I miss Shanghai. It’s a big, brash, frontier city where buildings go up seemingly overnight, hundreds of new restaurants open every week, and you can buy virtually anything at 9pm at night. Want a foot massage in your apartment? Someone can be there in 10 minutes. Need a haircut? You’ll also get a vigorous arm and shoulder massage and a complimentary ear cleaning. That last service takes some getting used to.
My husband and I lived there for three years. When he was traveling for work, which was often, I’d skip cooking and pick up dinner on my walk home. Six lamb skewers, a hot salad, and rice from our favorite Xinjiang restaurant. That was the meal. The skewers came off the grill coated in cumin and chili, the Szechuan peppercorns buzzing on your lips until your whole mouth went slightly numb. I never got tired of it. These are my version, built from that memory, and they come close.
How to Make Xinjiang Chilli Lamb Skewers
Let the Marinade Work Overnight
Two hours is the minimum, but overnight is where this recipe pays off. Cut the lamb shoulder into 2.5cm (1 inch) cubes and toss them with the full spice mix, soy sauce, rice wine, and a drizzle of honey. 
Cover and refrigerate. By morning the cumin and Szechuan pepper will have worked into every surface.
Get the Grill Smoking Hot
Soak wooden skewers for at least 30 minutes before threading the lamb. Leave a small gap between each piece so heat reaches all sides.
Grill over high, direct heat for 3 to 4 minutes per side. You want char on the outside and pink in the center. Pull them too late and the fat renders out, leaving you with dry, tough cubes instead of the juicy, smoky skewers you’re after.
Chinese Xinjiang Spicy Lamb Skewers with Szechuan Pepper
- Total Time: 32 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4
- Diet: Omnivore
Description
Bold, smoky Xinjiang lamb skewers, marinated in cumin, chili, and Szechuan pepper. Perfect for a flavorful weeknight meal.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs (900 g) lamb shoulder or leg, cubed
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 tbsp crushed Szechuan peppercorns
- 1 1/2 tbsp chili flakes
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice wine
- 1 tbsp honey (optional)
- Salt
- Wooden skewers (soaked in water for 30 minutes)
Instructions
- Marinate the Lamb: In a large bowl, combine vegetable oil, cumin, Szechuan peppercorns, chili flakes, coriander, soy sauce, rice wine, honey (if using), and salt. Add the cubed lamb, mixing to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Prepare the Skewers: Thread 4-5 lamb cubes onto each skewer, leaving small gaps between them to ensure even cooking.
- Preheat and Grill: Preheat your grill to medium-high heat (approximately 400°F (204°C)). If using a charcoal grill, ensure the coals are glowing and distributed evenly. Place the skewers over the grill and cook for 10-12 minutes, turning them frequently, until they develop a crispy, charred exterior and are cooked through.
- Garnish and Serve: Sprinkle additional cumin or chili flakes over the skewers before serving. Pair with flatbread, steamed rice, or fresh greens.
Notes
- For more intense flavor, marinate the lamb for up to 24 hours.
- If you don’t have rice wine, substitute dry sherry or mirin.
- To prevent burning, use metal skewers instead of wood, or closely monitor wooden skewers during grilling.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Category: Main Course
- Method: Grilling
- Cuisine: Chinese
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 250g
- Calories: 450
- Sugar: 5
- Sodium: 600
- Fat: 30
- Saturated Fat: 12
- Unsaturated Fat: 15
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 15
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 40
- Cholesterol: 100
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use a different cut of lamb?
Lamb leg works, but it’s leaner than shoulder and dries out faster on the grill. If you go with leg, cut the pieces slightly larger, around 3cm (1.25 inches), and pull them off the heat a minute earlier. Shoulder is still the better choice for skewers.
What can I substitute for Szechuan peppercorns?
Nothing replicates the numbing sensation exactly. Black pepper with a pinch of ground coriander seed gets you partway there on aroma, but the tingle will be missing. Most Asian grocery stores carry Szechuan peppercorns, and they keep for months in an airtight jar.
Can I cook these in the oven instead of on a grill?
