skewers

Easy Greek Chicken Kebabs

Boneless, skinless chicken breast marinated in the traditional Greek flavors of lemon, garlic and oregano then threaded on skewers with a few veggies makes these grilled chicken kebabs an easy and healthy weeknight dinner winner.

Dinner on the grill makes up about 95% of our summer dinner cooking routine, and with so much variety to be had (pork, steak, shrimp, and even cheese!) cooking skewers and kebabs is an easy, all-in-one healthy dinner that take as little as 15 minutes to marinate only about 15 minutes for the chicken kebabs to cook on the grill.

I’m not sure when I dropped the shish in shish kebabs, but whether you spell them kebabs or kababs, or maybe call them skewers too, these small chunks of chicken threaded on wooden or metal skewers with vegetable chunks are incredibly versatile to make.

Nearly every cuisine has it’s own ethnic flavor of chicken kebab (Indian, Turkish, Middle Eastern, Japanese and Thai) as a popular street food to eat on the go.

But today we’re staying at home to make our own, and cure my summertime Mediterranean flavor-craving with grilled Greek chicken kebabs, all day, all the way, babe-ae.

How to Make the Greek Chicken Marinade

This greek marinade is my favorite go-to recipe for anything and everything chicken and it does double duty as a dressing for salads too.continue to the recipe… about Easy Greek Chicken Kebabs

Chicken Satay with Lighter Almond Dipping Sauce

These flavorful skewers of thinly sliced marinated chicken need just a few minutes on the grill to absorb that wonderful smoky, charcoaled flavor, and are ready for dipping in this lightened-up, spicy coconut almond milk with almond butter dipping sauce for a true taste of Asian flavors.

This post is brought to you by Almond Breeze

One of the sights that struck me most while traveling through the streets of Bangkok and throughout Thailand was the abundance of street food and the fact that it was being cooked, right there, on the sidewalks. Men and women crouched down at makeshift grills made of bricks and grill grates, encouraging their charcoal flames and flipping skewers of meat, or chopping fresh veggies for stir fries and dishing out noodles and soups to customers who moments before were simply passing by.

But even more, it was the smells (oh the smells!) of food cooking, and bubbling, and sizzling, around each and every corner, serving snacks (and entire meals) to every walk of life, no matter how rich, or how poor. Southeast Asia isn’t necessarily unique in that respect. It seems that street food in every culture serves our most humble cravings. It just seems far more common there.

Naturally, the food memory of one of my favorite snacks during my two visits to Thailand came home with me. Chicken Satay, or Chicken Saté, because depending on the region depends on your spelling of the snack. Either way, this favorite appetizer on a stick is all good. And in this recipe, it’s also lightened up with a bit of an almond-y twist. continue to the recipe… about Chicken Satay with Lighter Almond Dipping Sauce

Prosciutto Wrapped Grilled Shrimp Skewers

Grilled shrimp get an extra boost of flavor from a super simple garlic marinade and a wrap of Italian prosciutto for a light and easy appetizer or main.

During the week, when I find myself running out of steam in the cooking arena, I’m always on the lookout for quick meals that lean toward the healthier side. Heck, I think that’s the way I want to cook 97.7% of the time. Meals that don’t take a ton of time to prepare, let alone cook.

And if I can use the leftovers in something delicious later on in the week, I’ve just made myself more than a meal.

Or, two meals perhaps?

This is one of those recipes that is great for those who meal prep or who are looking for super simple weekend eats. Simply marinade and skewer on Saturday or Sunday, refrigerate and then toss on the grill for dinner on Monday. Or grill on the weekend, add to some pasta or top on a salad and make all your co-workers jealous at lunch come Monday.

It’s the little victories that make Monday bearable.

continue to the recipe… about Prosciutto Wrapped Grilled Shrimp Skewers

Hawaiian Chicken Skewers With I Wash You Dry

This easy chicken kebab recipe is especially flavorful thanks to a simple soy and orange marmalade marinade and it is sure to become a family favorite.

Like many other food bloggers out there, Shawn Syphus has no formal culinary training. Instead, a series of happy kitchen accidents, and some one-on-one lessons with her mother-in-law helped shape her into the cook she is today.

The food obsessed mom of four has been cooking and writing for her blog I Wash You Dry since 2010, creating quick and easy recipes that require minimal clean up — and obviously by the name of her blog, she’s not so fond of dishes!

Shawn’s first cookbook, Express Lane Cooking includes 80 quick and easy recipes with five ingredients. We love that Shawn’s cooking style is fuss-free and to the point. Her recipes are simple and approachable, fast and delicious.

Having fewer dishes to wash and recipes like these Hawaiian Chicken Skewers that you’ll find at the end of this post also makes us weak in the knees!

continue to the recipe… about Hawaiian Chicken Skewers With I Wash You Dry

Grilled Shrimp With Sweet or Spicy Mustard Dipping Sauce

Instead of cocktail sauce with shrimp, try Sweet Mustard with Brown Sugar and Hoisin Dip, or Spicy Mustard with Tarragon Sauce.

This post is brought to you by the makers of French’s Sweet Yellow Mustard and Spicy Yellow Mustard. I received compensation to write this post through the French’s Sweet and Spicy Influencer program. As always, thank you for reading and for supporting companies I partner with, which allows me to create more unique content and recipes for you.

There are some foods I can go without.

Bread. I love it, but I can live without it. I know, I’m an anomaly. Steak. I could live without steak. Unless it’s this one, but even then, I’d do with just a bite. And Brussels Sprouts. Even though this year I’ve become a fan, if they were eradicated from the earth, I’d still be okay.

But then there are the food cravings I can’t bear to think of losing.

