Grilled Shish Kabobs are a wonderful and healthy meal. Skewers with chicken, bacon-wrapped shrimp, steak, pineapple, and vegetables are marinated, seasoned, and grilled and served with garlic butter sauce.
Grilling is one of the most primal ways of cooking. Shish Kabobs on the grill are easy to prepare! Whether it’s cooking over a charcoal fire or a gas flame, there’s just something special about food that just came off the grill makes it taste so much better. The next time you want to play “caveman” while making something really delicious, try these Surf and Turf Shish Kabobs Skewers. These may be the best Shish Kabobs for those times when you can’t decide what you want because they have just about everything on them. Whether you are craving chicken, steak, shrimp, veggies, or pineapple, this recipe has you covered. And don’t forget the bacon. Why? Because everything is better with bacon.
Table of Contents
How to Make Shish Kabobs
There are a few things you have to get right to grill the perfect Shish Kabobs, and it all starts with the prep work.
Since you are cooking different types of food simultaneously, you must try to be as precise as possible when it comes to your knifework. Stick to the suggested sizes for each ingredient. Doing this will help ensure that everything cooks at approximately the same time.
Marinating brings a lot of flavor to food, but it also helps prevent the ingredients from drying out. Despite what you may think, you don’t want a marinade to penetrate to the very center of the food but only absorb into the surface. This ensures that the marinate is the first thing that comes in contact with the heat allowing the sugar to caramelize and help develop a nice crust.
Overmarinading meat can turn it to mush, so overnight is probably as long as you want to allow anything to sit. But there really is no need to let it soak for even that long. Marinating for 20 minutes is just fine.
When you are threading a piece of food onto the skewer, make sure it’s secure and won’t flop around. For longer strips of meat, make an “S” shape, so the skewer passes through the meat three times. Turn the shrimp on its side so you can pierce it twice. Give ingredients a little space to let them cook thoroughly.
Unlike steaks and hamburgers that you only want to flip once, you should rotate the Shish Kabobs every 2 minutes. The total cooking time is about 8 to 10 minutes.
Tips for Preparing and Serving Shish Kabobs
- You can make your life easier by using metal Shish Kabobs skewers. Sure, soaking wooden skewers in the same liquid you used as a marinade will help prevent the skewers from burning. It might even add a bit more flavor. But is the hassle worth it? Metal skewers are an inexpensive, fireproof, and reusable solution.
- Serve with rice, couscous, or pita bread. Any rice works, but if you want to be a bit more traditionally, try making Middle Eastern style rice like this rice recipe from Lebanon. Couscous is tiny balls of dried pasta; it’s delicious and so simple to cook. Just add boiling water, cover, and wait! Warm pita bread offers the option of turning the Shish Kabobs into a sandwich!
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Ingredients
Here’s a list of what you need:
- Jumbo shrimp
- Bacon
- Green bell pepper
- Red bell pepper
- Red onions
- Black pepper
- Cayenne pepper
- Paprika
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated garlic
- White wine
- Steak
- Chicken breasts
- Pineapple
- Bottled Italian dressing or your favorite marinade
How to Make Shish Kabobs
Making Shish kabobs on the grill is super easy to do. If it isn’t grilling season, you may want to try my air fryer chicken shish kabobs.
- Rinse shrimp in strainer or colander.
- Remove most of the shell of each shrimp leaving the last section and tail intact.
- Devein shrimp. Rinse and drain shrimp then refrigerate in a covered dish.
- Cut bacon slices in half.
- Combine black pepper, cayenne, and paprika until well-blended.
- Whip softened butter with garlic and wine until well combined.
- Wrap bacon around each shrimp body (not the tail).
- Skewer meat, pineapple, and vegetables in this order:
- Green pepper
- Steak
- Onion
- Chicken
- Red bell pepper
- Bacon-wrapped shrimp (skewer through the main body)
- Pineapple
- Bacon-wrapped shrimp
- Red bell pepper
- Chicken
- Red onion
- Steak
- Green bell pepper
- Refrigerate skewers while preparing a medium fire (or low flame on a gas grill with the lid open).
- Soak skewers in Italian dressing for a few minutes before grilling.
- Place skewers on the grill. Sprinkle with the seasoning mixture and baste with butter mixture.
- Grill, turning skewers occasionally until the desired doneness is reached.
- Melt the remaining butter mixture to serve with the shish kabobs.
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Check out more of my easy recipes for dinner and the best summer recipes here on CopyKat!
Shish Kabobs
Ingredients
- 12 jumbo shrimp
- 3 ounces bacon
- 1 green bell pepper seeded and cut into 2 x 2 inch strip
- 1 red bell pepper seeded and cut into 2 x 2 inch strip
- 2 red onions cut into wedges
- 2 tablespoons black pepper
- 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 1/2 pound unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 teaspoons granulated garlic
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 pound steak cut into 1 x 4-inch strips
- 1 pound chicken breast cut into 1 x 4-inch strips
- 4 ounces pineapple 1/2-inch pineapple cubes
- 2 cups bottled Italian dressing or your favorite marinade
Instructions
- Rinse shrimp in strainer or colander. Remove most of the shell of each shrimp, leaving the last section and tail intact.
- With a sharp paring knife, cut shrimp along the vein underneath, but do not cut completely through. Both veins should now be exposed. Wash veins out of the shrimp. Drain shrimp and refrigerate, covered.
- Cut bacon slices in half and set aside with red peppers, green peppers, and onion wedges.
- Combine black pepper, cayenne, and paprika in a small bowl.
- Whip softened butter with garlic and wine until well-combined.
- Wrap a half piece of bacon around each shrimp body (do not cover the tail).
- Skewer meat, pineapple, and vegetables in this order:1 green pepper piece1 slice beef1 red onion wedge1 chicken strip1 red bell pepper piece1 bacon-wrapped shrimp (skewer through the main body)1 pineapple cube1 bacon-wrapped shrimp1 red bell pepper piece1 chicken strip1 red onion wedge1 beef strip1 green bell pepper piece
- Refrigerate skewers while preparing a medium fire (or low flame on a gas grill with the lid open). A high flame will cause bacon grease to flare up and burn wooden skewers. Keep a small cup of water at hand to sprinkle over the fire if this happens.
- Soak the skewers in the Italian dressing or marinade for 3 minutes before grilling.
- Place skewers on the grill. Sprinkle skewers with the seasoning mixture and baste with the butter mixture (about 1/2 cup total).
- Grill, turning skewers occasionally until the desired doneness is reached.
- Melt the remaining butter mixture and serve with the shish kabobs.
Mikey
Hi how do you grill kabobs for steak being well done. Love your recipes
Thank you Michael
Stephanie
If you need the steak well done, I would place all of the steak on its own skewer and cook it for a few minutes longer than you cook everything else.