Pakistani BBQ at Home, With or Without a Grill

Pakistani BBQ is street food at heart: skewers of red-marinated meat over a long trough of glowing charcoal, a vendor fanning the coals by hand, and plates of tikka, boti and kebabs served with naan, onions and chutney. Most of us don’t have that set-up at home, and the good news is you don’t need it. The flavour comes mostly from the marinade, and the smoke can be added in a pan.

This guide covers both: how to get great results on a charcoal grill, and how to get close to them in an ordinary kitchen.

It starts with the marinade

Almost every Pakistani BBQ marinade has the same building blocks:

• Yogurt, which tenderises gently and helps the spices cling.
• Something acidic, usually lemon juice or vinegar, for tang.
• Ginger and garlic paste, in generous amounts.
• Red chili for heat, often with Kashmiri chili for colour.
• Roasted spices: cumin, coriander, garam masala.
• Oil, sometimes mustard oil, which carries the spices and stops the meat from sticking.

Creamy dishes like malai boti swap the chili for cream and white pepper. Herby ones like hariyali tikka use mint and coriander. But the structure is the same.

Give it time

The single biggest difference between home BBQ and the BBQ you buy is marinating time. Chicken needs at least 4 hours and is better overnight. Beef and mutton need 8 to 12 hours. Fish is the exception: an hour is enough, and any longer and the lemon starts to “cook” it into a soft, chalky texture.

Raw papaya: powerful, so measure it

Raw green papaya contains an enzyme, papain, that breaks down tough muscle fibres. It’s the reason street-style Bihari boti and gola kebab are so soft. Use it carefully: about 1½ tablespoons of paste per kilo of beef or mutton, overnight. More papaya or more time turns the outside of the meat mushy. Chicken generally doesn’t need papaya at all.

Grate a green papaya, blend it, and freeze the paste in an ice-cube tray so you always have a little ready.

On a charcoal grill

If you do have a grill (an angithi on the roof or a kettle barbecue in the garden), a few habits make all the difference:

1. Wait for the ash. Light the coals and let them burn until they’re covered with a fine grey ash, about 20 to 25 minutes. Flames char the outside and leave the inside raw.
2. Make two zones. Push most of the coals to one side so you have a hot area for searing and a cooler area to move skewers to if fat drips and flares.
3. Space the pieces. Leave a small gap between pieces on the skewer so the heat reaches every side.
4. Turn regularly, not constantly. Every 2 to 3 minutes for chicken, 3 to 4 for meat.
5. Butter at the end. Brush with melted butter or ghee in the last couple of minutes, never at the start, or it burns.

Flat metal skewers are worth buying. Minced kebabs like seekh grip them much better than round ones.

In a pan or on a tawa

Most of the BBQ recipes on this site have a pan method in their notes. In general:

• Use a heavy pan or tawa, preheated until very hot, with a thin film of oil.
• Cook in batches so the pieces sear rather than stew in their own juices.
• For marinated meat with lots of liquid, cook it covered first until tender, then uncover and fry until the liquid dries and the edges brown.

In the oven

The oven suits whole pieces and anything you’d rather not watch constantly. Heat it as high as it goes, usually 220 to 250°C, and set the meat on a rack over a tray, not directly in it, so hot air reaches every side. Finish under the top grill for 3 to 4 minutes for charred edges. Tandoori chicken is a good place to start.

Adding smoke: the dhungar trick

Without a grill, the missing ingredient is smoke, and Pakistani cooks have an old solution. It’s called dhungar:

1. Put the cooked tikka or kebabs in a pot with a lid.
2. Heat a small piece of charcoal directly on the gas flame until it glows red, about 5 minutes.
3. Set it in a small steel bowl (or on a piece of onion skin or foil) in the middle of the pot.
4. Pour a teaspoon of ghee or oil over the coal. It will start smoking immediately.
5. Cover tightly and leave for 3 to 5 minutes.

The result tastes remarkably like it came off a charcoal grill. We explain the technique in more detail, with safety tips, in our dhungar guide.

Building a BBQ platter

A good Pakistani BBQ spread mixes textures and spice levels: something red and hot like chicken tikka or mutton chops, something mild and creamy like malai boti, and a minced kebab. Serve it all with naan or paratha, sliced onions with lemon and chaat masala, and plenty of green chutney and raita.