Chapli Kebab
A flat, coarsely-textured minced-meat patty from Peshawar, genuinely Pashtun in origin and shared with Afghanistan's Pashtun cuisine on the other side of the border, since it's the same ethnic culinary tradition rather than a contested invention. The name likely comes from Pashto 'chaprikh' (flat) or Urdu/Dari 'chapal' (slipper), describing its shape. Real chapli kebab is hand-mixed, never machine-pureed, so the meat stays visibly coarse and chunky rather than smooth like a Western burger patty, and it must use genuinely fatty meat, since lean meat turns dry and falls apart. The defining, often-skipped ingredient is crushed dried pomegranate seed (anardana), which gives real chapli kebab its tang and crunch, and a raw tomato slice is traditionally pressed onto the patty before it hits the pan.
⚠ Contains: Egg, Gluten. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
Ingredients
- 500g coarsely ground fatty beef or mutton
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 green chiles, finely chopped
- 1 tomato, finely chopped, plus extra slices
- Cilantro, chopped
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 2 tbsp coriander seed, crushed (not powdered)
- 1 tbsp cumin seed, crushed
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp dried pomegranate seed (anardana), crushed
- 3 tbsp besan (gram flour)
- 1 egg
- Oil, for shallow-frying
Steps
- Hand-mix the ground meat with the onion, chiles, tomato, cilantro, ginger-garlic paste, and spices, keeping the texture coarse.
- Fold in the besan and egg to bind.
- Shape into wide, flat patties and press a tomato slice onto the top of each.
- Shallow-fry in a generous amount of oil over medium heat until deeply crisp on both sides and cooked through.
- Serve hot with naan and a squeeze of lime.