Grilled Chicken Kabobs
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With tender veggies and juicy bites of marinated chicken, these chicken kabobs are the ultimate summer grilling meal. Whether you’re BBQing at home or cooking over a campfire, chicken skewers make a simple dinner that’s easy to prep and fun to eat.
These chicken and vegetable skewers have favorite summertime meal potential for sure. After a bit of time hanging out in a bright and zippy marinade, the chicken cooks up so tender, juicy, and full of flavor. When paired with your favorite veggies, these chicken kabobs make a winning dinner!
Better yet, they come together super fast and easy for a low-effort, high-impact meal. We love these chicken skewers on those sunny, fun-filled days when dinner sneaks up on you, and all you can muster is something simple and easy. But you’re famished and want something that will hit the spot. Grilled chicken kabobs to the rescue!
Luckily, these chicken skewers aren’t just lower-effort; they’re actually pretty fun to make! Have a seat, pop open your favorite beverage, grab a skewer, and start threading.
If you happened to do a little prep beforehand, even better! We’ll share our best make-ahead tips and tried-and-true tricks for the very best grilled chicken kabobs.
Ingredients
- Chicken: For juicy pieces of chicken that are full of flavor, we like boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this recipe.
- Mushrooms: Whole white button mushrooms or cremini mushrooms are both great.
- Cherry tomatoes: Use your favorite cherry or grape tomatoes. We love the packs with a variety of colors for the most colorful chicken and vegetable skewers.
- Green onions: Cut into one-inch pieces so they can easily thread onto your skewers.
- Olive oil, basil, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, and salt: These ingredients make up the marinade that brings so much flavor to your chicken and vegetable skewers!
How to Make Grilled Chicken Kabobs — Step by Step
- Make the marinade up to two hours (and at least 30 minutes) before you’re ready to cook your skewers. In a bowl or zip-top bag, mix together the olive oil, herbs, garlic, lemon juice, and salt.
- Cut your chicken into 1-inch pieces. Add the chicken to the marinade and stir so that the chicken is completely coated.
- Cover the bowl or seal the bag, then refrigerate the chicken (or put it in the cooler) for at least 30 minutes or up to two hours.
- Preheat your grill or start your campfire. You’ll be cooking your grilled chicken kebabs over medium-high to high heat.
- Next, build your kabobs. Thread the marinated chicken and vegetables onto your skewers. While mixing the chicken and veggies together looks pretty, for more precise cooking, you may want to place like ingredients together on skewers.
- Then, grill your kabobs over medium-high to high heat, turning them occasionally until they are cooked through.
Tips for Making
- We recommend using flat metal skewers for your chicken kabobs. The flat shape keeps ingredients from spinning around and the metal doesn’t burn like wooden skewers can.
- While it looks pretty in photos (guilty as charged!), putting the chicken and all of the veggies on the same skewer can cause uneven cooking. We recommend keeping like ingredients on the same skewers so you can pull them off the grill or fire as soon as they’re cooked.
- To make sure your chicken is cooked through, we suggest using an instant-read meat thermometer. When the temperature reads 165°F, it’s done!
- Don’t marinate your chicken for too long. We recommend 30 minutes up to a maximum of 2 hours (marinating the chicken too long in an acid like lemon juice can make the texture a bit mushy).
Variations
- Mix up the marinade: Feel free to play around with the marinade ingredients if you like, adding other citrus like orange and lime, or swapping out the herbs with things like oregano, rosemary, or cilantro, depending on the vibe you’re going for.
- Vary the vegetables: Our favorite veggies for grilled kabobs are mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, any kind of onion, zucchini, yellow squash, and bell peppers. In this case, we went with mushrooms, tomatoes, and green onions, but feel free to get creative!
Make-Ahead / Storage Tips
- Make the marinade up to three days beforehand. Just store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator or cooler until you’re ready to marinate your chicken.
- Cut up your ingredients ahead of time and store them refrigerated in airtight containers until you’re ready to marinate the chicken and thread your skewers.
Serve it with …
These grilled chicken kabobs pair perfectly with grilled corn on the cob or colorful grilled corn salad. Grilled potatoes are a nice companion, too! For dessert, how about chocolate fondue or Dutch oven blueberry cobbler?
Love kabobs? Here are 33 more grilled kabob recipes to try!
Grilled Chicken & Veggie Skewers
Ingredients
For the Marinade
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup chopped basil
- ¼ cup chopped parsley
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 teaspoon salt
To Build the Skewers
- ½ lb chicken (boneless, skinless thighs work best), cut into 1 inch pieces
- 8 oz whole mushrooms, stems removed
- 8 oz cherry tomatoes
- 2-3 green onions, cut into 1 inch pieces
Instructions
- At least 30 minutes (and up to two hours) before you’re ready to cook your skewers, combine the ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl or Ziploc bag.
- Add the chicken pieces and toss or stir to thoroughly coat them. Cover the bowl or seal the bag and place in your refrigerator or cooler to marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to two hours
- Fire up your grill or get your campfire going. You’ll be cooking the kebabs over medium-high to high heat.
- Build the kabobs by threading the chicken and vegetables onto your skewers. For the most precise cooking, keep like ingredients on the same skewers so you can pull them off of the grill or fire as soon as that ingredient is cooked.
- Grill the kabobs over medium-high to high heat, turning occasionally so they cook evenly until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes total.
- Remove skewers from the grill and enjoy!
Notes
Make-ahead: You can make the marinade up to three days beforehand. Mix it up and store it in an airtight container in the fridge or your cooler until you’re ready to marinate the chicken. When it’s time to add the chicken to the marinade, give it a quick shake or stir to reincorporate the ingredients first, as they may have separated. Another make-ahead tip is to cut up your ingredients ahead of time. Store them separately in an airtight container in the refrigerator or cooler until you’re ready to marinate your chicken and assemble your skewers.
Variations: Customize your marinade by swapping the lemon with lime juice or another citrus. Other fresh herbs, such as oregano, can be swapped. Other veggies that are great on kabobs are red onion cut into wedges, zucchini or other summer squash, and hunks of bell peppers.
