Sheet Pan Chicken Kebabs with Saffron
This is my take on the viral sheet pan kebabs, made with chicken and plenty of saffron – an ingredient I come back to often. Everything gets mixed, pressed into a tray and baked, so you get all the flavour and texture of a good kebab without any of the shaping or skewering.
The key to keeping these kebabs juicy is twofold: adding chicken thigh to the mix, because chicken mince on its own is too lean and tends to dry out, and adding melted butter, which enriches the mixture and helps carry the flavour as it cooks.
The saffron runs through the mixture and infuses the roasting juices along with the tomato purée, creating something deeply savoury and fragrant.
It’s simple, low effort, and works just as well wrapped in flatbreads as it does spooned over rice with all those juices.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 kebabs 1x
Ingredients
- 1 tsp saffron threads
- 2 onions
- 500g chicken thigh fillets
- 500g chicken mince
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- 4 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 2 tbsp double concentrated tomato purée
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 220°C / 200°C fan.
- Grind the saffron to a fine powder using a pestle and mortar. Add 1 tbsp hot water and leave it to steep for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, blitz the onions in a food processor until finely chopped, then transfer to a fine-mesh sieve. Press firmly with the back of a spoon to remove as much liquid as possible; this step is key for getting the right texture. Tip the drained onions into a large mixing bowl.
- Roughly chop the chicken thigh fillets, then add them to the same food processor (no need to wash it) and blitz until minced. The higher fat content of the thighs balances the leaner chicken mince and keeps the kebabs juicy. Add this to the bowl with the onions.
- Add the saffron water, chicken mince, melted butter, garlic, tomato purée and smoked paprika. Season generously with salt and pepper, then mix thoroughly until sticky and cohesive.
- Transfer the mixture to a quarter sheet pan (roughly 33cm x 24cm) and press it into an even layer.
- Use a knife or bench scraper to score the mixture into 8 long kebab strips. Then create shallow horizontal indentations across each strip to mimic the traditional kebab shape.
- Drizzle lightly with olive oil and bake at 220°C / 200°C fan for 10 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and switch the oven to the grill setting at 275°C.
- If you’re serving this in flatbreads, soak them briefly in the tray juices before warming them in the oven. If not, carefully pour off some of the juices into a bowl to serve alongside – they’re excellent spooned over rice.
- Return the tray to the oven and grill for 5 minutes, or until the kebabs are lightly charred and golden in places.
- Serve in flatbreads with garlic yoghurt and a fresh herby tomato salad, or over rice with the roasting juices and your veg of choice.
Find it online: https://zenaskitchen.com/sheet-pan-chicken-kebabs-with-saffron/