Pickles. Not a chance so don’t even think about it. Pasta. That would be a toughie. Fresh veggies and a super crunchy salad. Please. Don’t make me. Chocolate. Are you crazy, girl? And mustard. You can tell me to give mayo the heave-ho, but don’t take away my favorite spicy yellow condiment, please.

continue to the recipe… about Grilled Shrimp With Sweet or Spicy Mustard Dipping Sauce

Grilled Turkey Kofta Skewers with Yogurt Sauce

While lamb or beef is traditional, I prefer ground turkey for these flavorful Middle Eastern skewers, and the creamy cool yogurt sauce adds a lightened dipping sauce thats full of flavor.

Food that is delivered in an unexpected way is always more fun. It must be true, because there’s even a cookbook all about the food phenomenon.

Thai food has it’s skewered Satay, Mexicans love their mayo with cotija-dressed cob of corn on a stick and in China you can even find yourself a fried scorpion on a stick—if you dare. Thank you very much but I’ll “stick” with a good old American mustard-dipped corn dog.

Probably one of the most universal foods on a stick is kofta, a simple blend of garlic-studded, spiced meat shaped on a stick that you’ll find in Greek, Persian, Indian and Lebanese cuisine.

If you think that because it hails from an exotic land that it must be difficult to make, you’re wrong. If you think man, that sounds like it has a lot more flavor than a regular burger, you are right!

And if you can shape a simple meatball, this skewered turkey kofta is going to totally hit your sweet spot.

continue to the recipe… about Grilled Turkey Kofta Skewers with Yogurt Sauce

Lime and Chile Butter Chicken Skewers

Please, please, please! Say it ain’t so! But yes, it’s true, we’re headlong into the wind down of summer.

Sniffle here and sob there, I’m harboring some serious resentment at the fact that summer is quickly fading into fall. This is mostly due to the fact that in mid-July I broke my wrist and the elbow of my other arm (of which I’ve lamented about my gimpness on the blog and you’re sick of hearing about since it happened) and that the wrist required surgery to give me a fancy new metal plate and 10 screws surgically inserted into my limp old wrist. Yep, I’ll be the one setting off the alarms, bells and whistles at the airport security line.

It also turned most of my summer of bar-b-ques on the deck and hostessing of summer fun into a self-imposed 3 week marathon of feeling-sorry -for-myself-BRAVO-watching-reality-show-obsession because I couldn’t chop, cook or even pull my hair into a top knot. And if any of you know me in person, the top knot is what really put me under.

But, I gave myself ’til this week to finish my sulk and now I’m back at ‘em, working the wrist so it doesn’t turn into a stiff log of a limb and I even took off my bandages all by my-freak-out-at-any-medical-condition-that-may-result-in-blood-self. I was happy and surprised to see a completely healed 3-inch scar.

Friends, I’m back.

And it’s a good thing too, because yesterday, when Smudge asked me why we haven’t had any parties with and of our friends who are parents of her friends who we would usually have summertime parties with, I knew I wasn’t the only one feeling the lack of party pain. Remedy solved, we’re having a party tonight and putting our summer party slump to bed.

This recipe doesn’t require a party to make it special. In fact, if you’re in need of a fast dinner with minimal effort but big flavor, this chicken skewer recipe is a keeper.

continue to the recipe… about Lime and Chile Butter Chicken Skewers

Grilled Caprese Skewers

Summer grill time certainly shouldn’t be limited to meats and burgers, bring on the tomatoes and sturdy halloumi or bread cheese for my Grilled Caprese Skewers.

“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

and

“We are all feeding from each other, all the time, every day.”

~ Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

I’m not usually one to pepper my blog with inspirational quotes from famous/infamous people. And you absolutely won’t see me write, “According to Webster’s dictionary…” when I’m stumped on how to introduce a post, when the creative juices simply aren’t flowing. It’s just kind of the cheater way out in my opinion, but hey, I’m not judging. And besides, doesn’t everyone use Wikipedia now?

But for the reasons I have today, I thought these quotes fell into the appropriate category because they indeed describe the lack of originality, or at least the increasing commonality, of how recipes come about and how they’re shared.

I mean, how many different ways, really, are there to cook a burger or make a classic chicken divan casserole? And what about pound cake? Prime example of how ingredients can’t be copyrighted. It’s all in how you describe the process that makes it your own.

It’s one reason why this summer I’ve been posting more basic recipes, favorite recipes, because it’s summer and I for one am craving a little simplicity. Let’s blame it on the heat.

continue to the recipe… about Grilled Caprese Skewers

Grilled Lemon Chicken Skewers

I wish I had a joke for you about when a chicken walked into a bar and met a lemon, some garlic and olive oil and they all got bagged together. But I’m not very good at jokes, that’s my Uncle T’s job.

But this recipe does indeed call for lounging in a bag. Not sure where the joke went but there’s got to be one in there somewhere.

This is one of those recipes that no matter what the season—or how bad the humor—whether I’m grilling outdoors or baking inside, is a go-to, never-fail, crave-worthy dinner option. And the best part is after a good soak—in the bag, in the refrigerator—it’s beyond easy to deliver to the dinner table with practically zero clean-up.

Skewers and kabobs can be really, really good, or go really, really bad. Small pieces of meat left unattended can turn into crispy little burned nuggets of unrecognizable char or simply become dry and overcooked when you’re distracted by obsessively checking your Instagram feed.

And while I do enjoy a good vegetable laden skewer, more often I like my protein to hang out on its own with just a simple flavoring in between, and set the cherry tomatoes, zucchini discs and bulbs of mushrooms off to their own devices to mingle on their own skewered line.

That’s why I’m such a fan of my Greek-inspired Grilled Lemon Chicken Skewers in all of their glorious, lemon-marinaded simplicity

continue to the recipe… about Grilled Lemon Chicken Skewers