Uzbek Meat Dishes

Almost every dish in Uzbek national cuisine includes meat. In Uzbekistan, people particularly enjoy beef, lamb, horse meat, and chicken. Keep in mind that if you visit a typical Uzbek café or are invited to a family dinner, you'll find that servings are quite generous with meat. It’s best not to request extra meat on your plate—you might end up with more than you can eat.

Shashlik is one of Uzbekistan’s most beloved dishes. It consists of marinated meat skewered on long spikes and grilled over fiery coals until perfectly cooked. The enticing aroma of shashlik often wafts through the streets of Uzbek cities.

In Uzbekistan, there are several varieties of shashlik: beef, lamb, liver, chicken, and vegetable. If you want to eat like a local, ask the waiter for either chunky or ground shashlik—the latter is minced meat prepared similarly to lyulya-kebab. For something a bit different, try jigarr, a shashlik made from beef liver.

Shashlik is typically served with thinly sliced onions that have been lightly sprinkled with vinegar.

Kazan-kabob, another popular dish, involves cooking meat on the bone and potatoes in a traditional cooking pot called a kazan. Though lamb is the meat of choice, beef is also commonly used. The dish's signature is that the ingredients are first fried separately, then mixed and simmered over a low flame for several hours.

Dolma is also widely favored in Uzbekistan. This dish features a stuffing of meat, onions, and rice wrapped in grape leaves, then boiled until ready.

Dimlama, also known as domlama, is a layered stew unique to Uzbek cuisine. Layers of meat, onions, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, and spices are arranged in a kazan, then simmered slowly with just enough water to cook through, usually taking about two hours.

And not to forget, the traditional Uzbek samsa is predominantly a meat pastry, containing significantly more meat than dough.