June 20, 2018
updated
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Kebabs, kabobs, skewers… anyway you look at it, it’s food on a stick. However, getting your skewers to be “perfect” isn’t that easy. I’ve eaten plenty of dry and burned skewered things in my lifetime.
So what’s the trick? In this post I’m sharing everything you need to know to make perfect skewers. All of these tips are gathered from numerous trips to the butcher whom I used to nag every time my skewers didn’t turn out good. I. kid. you. not.
It’s summer, which means a lot of outdoor cooking and barbecues for my family. Because cooking “heats up the house,” as my husband puts it. Grilling makes everything taste epic (I think!), and this post focuses on juicy grilled meat kabobs and veggie kabobs.
Looking for how to help with a specific type of kabob? Click on one of the following for in-depth posts on beef skewers, chicken skewers, and veggie kabobs.
How to Grill Kabobs
Whether you are making beef or chicken kabobs, here are important tips to help you grill perfectly tender meat with those iconic cross-hatch marks:
- Cut the meats and veggies into similar shapes and sizes so they cook evenly.
- Cut the meat and veggies slightly bigger than the space between the grill grates.
- Grilling consistently over medium heat is better than using high heat. You’ll get tough, burned, or scorched pieces above 400F.
- Cooking times: meats, such as chicken and beef, need 12-15 minutes total. Fish and vegetables require about 10 minutes.
- Cooking to temperature will always yield the best results: 165F for chicken and 145F for beef and fish.
Watch the video in the recipe card for more details. It is FULL of tips for perfectly grilled skewers!
Preparing Kabobs
If using wooden skewers, make sure to submerge them in water and soak them for 30 minutes before threading them with the ingredients and grilling. Otherwise, you’ll risk the entire kabob catching fire. Keep in mind that this step is only necessary if using wooden skewers.
Preparing the Kabob seasoning
Rubs are a blend of seasonings and spices with no liquid. It’s “rubbed” into the meat to adhere to the surface and create a delicious, flavorful crust. This method works with any protein (meat).
Here’s how to prepare and use a kabob seasoning:
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup paprika
- 3 tablespoons black pepper
- 3 tablespoons coarse salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- In a small bowl, combine all the seasonings. Transfer inside a small lidded jar and store in the pantry for up to 6 months.
- Use about 2 tablespoons per pound of meat to season your skewers with dry seasoning. Or, combine with oil into a seasoning oil to baste onto skewers.
Preparing a marinade for the kabobs
Marinades combine spices and oil with an acidic liquid such as vinegar or citrus juice. The acid helps to tenderize whatever meat you are cooking while giving it ample flavor.
Here’s how to prepare a quick kabob marinade:
- 3 tablespoons kabob seasoning
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Whisk together the seasoning, olive oil, and lemon juice in a bowl.
- Use it as a marinade for up to 2 lbs of protein. Marinade the cubed meat for 20 to 30 minutes or brush it on the assembled skewers directly.
Print my flavorful beef kabob marinade recipe here.
How to Grill Kabobs
Once the skewers are prepped and assembled, it’s time to cook! Here are step-by-step directions on how to grill the juiciest kabobs:
- Fire it Up
Preheat the grill to a constant temperature before placing your skewers on it. Somewhere around 375 is great. - Brush
Brush your kebab pieces with olive oil before placing them on the grill. - Grill
Place the skewers onto the grill and cook for 12-15 minutes, flipping halfway through. For the cross-hatch grill marks, wait until the grate leaves a set of lines before rotating the skewers 90 degrees. - Serve
Once the internal temperature of the meat reaches 165F for chicken or 145F for beef, remove the kabobs from the grill onto a tray or pan. Cover with foil if you’re still grilling other items.
Serve with corn on the cob baked in foil!
Do You Grill with the Lid Open or Closed?
When you place your kabobs on the grill, keep the lid open to sear the food, usually for a few minutes. After that, lower the lid and close the bbq to keep the heat inside and continue cooking.
Halfway through cooking, you’ll want to flip the food you’re grilling, whether it’s kabobs, chicken, or hamburgers. At this point, you’ll open the lid, flip, allow the flames to give the other side a sear, and close the lid to finish cooking.
If your grill has a vent and you’re using charcoal, you might want to keep it open to let some air in and keep your charcoal flames lit.
What Else Goes Good on Kabobs
Grilled meat and veggies are perfect together, and while some are obvious combinations, below are other terrific combinations that skewer great and taste delicious on a kabob.
