Kabobs – A Crowd-Pleasing Favorite
Kabobs are always a favorite in outdoor or even indoor cooking. Kabobs can be served as a main dish, a salad or even a dessert. The nice thing about kabobs is that many different bite-sized foods can be arranged on serving plates and everyone can take turns assembling their own favorite combinations. This is the best because everybody makes their own.
Tips for Perfect Kabobs
If you want your kabobs to be tasty and attractive, be sure to choose foods that require about the same amount of cooking time. Combining foods that cook at different rates may result in part of the kabob burning and falling into the fire while the rest is still half-cooked. If you want to combine foods that take little cooking, such as cherry tomatoes or bananas, with foods that take longer to cook, add the faster-cooking foods at the end of the cooking time, just before you’re ready to serve the kabobs. Also, avoid using small pieces of food that might pop or split when they are placed on the skewer.Another hint for perfect kabobs is to leave a small space between the foods so they will cook more evenly and can be more thoroughly coated with sauce. If you are using foods that have fat on them, one way to prevent flare-ups is to place the charcoal briquettes in rows approximately two inches apart and cook the kabobs above the space between the rows so the drippings will run into the empty area. The briquettes will roast them as well as if the kabobs were suspended directly above the coals. One of my favorite kabob recipes is for Teriyaki Chicken Strips.
Teriyaki Chicken Strips Recipe
Ingredients:
10 to 12 skewers
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup corn oil
2 tablespoons seasoned gourmet rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons teriyaki marinade
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon Hoisin sauce
Slice chicken across the grain into strips (this is easiest to do with the chicken partially frozen).
Thread the chicken strips onto the skewers and place in a dish. Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients to make a marinade for the chicken.
Pour this sauce over the chicken and allow it to marinate for at least one hour in refrigerator.
Discard leftover marinade. Cook on a grill or over coals.
Serves 4 to 6.
