2025-12-31 Sheet-Pan Döner Kebab Recipe |

Döner, a staple street food across the Middle East and beloved the world around, gets a home-friendly remix in this recipe, which cleverly uses scrolls of parchment paper and a hot oven to achieve the hearty browning and thin slices you’d get from carving meat from a vertical spit This recipe is adapted from Michael Wilkes, who posts on TikTok under the handle MezeMike and learned the technique when cooking with his fiancée’s mother, Nefise Kansu, in Cyprus The thinness of the meat mixture is key here, so take your time rolling it out between the sheets so the meat crisps evenly while baking

Ingredients

• 2 medium onions, cut into large dice
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 pounds ground lamb or 85- to 90-percent ground beef
• Heaping 1/2 cup plain full-fat Greek yogurt, plus 1/2 cup for the sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons smoked paprika
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper (preferably Aleppo pepper), or less to taste
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• Lemon wedges, for squeezing
• Pita bread, sliced tomato, lettuce and thinly sliced onions, for serving

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
• In a food processor, blend onions with olive oil until a paste forms. Transfer to a large bowl.
• To the bowl, add lamb, yogurt, spices, salt and pepper. Using clean hands, mix everything until the mixture is evenly brown with no visible pockets of spices or onions.
• Place a 12-by-16-inch sheet of parchment paper on a clean counter or cutting board. Top the sheet with a heaping handful of the mixture and lay another sheet of parchment on top. Using a rolling pin, roll the mixture between the two sheets so it’s about ¼-inch thick.
• Working from the longest side, begin rolling parchment onto itself like a cinnamon roll. If some of the mixture spills out the ends, it’s OK — just tuck it back in as best as you can. Place the roll onto a rimmed sheet pan.
• Repeat the previous two steps with the remaining lamb mixture, laying the rolled parchments next to one another on the sheet pan. (You should have about four rolls.)
• Bake until the parchment rolls have released their fat onto the sheet pan, about 20 minutes, and remove from oven. Pour any drippings into a small bowl. Return pan to oven and bake for 15 minutes more, until the parchment begins turning a dark brown. Let cool on the pan.
• Once the rolls are cool enough to handle, carefully unroll them: Hold one side of the parchment and lift slightly so the cooked lamb mixture falls out naturally onto the sheet pan. Repeat with all the rolls. They should naturally break into pieces, but if they don’t, you can use kitchen shears to create strips, about 3 inches long for easier pita building. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the cooked meat.
• To serve, add the remaining ½ cup yogurt to the reserved drippings and stir. Taste and adjust with more salt and pepper if desired.
• Serve cooked lamb immediately with pita, tomato, lettuce, onions and yogurt sauce. Leftovers can be wrapped and kept refrigerated for a few days.