Must try on a kabob:
- Eggplant: cut the eggplant lengthwise into 1 ½-inch wedge. Brush them with olive oil and place them on the grill, cut side down. Grill over medium-high heat for about 6 minutes, flipping them halfway through until they are golden.
- Bell peppers: grill the whole bell pepper over high heat, turning occasionally. It’s ok if the skins get charred in certain spots. Medium to large bell peppers will take about 15 minutes. After grilling, remove the seeds and stems.
- Portobello mushrooms: marinate the mushrooms or brush them with olive oil before grilling. Grill mushrooms gill sides up over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, flip, and grill for an additional 1-2 minutes.
- Asparagus: if you don’t have one of those veggie mesh cages, you can thread the asparagus onto a wooden or metal skewer to prevent them from falling through the grates. Poke them through the top and bottom ends, and grill for 9 minutes, flipping halfway.
- Onions: cut the onion in ½ to ⅜-inch thick slices. Poke each sliced through with a skewer and grill for about 15 minutes before flipping and cooking for an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Zucchini & squash: cut each squash into 4 long strips, brush with olive oil, season, and grill for 6-8 minutes.
- Potatoes: did you know you have to cook potatoes before grilling? Otherwise, they can take up to one hour to cook on the grill! You’ll have to partially cook them (about 10 minutes of boiling water) or steam them in the microwave. Once cooked, thread them onto skewers, brush them with olive oil, and grill for about 10 minutes.
How to Keep Ingredients From Falling Off
To prevent meat and veggies from falling off the skewers while cooking, cut them slightly larger than the spaces between the grill grates, about ½ to 1 inch thick. Make sure to thread each piece right through the center. To avoid the tragedy of an entire kabob falling into the coals, place it across the grill grates.
Essentials for Grilling
Firing up the grill is an easy way to give ordinary protein and veggies an upgrade in flavor. Whether you are entertaining or bringing dinner outdoors, you’ll need the right tools. You can check out my top skewers for grilling (tested) here.
Here are my grilling essentials:
How to Grill Kabobs Perfectly
Ingredients
Kabob seasoning:
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup paprika, sweet or smoked
- 3 tablespoons black pepper
- 3 tablespoons salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
For the Marinade or basting wet rub:
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons kabob seasoning or, favorite seasoning*
- 1 lemon, juiced
For the Kabobs:
- 2 lbs chicken breast or beef, cubed
- 1 red onion, cut into pieces
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1 pint mushrooms
- Wooden or metal skewers
Instructions
- If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes.
Make the dry seasoning:
- In a medium bowl, combine all the spices. Transfer inside a lidded jar and store in the pantry for up to 6 months.
Make the kabob marinade or basting mixture:
- In a medium bowl or direcly in a zip bag, measure out 3 tablespoons of the dry kebab seasoning, add the olive oil and lemon juice to form a wet rub or made.
- You can baste the mixture directly onto the threaded kebabs, toss the meat in the bowl to coat, or in a zip bag and let it marinate for 20 minutes while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
Assemble the skewers:
- Thread the cubes of meat onto the skewers, alternating with vegetables if using.
Grill:
- Preheat the grill to medium-high heat, about 375F to 400F on a grill. Once hot, brush oil on the metal grates.
- Place the kabobs on the grill, with the lid open for a few minutes to sear the meat, close the lid and cook for about 7 minutes on the first side. Open the grill, flip the kabobs, anc close the lid to continue cooking for an additional 5 to 7 mintues on the second side, until the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165F or the beef to 140-145F. Total cooking time will vary depending on the thicknes of the meat.
- Remove the kabobs from the grill on a tray and cover with foil to keep warm while you finish grilling.
Jessica
Hi there I’m going to try to make to make your kebabs but I’m wondering if I can use left over steak that’s been grilled already and try marinating it?
Laura Fuentes
Great question, Jessica! Using leftover steak to make kabobs will result in over-cooking the beef. I would recommend slicing the leftover steak thinly, soaking it in this marinade (you might want to half the amount, depending on how much steak you have) and then simply pan-frying the steak pieces to warm them up. This will infuse the leftover steak with flavor and warm up these steak pieces!
Helen
First time grilling. Came out perf!
Andy
I got a friend that always makes chicken kabobs on the grill, but I never tried to do it because it looked like you gotta be “an expert” like him to make them perfect. Then I found this post and said, why not? EPIC!! Now I can call myself an expert grilling kabobs! Thank you!!
Jessica
This post in how to grill skewers was very helpful. I’m new and for Lowe’s the steps to a T and got great ressults!
