Baked kibbeh or kibbie, a traditional Lebanese dinner recipe, is made with ground beef or lamb combined with bulgur wheat, pine nuts and warm spices like cinnamon and allspice.
My husband has been BEGGING me to share this family recipe for baked kibbeh with you all for years now and I am so excited to finally come through with my promise! Hands down, this is his all time favorite Lebanese dinner recipe and is quite possibly one his “last meal” requests.
Ground meat is combined with super-fine bulgur wheat and scented with allspice, cinnamon, clarified butter and toasted pine nuts. Each bite is tender, juicy and intoxicatingly delicious.
This is the cooked version of kibbeh. If you’re looking for the raw version better known as Kibbeh Nayeh you should look here for a good recipe.
Typically served with a Syrian green salad and a side of cucumber laban yogurt sauce, this is Lebanese comfort food at its best. The best part? It freezes wonderfully so make a big batch and freeze extras for another night.
Your fork is waiting.
Baked Kibbeh
Ingredients
Base Meat Mixture
- 1 1/2 cups bulgur wheat fine ground (not coarse)
- 3 cups boiling water
- 1 pound ground sirloin
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 1 large yellow onion grated
- 6 servings All Purpose Lebanese Spice Blend
Filling
- 2 tablespoons clarified butter (ghee)
- 1/2 pound ground sirloin
- 1/2 pound ground lamb
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 1/4 cup pine nuts toasted
- 2 servings All Purpose Lebanese Spice Blend
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and butter a 9 x 13 baking dish; set aside.
- To prepare the base meat mixture, add the bulgur wheat to a medium bowl and stir in the boiling hot water. Cover the bowl and let stand for 10 minutes then drain any excess water.
- Add the ground lamb and sirloin to a food processor and pulse until it forms a fine paste. Remove from food processor and place in a large bowl along with softened wheat, grated onion and All Purpose Lebanese Spice Blend. Use your hands to mix well. If mixture gets too sticky on hands, dip into a bowl of ice water.
- To make the filling, heat the clarified butter in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add the meat, pine nuts, onion and All Purpose Lebanese Spice Blend and sauté until meat is cooked through, about 9-11 minutes.
- To form the baked kibbeh, spread half of the base meat mixture out on the bottom of the baking dish. Next, spread the filling on top of the base layer. Finally, spread the remaining base meat mixture on top, pressing down a bit with wet hands to smooth the top.
- Slice kibbeh diagonally to form small diamonds. Optional: you can drizzle on additional melted clarified butter over the top at this point.
- Bake until meat is fully cooked, about 40-45 minutes. Serve with Cucumber Laban on the side.
Notes
Check out more of my Lebanese recipes on my Pinterest board!
Sara Atoui
Just tried your recipe tonight, since we were doing an ‘International” Christmas, and with the help of the comments (I couldn’t tell what you meant by ‘servings’ of the Lebanese 7-spice), it turned out nicely. Except for the salt. The whole time I was putting this together, I kept wondering why there wasn’t a mention of salt, but I thought I’d just go with the flow and I must not be thinking of something. But no- it really, really needed salt. Did you mean to omit that from the recipe? Beside that tweak, this turned out great!
Liz DellaCroce
Hi Sara! Salt is in the Lebanese spice blend and the Hushwee recipe. :) Did you add it to those recipes? If so, this should have been perfectly seasoned!
Sara Atoui
Ok! I see my mistake. I was in a hurry, and just used our Lebanese 7-spice blend (which doesn’t have salt). I’ll add it next time. It was a great recipe though! Thanks!
Liz DellaCroce
No worries I hope you try again soon! It’s one of my favorites :)
Carol
I’ve been looking for a kibbeh recipe. I followed one the other week but it completely fell apart when I cut it! So I’ll try yours next :) one question: would it work to substitute regular butter or olive oil instead of ghee? I just never use ghee normally so I don’t want a bunch leftover.
Liz DellaCroce
No you really need the ghee. :) It lasts forever, use it to fry eggs!
Ann Nicole
Hello. Can you clarify what you mean by using 6 servings of the Lebonese spice blend in the base and 2 in the filling?
The recipe link for the spice blend says it makes four servings, so what I think this means is that you use ALL of that PLUS 2 additional servings in the base mixture. And then 2 servings for the filling? Cinnamon goes a long way and that’s a lot of it for a pound of meat in total. I really want to use your recipe because it has all the traditional seasonings my mother would use in hers and yours is even cut the same :)
I don’t want to ruin my first batch especially with the cost of lamb and pine nuts. It might be easier if you could just tell me how many teaspoons (or whatever metric) goes into the base and then also the filling. Thank you so very much!
Liz DellaCroce
Hi Ann, Thanks for writing! So glad you’re going to make this dish – it’s my husband’s all time favorite. To answer your first question, the easiest way to see how much spices are needed for XX number of servings is to adjust it right on my website in the recipe. See where it says number of servings? Just change it to whatever number you need!! :) I will email you a screen shot in case you can’t find it.
To answer your second question, my amounts are accurate. It’s 3 pounds of meat so two tablespoons of cinnamon is NOT too much. It’s just the right amount. At least, that’s how my family has been making it for years! One great tip: feel free to cook a small amount of the raw base mixture (we did it in the microwave like a small meatball) and see how you like the taste and adjust from there.
Let me know how it turns out ok??
Nadine
I think what Ann is asking is… 3 tablespoons for the base and 1tablespoon for the filling, if my calculations are correct. Please double check! Pregnancy brain here. :)
Liz DellaCroce
Yep that’s right!
Cynthia
All of your recipes look so tasty Liz! I grew up in Beirut with roots stretching all the way from Anatolia and love cooking cuisine from my country.
Liz DellaCroce
Oh wow!!! I love the food of Beirut and have always wanted to visit!! I hope you try more of my Middle Eastern recipes!
Angela
Can you sub bulgar for couscous or quinoa since I am gluten free?
Liz DellaCroce
Couscous has gluten in it – it’s a type of pasta. Did you know that? As for quinoa, I don’t see why not but I personally have never tried it.