Thin-Crust Classic · Minced Meat Flatbread

Lahmacun

Name: Lahmacun recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 (8 lahmacun) servings
Ingredients: For the dough: 500 g plain or strong white flour, 275 ml lukewarm water (about 55% hydration), 7 g (1 sachet) fast-action dried yeast, 1½ teaspoons fine salt (about 9 g), 1 tablespoon olive oil, extra flour for rolling; For the topping: 300 g lamb or beef mince (about 20% fat is best), 1 small onion (about 100 g), 1 small red pepper (about 120 g), 1 medium tomato (about 100 g), 3 garlic cloves, 30 g flat-leaf parsley (leaves and fine stalks), 1 tablespoon tomato purée, 1 tablespoon Turkish red pepper paste (biber salçası) or an extra tablespoon of tomato purée, 1 teaspoon Turkish chilli flakes (pul biber) or mild chilli flakes, 1 teaspoon sweet paprika, ½ teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon fine salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper; To serve: 2 lemons cut into wedges, a handful of flat-leaf parsley, ½ red onion, thinly sliced, 1 teaspoon sumac (optional), a pinch of salt

Lahmacun — street food from Southeastern Anatolia (Gaziantep & Şanlıurfa), Turkey

Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Rainer Zenz assumed (based on copyright claims). / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

The name comes from Arabic "lahm bi ajin," meaning simply "meat with dough," reflecting the dish's roots in the Arab-influenced cuisines of Turkey's southeast border region.

A thin round of dough is spread with a paste of minced lamb, tomato, pepper, and herbs, baked quickly in a hot oven until the edges crackle, then rolled around fresh parsley, onion, and a squeeze of lemon. Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep's stalls turn them out within seconds of ordering.

Why it's made this way: Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep sit on old trade and migration routes linking Anatolia to the Levant, and lahmacun's Arabic name and thin-bread technique reflect that shared culinary lineage with Syrian and Armenian flatbread traditions.

What is Lahmacun?

Lahmacun is a very thin round of yeasted dough spread with a sparse, finely chopped mixture of minced lamb or beef, tomato, pepper, onion, garlic and parsley, then baked in a very hot oven for a few minutes until the edges crisp and the topping is cooked. It is usually served with fresh parsley, sliced onion and a wedge of lemon, and is often rolled up and eaten by hand. It is sold at bakeries and stalls across Turkey, with Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep in the southeast especially associated with it.

The name is generally explained as coming from the Arabic lahm bi ajin, meaning roughly 'meat with dough'. The dish is shared with neighbouring Levantine cooking, where similar thin meat flatbreads exist, and it is often compared to pizza, though it has no cheese and no thick edge.

How to make lahmacun at home

Serves 4 (8 lahmacun) · prep 30 min · cook 30 min

Ingredients

For the dough: 500 g plain or strong white flour, 275 ml lukewarm water (about 55% hydration), 7 g (1 sachet) fast-action dried yeast, 1½ teaspoons fine salt (about 9 g), 1 tablespoon olive oil, extra flour for rolling
For the topping: 300 g lamb or beef mince (about 20% fat is best), 1 small onion (about 100 g), 1 small red pepper (about 120 g), 1 medium tomato (about 100 g), 3 garlic cloves, 30 g flat-leaf parsley (leaves and fine stalks), 1 tablespoon tomato purée, 1 tablespoon Turkish red pepper paste (biber salçası) or an extra tablespoon of tomato purée, 1 teaspoon Turkish chilli flakes (pul biber) or mild chilli flakes, 1 teaspoon sweet paprika, ½ teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon fine salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper
To serve: 2 lemons cut into wedges, a handful of flat-leaf parsley, ½ red onion, thinly sliced, 1 teaspoon sumac (optional), a pinch of salt

Method

Make the dough: stir the yeast and salt into the flour in a large bowl, add the water and oil and mix to a rough dough. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 8–10 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough is fairly firm, which is what lets it roll very thin. Cover and leave somewhere warm for 1 hour, until roughly doubled.
Make the topping while the dough rises: finely chop the onion, pepper, tomato and parsley, or pulse them briefly in a food processor until very fine but not a purée. Tip into a sieve with a pinch of salt from the topping quantity and press out as much liquid as you can, because a wet topping makes a soggy base.
Mix the drained vegetables with the mince, crushed garlic, tomato purée, pepper paste, chilli flakes, paprika, cumin, salt and black pepper. Work it with your hands until it is a sticky, evenly mixed paste. Cover and chill until needed.
Put two flat baking trays or a pizza stone upside down on the top shelf of the oven and heat it to its highest setting, ideally 250 °C or more (gas 9 or the top fan setting), for at least 30 minutes.
Divide the risen dough into 8 pieces of about 100 g each and shape into balls. On a floured surface roll each one out as thin as you can, to a round of about 22–24 cm. Dough that springs back needs 5 minutes' rest under a cloth before you try again.
Spread about 65–70 g of the topping very thinly over each round with the back of a spoon or your fingers, right out to a 1 cm margin. It should look sparse, with the dough showing through in places. Work in batches, keeping the rest of the dough covered.
Slide one or two lahmacun, on a sheet of baking paper rated for high heat (cheaper paper can scorch at this temperature), onto the hot tray or stone and bake for 5–7 minutes, until the edges are golden and the topping is dry, browned and sizzling with no pink meat left. If the oven is less hot they will take a little longer and come out less crisp. A thermometer is impractical on a topping only a few millimetres thick, so judge by eye: the surface should be matte and browned rather than moist and red, and the fat should be sizzling. Cut into the first one to check there is no raw, pink or wet-looking mince, and bake a minute or two longer if in doubt. Minced meat is safe once it reaches 71 °C (160 °F), and a thin topping spread on dough at oven temperatures above 230 °C will pass that well within this time.
Toss the sliced red onion with the sumac and a pinch of salt, and mix in the parsley. Put a little of this salad on each hot lahmacun, squeeze over lemon and roll it up or fold it in half.

Tips

Roll the dough thinner than seems sensible. Thick dough will not crisp in the few minutes the topping needs.
Keep the topping dry: squeeze the vegetables and use a thin layer. A heavy, wet layer is the usual reason for a soggy lahmacun.
A very hot surface matters more than anything else. Heat the tray or stone for at least 30 minutes, and use baking paper (or a floured peel) so the rounds slide on easily.
You can freeze baked, cooled lahmacun and reheat them in a hot oven or a dry frying pan for 2–3 minutes.
This is a home approximation. Bakeries use a wood-fired oven that reaches far higher temperatures, so a home lahmacun will be a little softer.

Regional versions

Beef, or half lamb and half beef, is common, and the heat level varies from mild to very spicy depending on the baker.
Some cooks add a little pomegranate molasses or a squeeze of lemon to the topping.
Cooks often serve lahmacun with a bowl of ayran or a plain salad of tomato and cucumber alongside.
A vegetarian version can be made with finely chopped aubergine and lentils instead of mince, though it is no longer the traditional dish.

Questions

What is lahmacun?

A very thin Turkish flatbread topped with a spiced mixture of minced meat, tomato, pepper and herbs, baked until crisp at the edges and usually rolled up with parsley and lemon.

Is lahmacun the same as pizza?

No. It has a much thinner, crisper base, no cheese and no tomato sauce layer. The topping is a thin spread of cooked minced meat and chopped vegetables.