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Platter of Koobideh, kabab, grilled pepper, tomato, lemon, eggplant, dill yogurt, saffron rice
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Barg Kebab - Traditional Persian Filet Mignon Kebab

While some Persians don't usually drink alcohol, this dish is perfect with beer and a bottle of fruity red wine. Check out my recommendations for wine at the end of the images.
Course Dinner, Dinner for Guests
Cuisine Persian, Persian/American Fusion
Keyword Barg Kebob, Beef Tender Kebob, Persian Kebob
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Marinate 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 57 minutes
Servings 6 people
Author David of Sunset & Sewanee

Equipment

  • Flat skewers (preferably Koobiedeh/Brazilian skewers)
  • gas grill or wood/charcoal grill
  • chef knife
  • cutting board

Ingredients

  • 3 lbs beef, Filet Mignon cleaned, butterflied, and tenderized
  • 1 whole onion, juiced
  • ½ tsp salt, kosher
  • ¼ tsp black pepper, ground
  • ½ tsp sumac red, ground
  • 2 tbsp saffron water

Instructions

Preparing the marinade

  • Set up an electric food processor with a medium grating disc, or use a hand grater.
  • Using your hands or a bolt of cheesecloth, squeeze out all of the onion juice from the grated onion over a medium-sized mixing bowl. Once all of the minced onion has been given all the liquid, reserve the minced onion for another use.
  • Next, add the onion juice, salt, ground black pepper, ground sumac, and saffron water. Mix thoroughly to combine. Refrigerate and reserve.

To prepare the meat

  • Prepare the Filet Mignon as seen in the illustrations above. Remove all the sinew or silver skin and excess fat from the filet. Cut the filet into 3½-4 inch pieces. Using a sharp knife, butterfly the meat to make a long flat piece of steak. Then, using the backside of a heavy knife, pound the beef starting from one end and going to the other and back again.
  • Place the tenderized strips of meat in a non-reactive container. Next, add the reserved onion juice mixture to the beef and allow it to marinate for at least 1 hour or overnight (max) in the refrigerator. Longer marinating will deepen the flavors of the meat, but avoid going more than 8 hours as this will dry the meat out.

Prepare the fire

  • While the meat is marinating in the onion mixture, prepare the fire. Of course, cooking over a wood fire adds more flavor, but cooking over a gas grill is so convenient it's hard to pass up. Either way will work, however setting up several heat zones for cooking is an important step.
  • Prepare the fire or gas grill with a no-heat(holding area), medium, high-heat area. Setting up these zones will help you control the amount of heat over which the meat is cooking.

Skewering and cooking the kebab

  • Lay one piece of the tenderized/marinated beef on a large cutting board. While holding a skewer with one hand, place your other hand over the top of the prepared meat and pass the skewer through the center of the beef. (You can feel the tip of the skewer through the hand on top of the meat.) Press down gently as the tip of the skewer passes through the beef.
  • With the meat on the skewer, gently gather the beef to the end that will be over the fire. Next, place the prepared skewer over a sheet pan or dish and repeat the process until all the skewers are ready. Reserve

Grilling

  • Once the grill has heated up, start the skewers on high heat. Once the meat begins to brown, rotate the skewer to cook the opposite side. (If you find high-heat is cooking too fast, move the skewer to the medium-heat area.)
  • Continue cooking the skewers until all are cooked and moved to the low-heat section of the grill. Remove onto a plate or sheet pan and serve.