Tender chunks of lamb braised with onions in a sealed kazan until the fat renders and the meat falls apart — Uzbekistan's simplest and most satisfying one-pot kabob, no skewers required.
The name is literal: qozon means cauldron, kabob means meat cooked over fire. Qozon kabob is lamb and onion, nothing more, cooked in a sealed kazan with no added water. The onion goes in first, then the lamb pieces on top, then the lid goes on and does not come off. The onion releases enough moisture to create a steaming environment inside the pot, the lamb fat renders down into the onion and caramelizes with it, and after forty minutes the contents of the pot are transformed into something more than the sum of their parts: the meat is tender and falling apart, the onion has dissolved into a sweet, unctuous sauce, and the bottom layer has a crust of caramelized onion and rendered fat that must be scraped off and eaten immediately. Qozon kabob requires good lamb with fat on it — lean lamb misses the point entirely. The fat is not excess; it is the cooking medium and the flavor source. In Samarkand and Bukhara, qozon kabob is eaten for lunch, on bread, with raw onion rings and fresh tomatoes on the side. No plates needed.
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