GrillinFools
Kabobs are simple enough. Get some skewers, stab some meat and veggies and go light the grill, right? Is that what a typical kabob looks like in the pic below? Sure, you might use mushrooms or skip the shrimp or use red onion, but it’s pretty typical, right? I hate to put this to you, but you’re doing it wrong. Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered. I’m going to give you my top tips for the best kabobs.
Top Tips for the Best Kabobs
First off, the biggest mistake people make is constructing a kabob like that one above. The meat and shrimp will be done way before the zucchini or the onions. Sure, if the portions are sliced perfectly, one could make a multi ingredient kabob so that all the components are done at the same time, but that takes years of practice to get right.
Top Tip #1: Use Ingredient Specific Skewers
If you don’t want dry meat and undercooked veggies, construct each skewer with only a single ingredient. So do skewers of meat only, shrimp only, peppers only, etc. Here’s what the skewers should look like:
You will notice in that picture above that the zucchini is on wooden skewers while everything else is on my cool metal ones. Sorry, I can’t tell you where I got them. They were a garage sale find by my MiL who gifted them to me. I used wooden skewers specifically for the next two tips.
Top Tip #2: Always use Two Skewers or Two Prong Skewers
If you want the meat or veggie to stick to the grill and thus not flip over with the rest of whatever is on the single skewer when it’s time to rotate, then by all means use just one skewer. The problem is the skewers are round and it’s easy for the meat, veggies or fruit to spin around rather than flip over when necessary so use two each time:
Top Tip #3: Either Soak Wooden Skewers in Water or use Foil
Wooden skewers, even if soaked can easily dry out and catch on fire. Use foil to deflect the heat away from the handles. The moisture in the meat/veggie/fruit will keep the rest of the wooden skewers from catching fire, but the handles can easily blacken and possibly burn. Even if they don’t catch on fire, you don’t want that mess of the blackened skewers all over your hands. The zucchini is done, but the skewers still look pristine thanks to the foil heat shield:
Top Tip #4: Use Sauces and Marinades to Kick Up the Flavor
If you marinated the meats or veggies, adding a little vegetable oil and brushing that on the kabobs can really kick up the flavor profile with not a lot of work. Cooking those sauces hot and fast with the kabobs eliminates a lot of the water in them and concentrates those flavors.
Top Tip #5: Use Two Zone or Indirect Grilling
Since these ingredient specific skewers are all going to get done at different times, we need a hot side of the grill and a place where the food can stay warm but not overcook. So we need two zones on the grill whether one side hot and one side with no burners on or no charcoal or the bottom hot and the upper rack high enough to shield the ingredients from the heat. I can put my meat only skewer on the top rack of my grill to stay warm as I grill the onion skewer on direct, high heat:
Top Tip #6: Use Tongs to Flip the Skewers
This is probably one everyone has learned the hard way. The metal skewers are lava hot, but even the wooden skewers are hot enough to burn. Use tongs to flip them. Even if the wooden skewer handles are over on the side of the grill with no direct heat. If the temps are hot enough to cook the food, it will be hot enough to cook your fingers!
I realize that there is something primal about placing a skewer full of meats/veggies/fruit on everyone’s plates, and the presentation of these will not be as good, but great presentation can’t compensate for overcooked meat and undercooked veggies. So slide all the ingredients into a bowl and have your guests scoop out their own helpings or do a meat kabob for everyone and spoon the veggies onto their plates.
To Summarize the Top Tips for the Best Kabobs:
Top Tip #1: Use Ingredient Specific Skewers
Top Tip #2: Always use two skewers or two prong skewers
Top Tip #3: Either soak the wooden skewers or use foil to shield them from the heat
Top Tip #4: Use sauces and marinades to brush on a ton of flavor
Top Tip #5: Use two zone grilling with one hot side and one cool side
Top Tip #6: Use tongs to flip the skewers, even if using wooden skewers
Those are my top tips for the best kabobs. I hope each and every person who reads this, takes away at least one little nugget of information. If you do, please share with your friends. Thanks.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.
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And just because the lighting was fantastic the day we shot this, I’ll include a few more pics:
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4 comments
Weber Collins
Great tips, Scott! I like the tip for wrapping the tips of wooden skewers in foil to keep them from burning. I guess that’s just like putting foil on pig ears during a whole hog roast to keep them from charring :)
Scott Thomas
Weber,
Indeed. Foil is magical around the grill in so many ways…
…….Scott
Joseph S Eggly
I like the foil idea.. I soak a big batch of different size skewers, then freeze them so they are ready when I need them. I will give the foil a try!
Scott Thomas
Joseph,
Excellent tip on the freezing of the skewers. Genius!
…….Scott