BRANDI
TURNED OUT PERFECT!
v
after grilling, when you place the kabob on the platter to rest for 5 minutes, do you tent it with foil, or leave open to the air. Also, if you have used the dry rub, do you also brush the oil over top just before grilling? Can you prepare the meat with dry rub and then keep cool for 2hours in a a cooler before grilling… i need to transport food to picnic area
Laura Fuentes
You can tent it with fol to keep the temperature in. If the tray is next to the bbq, where it’s hot, you can leave it open. Outdoor temps where I leave are 90F+ in the summer so the food stays hot. Yes, you can use dry rub in your kabobs, the process is the same. enjoy!
Debra Baker
Hi
Ok, I’m making your kabobs for dinner, I’ve let marinate for almost 24 h9urs and have veggies in spices and olive oil, now I need to know if I leave the lid open or shut on bbq??
Thank you ahead of time,
Debra B.
Laura Fuentes
I would grill your kabobs with the grill lid closed to retain the heat. Open as needed to check on the kabobs for doneness. A bbq grill is essentially an outdoor oven. Grilling with the lid open is like roasting food with the door open. I hope this helps!
Christopher Reece
I just cook each item separately. One skewer all chicken, another all beef. Mushroom on another, then zucchini and so on so I can control how long each one cooks. Then set up a large plate with all the meat and veg and serve family style with pita or naan.
PA-Paul
For this amateur you made me look like a seasoned chef
Thanks!
Laura Fuentes
Day.Made!
Jessica
I used your tips to grill kabobs this weekend. The chicken came out perfect and the veggies were not burnt! Thank you.
Chris Hansley
Hi Laura, When we make kabobs for grilling, we par boil the onions and peppers just long enough to soften them. We find by doing this the meat (usually beef chunks) cooks to medium (the way we like it) and the veggies finish cooking and are not burnt from being of the grill too long, waiting for the meat to finish.
Deborah Caporale
@ 55 yrs old I thought I knew a lot about bbq-ing until I noticed my shish-kabobs started coming out over done and a bit…well…black! Yike’s! I found Laura’s site and I have to testify wholeheartedly to her advice re: temp, flame, seasoning etc. This past 4th (2019) I made the kabobs of my lifetime! Laura taught an old dog new tricks, I actually bbq’d by temp, whereas I would normally “just throw them on” full flame. These came out SO good, I’m telling everyone to check out her site!
Important tip: absolutely boil, microwave, or however you prefer to cook potatoes ahead before skewing as they will not be tender before the other items on the stick! I mixed Laura’s spice recipe, then added a couple tablespoons to a liquid mixture of olive oil, red wine, honey and just a little sambal oelek (Korean chili paste) and brushed on kabobs…sweet & spicy! Thank you Laura Dear! I have pinned your site to my start page!
Laura Fuentes
Deborah, you just made this gal’s YEAR. I can’t thank you enough for the raving review of one of my favorite things to grill… kabobs! I too, went to the internets long ago to search on how to grill kabobs because mine resembled coal on the outside. Finally, thanks to my father-in-law’s handy Webber grill’s handbook, I learned the right way and dry kabobs no more!
I am thrilled at the opportunity to share my recipes with you. 🙂 Laura
Sherry Carpenter
I’m helping with a wedding and need to know how much chicken to get for around 200 guests. For chicken pineapple skewers.with Teryaki sauce/ marinade
Laura Fuentes
About 4 ounces per guest as an appetizer.
Karen Perret
Question: how do you turn the skewers over without (a) burning yourself, (b) having some of the stuff on the skewer stay put, i.e. not turn over? I’ve never done this, but I’ve promised sis kebabs to a party of 10 people and my grill is not huge. Suggestions? Thanks!
Laura Fuentes
I use tongs to lift the skewer and a flat metal spatula to lift. if you grease your bbq (with vegetable oil for example) prior to placing the skewers, they should lift fine. Also, don’t lift too early. Raw meat sticks.
Terri
If you use two skewers for each kabob the meat and vegetables won’t rotate when you flip them. Also, use tongs to flip. Thanks for the tips?
Terri
That was supposed to be an exclamation point at the end. Lol. Thanks for the tips!
Tim Durkin
The two skewers works great. If doing aspargus, build a raft using two or three skewers as base and the aspargus spears as the “logs”. Be sure and soak skewers for an hour in warm water.
Karen
I USE 2 SKEWERS SO THE KABOBS TURN AS A FLAT UNIT
Laura Fuentes
This is a great idea! Thank you, Karen.
Mai
This article is very helpful… in time for the summer!!! 🙂 Can’t wait to do all your helpful tips and impressed my family! haha Thanks!!!