 skewers a weekend; the going rate is 25,000 som for a lamb skewer with 5 fat cubes. A proper mangal grill is 25 cm deep, no more — deeper traps smoke and over-chars.
Char-blistered outside, juicy pink inside; the alternated fat cube melts down each bite of lean. Sliced raw onion macerated in vinegar served on top, non flatbread underneath catches the drippings.
Fat-cube alternation is the technique — every 2-3 lean cubes a kurdyuk square, so as the lamb cooks the rendering fat self-bastes the skewer on a 4-cm-wide flat metal mangal-skewer over hardwood coals.
Variations
Lamb (qoy, the default), beef (mol, second choice), kidney-and-liver (jigar, breakfast skewer), ground-lamb lyulya (kneaded with onion, formed on the skewer), Karakalpak Aral-coast carp shashlik.
On the Palate
Where Shashlik sits in the Uzbek flavor cloud
Thread a cube of kurdyuk (fat-tail fat) every two or three lean cubes — as it renders over the coals it self-bastes the whole skewer, which is the entire reason Uzbek shashlik stays juicy where a plain lean skewer dries out.
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
4 steps · 28 min active + 4 hours waiting
- 110 min
Cube 1 kg fat-tail lamb into 3 cm pieces; mix with 2 sliced onions + 60 ml vinegar + 1 tbsp coriander + salt.
- 2240 min
Marinate covered in fridge 4 hr.
Watch outAfter marinating, the meat should smell of onion and vinegar and feel slightly slack — a sign it's ready to skewer.
- 310 min
Thread onto metal skewers, alternating meat with chunks of lamb fat.
Watch outSpace the fat squares evenly so every couple of lean cubes has fat right above it to drip down.
- 48 min
Grill over hot charcoal 4 min per side, turning often, until charred outside and pink inside.
Watch outListen for the fat to hiss and flare briefly; the surface should char hard while the cut center stays rosy.
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