Grilled Lamb Kebabs marinated in vinegar

Grilling lamb can be intimidating. This recipe gives step-by-step instructions to make you feel confident that you can master this recipe. The outcome: delicious and tender lamb. You can eat it plain with some rice and salad or in a pita. This recipe will be a go-to for you – the flavors are bold and delicious, the assembly is easy – you will impress yourself and your family with this grilled lamb kebabs!

I love to grill during the summer. It keeps the house heat down and produces delicious food! Lamb is not something I grew up eating often, my mom would make it for special occasions while my husband grew up eating it often. Once I got older and started being more open to new foods, lamb quickly became something I learned to appreciate!

This lamb is tender, flavorful and goes GREAT with a warm pita, yogurt, and tomato, onion and cucumber salad. DELICOUS!

When creating this recipe I wanted to make sure the lamb was tender and delicious. To get the tenderness I knew I could use either an acid, like lemon juice or vinegar, or the enzymes from yogurt, to help tenderize the meat.

This recipe is inspired by the Indian dish, Vindaloo, a lamb or beef stew that is cooked with apple cider vinegar.

Kitchen tools needed: food processor, chefs knife, cutting board, measuring cup, measuring spoon, bowl for marinating, and a grill.

Ingredients needed: 2 to 2.5 pounds boneless leg of lamb, onion, ginger garlic paste, apple cider vinegar, salt, coriander, chili powder, and an oil (I used avocado).

Let’s get started:

First, you need to make the marinade for the lamb. Simply peel your onion and cut into large chunks, place those in the food processor. Add the remaining marinade ingredients, ginger garlic paste, salt, vinegar, oil, coriander and chili powder. Process until you get a chunky paste.

Next, prep your meat by cutting into 1.5″x1.5″ cubes – or around that size. It’s important to keep them relatively consistent in size to ensure consistent cooking times.

Once your meat is prepped, take a bowl and add your meat and the marinade and mix well to cover all the meat with the marinade. Cover and place in the fridge for 3-4 hours.

Remove your lamb from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you plan to grill, to allow the meat to come closer to room temperature. This will allow the meat to cook evenly and remain moist during the grilling.

Now it is time to put the meat onto your kebab skewers. If you don’t have these metal spear type skewers, I highly, highly recommend. I have had my set since 2019 and they have remained in great quality and I love the way the metal helps cook the meat from the inside as well.

Note about putting the meat on your skewers – don’t put it on so tight that the meat is very bunched together. Allow some breathing room between the pieces, this will help the heat from the grill to get o all the pieces and allow the chunks of lamb to cook completely and evenly.

Prep your grill: I only have a propane gas grill, so the instructions for this recipe are propane gas grill only. Heat your grill to medium heat – hovering around 400 degrees. Allow it to heat for 5 minutes. If your grill is newer, you may need to put some oil on the grill – but my grill is well seasoned and it is not needed.

After the grill has come to temp, you can now lay your kebabs on the grill. Grill on one side for 7 minutes, flip, and grill on the other side for 5 minutes. Continue to turn until you get to the desired look – it took about 18 minutes total for my lamb to cook to my desired level. The lamb should be charred in some places, but still be very moist.

Temperatures that are safe to eat are from 145 degrees to 170. I think I was probably closer to the more well-done side.

Remove from the grill and eat immediately – put it inside warmed up pita with garlic spread and cucumber salad – so amazing! Sometimes simplicity really is the best. And this recipe is one that you can use in an infinite amount of ways.

All nutritional information on this site is based on estimates and is not meant to be exact.