Konya-style oven-roasted lamb has a short ingredient list: meat, salt, and black pepper. The key is the cooking setup: the meat sits on a rack over a baking sheet, allowing the rendered fat to drip below. The meat cooks as it releases its fat instead of frying in it, becoming crisp outside and tender inside.
Cut the lamb shoulder into large 8–10 cm pieces; leave the bones in, as they help keep the meat moist from within as it cooks. Rub every side of the pieces with salt and black pepper.
Place a baking sheet on the lower rack of the oven, set a wire rack on top, and space the meat pieces across it. Scatter the lamb tail fat cubes over the meat; they will melt and run down over it.
Bake in an oven preheated to 170°C / 340°F for 2 hours and 10 minutes. The low temperature is intentional: at 200°C / 390°F, muscle fibers contract and release their juices; at 170°C / 340°F, connective tissue slowly turns to gelatin.
Spoon some of the fat collected in the baking sheet over the meat and turn the pieces. This helps the kebab brown evenly on all sides.
Increase the oven temperature to 200°C / 390°F and cook for another 20–25 minutes. The kebab is ready when the outside is dark brown and crisp and the meat pulls apart easily under a fork.
Do not open the oven for the first 2 hours, and do not add water to the baking sheet below; steam will soften the surface and braise the kebab instead of browning it.
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