Halal BBQ in Seattle: What Makes Smoked Meat Halal?

Barbecue and halal dining haven’t always overlapped in Seattle. Classic American smokehouses often lean on pork, and many glaze or baste with beer, wine or bourbon. If you keep halal, or you’re hosting someone who does, that can rule out a lot of menus. Here’s what makes barbecue halal, and how we do it at Meat Moot.

What “halal” means for smoked meat

For a barbecue menu to be halal, a few things need to be true:

1. The meat itself is halal. The animal is a permitted one (beef and lamb, never pork) and is slaughtered according to Islamic guidelines.
2. No pork, anywhere. Not as a main, and not hidden in sauces, sides or rubs.
3. No alcohol in the food. Many barbecue sauces and marinades use beer, wine or spirits. Halal kitchens leave them out.
4. No cross-contact. Halal meat is stored, smoked and carved separately from anything that isn’t.

How Meat Moot does it

Meat Moot was founded in Istanbul in 2021, around a smoked-meat tradition that’s halal by design. Our Seattle smokehouse in South Lake Union follows the same rules:

• Every cut is halal: brisket, beef ribs, beef shank, lamb shank, lamb neck, lamb shoulder and lamb ribs.
• There is no pork in our kitchen, smokers, sauces or sides.
• We don’t serve alcohol. Drinks are non-alcoholic, and water and soft drinks come with every meat order.

So you can order anything on the menu, sauces included, without asking what’s in it.

Halal doesn’t mean holding back

Halal barbecue is still serious barbecue. Our brisket smokes for up to 16 hours until the bark sets and the fat renders. The lamb shanks are lacquered and falling off the bone. Every board comes with eight house sauces and a spread of Turkish and Middle Eastern salads.

Read more about our halal standards, or book a table and taste the difference.