Shashlik is a variety of skewered meat commonly eaten Russian and most other former Soviet states. It is traditionally prepared on a mangal, a box like fire pit, using charcoal or wood. The meat is usually beef, pork, or lamb and is marinated in acidic marinade overnight. These would be commonly prepared by street vendors or for parties and picnics.
Shashlik
This particular recipe is Uzbek in origin and is very simple in comparison to some other recipes. As with all the different “bbq” recipes in the US, there are a million and one ways of preparing shashlik and many people take pride in their particular methods.
Ingredients (This recipe is for 5-6 people) :
- 7lbs of pork shoulder
- 4 onions (The general rule of thumb is for 4lb of meat you need 0.5lb of onion)
- 1 tsp salt
- favorite meat seasoning (we used Georgian seasoning mix)
- 0.5-1 tsp ground red pepper
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- squeeze 0.25 of lemon
- 2 tbs vegetable oil
Directions:
Cut the pork into 1-1.5” cubes. Cut off any loose fat. You need fat on the meat for cooking, but loose chunks will only cause flare ups when they drip into the fire.
Clean four onions and use a food processor or knife to mince 3.5 of the onions.
Add 1 tsp salt, favorite meat seasoning (we used Georgian seasoning mix), 0.5-1 tsp ground red pepper, 1 tsp sweet paprika, squeeze 0.25 of lemon, and 2 tbs vegetable oil
Mix all the ingredients by hand working the spices into the meat. Once uniformly mixed, pound down the meat. You want the meat marinating in the juices that form.
Let the meat marinade in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
After 4 hrs marination, skewer the meat cubes onto the Kabobeque Charcoal Rotisserie flat skewers separating by small pieces of the half onion you have left. Clean off any excess marinade chunks you have left, they will only burn when cooking.
A trick for checking whether the fire is hot enough to place your hand directly over the fire where the shashlik will sit, you should only be able to handle the heat for 2-3 seconds.
Insert all the skewers into the slots of the rectangular mechanism on the bottom of the Kabobeque charcoal rotisserie grill
Turn on the motor at the back
Cooking may take 15-20 minutes depending on your flame, Kabobeque bbq grills will make sure the meat is evenly cooked
Serve hot and enjoy!