Yes. Set your broiler to high and place the skewers on a wire rack over a sheet pan, about 10cm (4 inches) from the element. Broil for 3 to 4 minutes per side, rotating once. You won’t get the same smokiness, but the char and spice crust still come through.
Hi Likes Food,
Sorry, that restaurant we used to to was was torn down to make way for a new apartment block. Very Shanghai! But I reckon you could go to any Xinjiang restaurant and order the skewers, a hot salad (cucumber, tomato, onion and chilli) and a serve of rice. Enjoy!
HI Aimee, I’m so jealous! What a brilliant idea for wedding favours. I didn’t know about the whole fennel but I’m going to do some experimenting in the kitchen and see how I go. Thanks for sharing your chuar stories :D
We’ve been living in Beijing for 8+ years now and just recently discovered the place that has THE best chuar we’ve tasted so far. I desperately want to be able recreate these chuar if we’re ever back in the U.S… am tempted to offer the chuar guy a large sum of money to share his secret with us! So thanks for this web post that pointed me in the right direction. I think Al is right. Seems like just those ingredients he mentioned, though I didn’t know about the starch, so that is a good tip to know! But another thing, for our wedding favors a few years back we gave little ingredient packets of these spices for people to “recreate” our favorite Beijing snack so we asked this one large hot pot restaurant that also sold yummy chuar if they could tell us where to get the spices. They were so generous that they just gave us big bags of what I later discovered were chili flakes, whole cumin, AND whole fennel…. so am wondering if fennel is a traditional Uyghur ingredient or not??
By the way, this is crazy delicious, love the recipe!
Hi Julie
Fantastic to hear about your own experiences and your lamb cutlets for the Big Green Egg Barbeque! Thanks so much for commenting and I hope you enjoy cooking them
Cheers
Christina
Hey Christina,
Thanks for the reply, I was actually aiming for the restaurant in SH where you’d get the “six lamb skewers, a hot salad and a serve of rice“?
Hi Christina
I love this recipe. I found it when I was searching the web for variations on Uighur lamb and it caught my eye as I’m addicted to Sichuan pepper.
My son is married to a Chinese girl from Urumqi in Xinjiang and they live in Beijing, Her Mum isn’t Uighur but she loves lamb and she always adds Sichuan pepper to it. I ate chuan’r like this many time when I was in Xinjiang last year and I’ve lamb cutlets marinating in the mix at the moment to cook on a Big Green Egg Barbecue here in Ireland tomorrow. I
will be sharing the recipe with my daughter in Sydney. I will let you know how I get on. Thanks for the inspiration and enjoy being back in Oz.
Julie
Hi Likes Food
So glad to hear!
Cheers
Christina
Hi christina,
This was just so fantastic!! Tasted super authentic!!
Most welcome, Sugi. Hope you enjoy them!
This is just what I need. When visiting my wife’s hometown in Sichuan province, I really love this lamb skewers! Love the cumin and chili taste and fragrance. Can’t wait to secretly whipped up this recipe and surprise her! Thanks Christina!
Thanks for your feedback, Al. This is how I ate them in China – some restaurants used Szechuan peppercorns, garlic and ginger. I think they have a lot more flavour this way.
Good tip about the cumin and chilli – yes, the person cooking them would usually sprinkle additional cumin and chilli on them as they cooked.
I would also like to add that additional cumin and chilli are sprinkled on towards the end. This is done as a lot of the cumin added at the beginning tends to to have already lost it’s volatile oils by this time.
Sorry. Perhaps this is Shanghainese style or something. Uyghur style is just cumin, salt, chilli and a bit of starch. There is optional minced onion.
No szechuan peppercorn, garlic and ginger.
Hi Jenny. I tried to make these just like the real thing that I enjoyed in Shanghai. So please let me know how you get on – I hope you like them!!
Cheers, Christina
Finally, I found this recipe which sounds authentic! They should just taste like the ones you can find on the street of China cooked by the uyghur people. Many other recipes sound overly complicated, but this one uses authentic marinate ingredient! Deliciuos!!