Rookie Pan
← All recipes
Türkiye, Middle East and Africa · Home-Style Döner Kebab

Döner Pizza (Turkish × Italian)

Germany's kebab-shop favourite: crisp pizza topped with thin döner meat, mozzarella, onion and pepper, then piled with fresh salad and garlic yogurt sauce.

ServingsServes 2
Total cooking time50 min
DifficultyMedium
About servingsMinced meat must be cooked right through. Wash your hands and tools after handling raw meat.

Method

  1. Put a baking tray upside down on the middle shelf and preheat the oven to 250 °C for ; the hot tray works like a pizza stone and crisps the base. Take the pizza dough out of the fridge so it warms up.

    oven

  2. Grate the onion, squeeze it hard and discard the juice. Knead the meat with the onion, half the grated garlic, the salt, cumin, paprika and half the chilli flakes for 3 minutes until sticky and stretchy. Spread it 5 mm thin on baking paper into a 25×15 cm rectangle, slide it onto a second tray and bake on the lower shelf of the oven for , until browned with no pink left. Let it cool a little, then cut into thin strips.

    Add in this stepMinced beef (about 20% fat) 160 gOnion, grated and squeezed 40 gGarlic cloves 1Salt ½ tspGround cumin ½ tspSweet paprika 1 tspTurkish chilli flakes (pul biber) or mild chilli flakes ½ tsp

    oven

  3. Stir the oregano and half the salt into the passata for the pizza sauce. Stir the rest of the garlic and salt into the yogurt for the garlic sauce. Thinly slice the red onion and pepper, shred the lettuce and dice the tomatoes small.

    Add in this stepTomato passata 100 gDried oregano ½ tspPlain yogurt 80 gGarlic cloves 1Salt for the sauces 1 pinchRed onion ½Green bell pepper ½

  4. Divide the dough into one ball per serving. On baking paper, press each out with your fingertips from the centre outwards into a round of about 22 cm (a rolling pin knocks the air out and makes it tough). Spread a thin layer of sauce, leaving a 1 cm border, then add the mozzarella, döner strips, onion and pepper.

    Add in this stepReady-made pizza dough 250 gGrated mozzarella 120 g

  5. Slide the pizza on its paper onto the hot tray and bake in the oven for , until the rim is puffed and golden, the cheese is bubbling and the base is crisp. 22 cm ×2 shows the size and number of pizzas: bake up to two at a time (top and middle shelves, swapping halfway); the timer covers all rounds.

    oven

  6. Straight out of the oven, pile on the lettuce and tomato, zigzag the garlic yogurt sauce over the top and sprinkle with the remaining chilli flakes. Cut with a pizza wheel and eat hot.

    Add in this stepRomaine lettuce 40 gTomatoes 1Turkish chilli flakes (pul biber) or mild chilli flakes ½ tsp

Cook's tip

Keep the meat sheet at 5 mm: thicker, and it stays soggy on the pizza. Add the salad only after baking so the cool crunch contrasts with the hot cheese. If you have leftover döner meat from the classic recipe, use it instead of step 2.

Cooking it at camp

A lidded cast-iron pan or Dutch oven works at the campsite. Bake and slice the meat at home, press the dough into the pan, set it over coals with more coals on the lid and bake for 8–10 minutes. Keep the coals at the edges, as the base burns easily.