Soy Ginger Chicken Kabobs Recipe and 3 Rules for Easy Entertaining

Ginger Chicken kabobs are a great summer meal! Chicken soaked in a naturally sweet and sassy marinade with just the slightest hint of heat. Beautifully skewered with fresh vegetables and pineapple, then caramelized on the grill.

Summer entertaining is all about sharing fresh, delicious food with friends and family. I’m a More the Merrier kind of gal, so I love having a crowd of over to break bread, share a few laughs, and maybe play a few games.

I can appreciate a really great party with everything perfectly themed and in order. In fact, I co-hosted a fairly elaborate event last week that I’ll tell you about really soon! In my own home, I take a pretty casual route to entertaining. Food is my theme. My guests are the entertainment. You can bet that I’ll have enough food to feed an army, so if you go home hungry, then it’s your own fault because it won’t be from a lack of food.

I feed people. It’s what I do. 

As much as I love to cook, I don’t like to spend a load of time in the kitchen cooking when I could be out on the deck socializing and kicking some serious butt playing euchre or tether ball. Since I’d rather be spending time with with my guests, My Number 1 Rule of Entertaining is to set a simple menu and do as much of the prep work ahead of time as possible. I make a list of everything I want to serve so that I’m not scrambling at the last minute searching for forgotten items.

Soy Ginger Chicken Kabobs are so deliciously simple to put together.

The chicken is briefly marinaded in a simple blend of soy sauce, citrus, and spices–flavors which are so wonderful after caramelizing on the grill. The vegetables and pineapple are grilled unadorned, on their own skewers. Doing so ensures that they retain their own unique flavors and don’t burn to a shriveled mess while waiting for the chicken to cook through. The entire process is complete in under an hour, so even the most impromptu of parties are a realistic possibility. Serve them with a simple salad or hot, cooked rice and you’ve got an easy, satisfying meal in a jiffy.

Heck, I’ve been known to have last minute guests assemble the ginger chicken kabobs after they arrive!

Which brings me to Rule Number 2 of Easy Entertaining: get the guests involved.  If I have anything left to do when my guests arrive, I’m liable to put them to work when they offer to help. I think involving guests in even in a small way sets the “all are welcome” vibe that makes people feel at home. Everyone wants to feel useful and valued, and involving guests in the preparations lets them know that you’re comfortable enough with them to include them in the process.

Rule Number 3 is perhaps the most simple rule of all, and that is to RELAX! If you’re a giant stress-ball of frenzied activity when your guests arrive, they’ll soon be wound as tightly as you are because your mood sets the stage for the entire event. Put a little fun music on in the background, keep the volume high enough to catch the vibe of the music, but low enough to easily be able to carry on a conversation.

I find nothing more awkward than to be the first guest to arrive, walking into an eerily silent house, and waiting for everyone else to get there. Unless of course it’s walking into an eerily silent house, waiting for the other guests to arrive, and having nothing to do! (See: Rule Number 2.)

If you’ve legitimately finished all of the prep work before anyone arrives, throw a deck of cards or a simple game on the table. At the very least, you’ve got a conversation starter. You might hear, “Oh my goodness! I haven’t played Checkers in ages!” Or “Wow! I used to love playing Uno!” Hey, if it can work for Cracker Barrel, it can work for you too.

Once the food is served though, you won’t hear much other than Mmmmph! or Oooohh!

This is because Soy Ginger Chicken Kabobs are entertainment enough.

♥♥♥

Kirsten Kubert

Yields 6

Soy Ginger Chicken Kabobs Recipe and 3 Rules for Easy Entertaining

Ginger chicken kabobs are a hit! Chicken soaked in a naturally sweet marinade with the slightest hint of heat, skewered with fresh vegetables and pineapple.

1 hrPrep Time

20 minCook Time

1 hr, 20 Total Time

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Ingredients

For the Marinade:
• ½ C. low sodium soy sauce
• ½ C. extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ C. fresh lemon juice
• ½ tsp. ground ginger
• ¼ tsp. black pepper
• ¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
For the Kabobs:
• 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch cubes
• 1 sweet red bell pepper
• 1 sweet orange bell pepper
• 2 small onions
• 1 whole ripe pineapple
• Optional: mini portabella mushrooms, zucchini chunks, large cherry tomatoes, whole jalapeno peppers
Also Required:
• 10 to 12 long wooden skewers

Instructions

1. If using a charcoal grill, get the coals started now. If using a propane or gas, wait to preheat the grill until later.
2. Prepare the marinade by adding the soy sauce, olive oil fresh lemon juice, ginger, black pepper, and red pepper flakes into a gallon zippered storage bag. Seal the bag and shake to combine. Place the chicken into the bag, reseal, and turn to coat. Pop the chicken and marinade into the refrigerator to soak for 30 minutes.
3. While the chicken bathes in the marinade, fill a 13 x 9” pan with one inch of cold water. Submerge the skewers in the cold water while preparing the remaining kabob ingredients. Soaking the skewers in cold water will help prevent them from burning away to nothing on the grill.
4. Remove the stems and seeds from the sweet bell peppers. Cut the peppers into 2-inch chunks; set them aside. Peel and quarter the onions. Use your fingers to divide the onion quarters in half. Placing the onions with the peppers, and then peel the pineapple, Cut the flesh of the pineapple it away from the core, discard the core and chop the fruit into 2-inch chunks.
5. If using a gas grill, preheat it to medium heat now.
6. To assemble the kabobs, please note that the vegetables/fruit and meat should be arranged on separate skewers. While alternating chunks of meat with colorful vegetables is pleasing to the eye, cooking them as such is ill advised. The chicken requires more time on the grill to thoroughly cook than the vegetables do. Therefore, cooking the meat and the vegetables together on the same skewer will result in over cooked, burnt, and/or mushy vegetables. To retain a bit of crispness to the vegetables, place them on the grill midway through the chicken grilling time.
7. Grab a soaked skewer and begin to pierce the peppers, onion, and pineapple through the middle and up the shaft in an alternate pattern. Be sure to leave ¼-inch space between each piece, and also leave 1-inch free on either end of the skewer. Repeat with the remaining vegetables and fruit until all are on skewers. Set the vegetable/fruit skewers on a plate.
8. Remove the chicken from the marinade. Skewer the chicken pieces as did the vegetables, leaving a little space between pieces and an inch free on either end. Place the chicken kabobs on their own plate.
9. Sear the chicken kabobs for two minutes per side over direct medium heat. Once seared, reduce the heat to low (or move chicken to indirect heat). Cook the chicken for an additional 12 to 16 minutes per side, or until cooked through. At the same time the chicken is finishing on the grill, also cook the vegetable kabobs over low heat for 10 minutes per side, or until they begin to caramelize around the edges but are still crisp.
10. Allow both the chicken and vegetable kabobs to rest for 5 minutes before removing from the skewers to serve.

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https://comfortablydomestic.com/2014/07/soy-ginger-chicken-kabobs-recipe-3-easy-entertaining-rules/

Comfortably Domestic - 2016