Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs Recipe
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These Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs are a colorful and tasty meal for summertime and so very easy to make too!
These Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs are anything but boring and taste like a summer party in your mouth! With juicy pineapple, colorful bell peppers and savory onion, these chicken kabobs are fresh and delicious, perfect for outdoor entertaining and summertime parties.
For your recipe seeking pleasure, I’ve prepared a few reasons of why I think kabobs are the most fun (funnest?) of all summer grilling foods. If you want to skip this nonsense just go straight to the recipe at the bottom.
- Preparation: Getting these Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs together is all kinds of awesome. You can make them in a pretty pattern or personalize it. It’s like making those macaroni necklaces but for adults and it tastes good and you don’t wear it.
- Fruit + Meat: In the great tradition of American food, you don’t usually mix fruit and meat, but why not? It’s so awesome and delicious! Like the age old struggle of whether to put pineapple on pizza. I can’t think of any other situations where people would even think to argue about combining meat with fruit, so just do it, pineapple with anything is wonderful!
- Pretty Colors: Most summery, outdoor foods are delicious, but not particularly pretty (I’m looking at you barbecue pulled pork). But these Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs are so colorful and pretty! No shame if you match your outfit to your kabob, or your kabob to your outfit. They’re eye-popping on a picnic table and 100% instagram worthy.
Now I’m no Buzzfeed, but that’s a pretty dang good list if I do say so myself.
As for the Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs recipe itself, it’s super simple. First, whip up the marinade ahead of time by combining the spices and various oils and juices. The chicken needs some time to marinate before cooking, so just make sure you’ve got that taken care of before you even think about getting hungry for dinner. Save half the marinade to baste while the kebobs are grilling.
Once you’re ready to fire up the grill, go ahead and thread the chicken, peppers, onion and pineapple on the skewers and brush a bit of olive oil on the veggies. Oil the grill grate and place the kabobs on medium heat, turning every 4-5 minutes. Don’t forget to baste! Grill until the chicken is done, which takes about 15-20 minutes. Pop those suckers off and enjoy!
Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs Recipe
Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs
These easy and delicious kabobs are perfect for outdoor entertaining and summertime parties.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (or tamari)
- 1/4 cup canned pineapple juice
- 3 tablespoons honey (or brown sugar)
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup cold water whisked
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 3-4 bell peppers, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces (colors of your choice)
- 1 large red onion, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 cups pineapple chunks
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil (or more sesame oil)
- oil or grill cooking spray for grill grates
Instructions
- Create marinade* in a small sauce pan over medium heat by whisking together soy sauce, pineapple juice, honey, sesame oil, garlic powder, ground ginger, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Separately, whisk together cold water and corn starch until combined. Slowly stream cornstarch mixture into marinade. Whisk all together. Return to a simmer; allow to simmer, whisking occasionally, for 3-4 minutes until marinade thickens. Remove from heat. Set aside.
- Place diced chicken in a large plastic zip-top bag or bowl. Add half of marinade; toss to coat chicken. Seal/cover chicken; refrigerate at least 1 hour up to 4 hours.
- If using wooden skewers, soak in water for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat grill to medium heat.**
- Alternately thread chicken, peppers, onion and pineapple onto skewers. Brush olive oil on vegetables.
- Oil grill grate. Place kabobs on grill over medium heat. Grill, turning every 4-5 minutes and basting with remaining marinade until chicken is done; about 15-20 minutes.
Notes
*Marinade can be made ahead, then kept covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days.
**To broil kabobs in oven, preheat broiler. Line baking sheet with baking parchment. Arrange kabobs in individual layer on baking sheet. Place under broiler; broil, every 5 minutes turn and baste with remaining marinade until chicken is done. About 15-20 minutes.
Mmmm, this sounds really good. 🙂
Tried this out, and the whole family enjoyed it. One modification I made was to reduce the sesame oil from 2 tablespoons down to 1 tablespoon. I threw in an extra tablespoon of canola oil to keep the oil level the same. Very delicious, lazy summer night meal!
Can you marinate the chicken overnight?
I marinaded them overnight and the flavor was outstanding, and the chicken was tender.
Awesome & easy! Doubled the recipe & the skewers were a hit! Highly recommend.
Great on steak also!
I made this tonight for another couple, my husband and me. I broiled it in the oven and it came out perfectly with 2 cycles of 5 min. each in the oven on low broil. The marinade was fabulous. Thanks for sharing this! It was the perfect summer meal paired with Zataran’s Caribbean rice, slaw, watermelon and pina coladas.
That sounds like the perfect meal combination, Yvonne! Glad you enjoyed the kabobs.
I made these for my Mom’s birthday cookout and they were a huge hit. I will definitely make these kabobs again! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
**I marinated overnight.**
How many kabobs does this recipie make?
I love to know how many is made from this, be really helpful!
I tried these on Sunday for a crowd of 30. They were a hit! I paired the kabobs with roasted broccoli and a pasta and veggie salad. Very tasty and moist. I found that I very much dislike the smell of sesame oil so next time I think I’ll try avocado oil.
Thank you for the delicious recipe!
really really good …thank you for sharing
I tried t. it was a hit! I paired the kabobs with roasted broccoli and a pasta and veggie salad. Very tasty and moist.
Thank you for the delicious recipe!
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS RECIPE. THESE CHICKEN KABOBS ARE GREAT! It’s April 4th 2020 so we all know how hard our lives are right now. Trying to come up with different things to cook for dinner and someone said what about kabobs. Hubby only one going out of the house right now and we needed groceries so was lucky we decided on this recipe early enough to add the ingredients to the shopping list. Very easy to make and everyone loved it. Having to cook all the time now has really been challenging. So when you have great success in trying something new it is very comforting.
Made this today!! 😋😋omg it’s soo delicious. Thank you so much for sharing!!
Best kabobs I’ve ever had!!!
Just a point of science, I guess. Sesame oil quickly loses its flavor when heated. I’m making this tonight for 4th of July cookout, and I’ll prepare the marinade as described (the proportions look perfect), but leave the sesame oil out until after thickening with the cornstarch. An added bonus is you can cut the sesame in half (it’s pricey!) if you do it that way.
I’ve found with many Asians recipes to add the oil near to the end of the cooking, in sort of the same way that the French add butter when the sauce is already done.
Just my two cents.
Did you use fresh pineapple or canned so you could also use the juice? Thanks for any replies! I want to make this for Sunday dinner,
Either will work.
Definitely marinade overnight. I would double the marinade as I didn’t have as much as I would have liked to baste while cooking. This recipe made a lot so I would use more chicken on each skewer and a little less veggies. It was absolutely delicious and will definitely make it again!
One of our favorites! A perfect blend of sweet and savory. The recipe is fresh and unbelievably delicious!
Can you substitute the sesame oil with something different?