These easy, moist, and tender chicken kabobs start with honey garlic marinade, then grilled with vegetables, making a great sweet and savory healthy meal with an Asian flavor.
🐓Ingredients
Chicken breasts
Bell peppers—any color
Red onion
Honey Garlic Marinade—olive oil,low-sodium soy sauce, honey, garlic, black pepper
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Featured Comment from Patty: "As expected, this was delicious!! "
These honey chicken kabobs have a pleasant but not overwhelming taste of honey combined with soy sauce and garlic to give a tremendous Asian taste. And the tender vegetables have a wonderful flavor with a little char.
These tasty chicken kabobs are easy to make and can be cut in half for only two kabobs or scaled up for a party.
Make it a kabob summer and try Steak Kabob Marinade, Easy Beef Kabobs, BBQ Chicken Kabobs, and Buttermilk Ranch Chicken Kabobs.
👨🍳How to Make Honey Garlic Chicken Kabobs
- Prep bell peppers and red onions. Trim skinless boneless chicken breasts and chop them into approximately 1-inch cubes.
- Add the chicken and veggies to a one-gallon food storage bag with olive oil, soy sauce, honey, pepper, and crushed garlic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
- Place meat and veggies on kabob skewers.
- Grill at 450° until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165°—total cooking time 25-30 minutes.
This is a summary of the steps and ingredients. See the recipe card or the step-by-step photo instructions below for complete instructions.
Baking chicken kabobs in the oven
You can bake chicken kabobs in the oven on a tray at 450° for about 20 minutes. As always, you are cooking to a final internal temperature and not by time alone, so that thigh meat will take longer than breast meat. Time varies by the oven, the tray, and the size of the chicken chunks.
What skewers to use
I usually use metal skewers, especially for chicken, where some heat transfer along the metal will help the cooking.
Wood skewers are okay. You must soak them in water before using them so they don't burn (yes, they will burn). A warm water soak of 15-30 minutes will do.
How to make vegetable kabobs
If cooked on separate kabobs, the standard onion and bell peppers will cook faster than the chicken. But if mixed in with the chicken, they will take about the same time.
Some vegetables will require different cooking times. A good example would be potatoes, which take much longer—you need to be aware of the required cooking times for your vegetables.
Other Honey Recipes
If you enjoy the great flavor of honey in your entrees, check out Crock Pot Honey Garlic Chicken, Honey Glazed Grilled Chicken Breasts, Honey Garlic Pork Tenderloin, and Small Crock Pot Ham with Brown Sugar Honey Glaze.
How to serve
Serve with summer-type side dishes, Simple Spinach Salad with Bacon, Grilled Mixed Vegetables, Grilled Baby Red Potatoes, Macaroni Salad, Microwave Corn on the Cob, or Grilled Corn.
Storing leftovers
Store leftover chicken and vegetables in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 3 days. The chicken can be frozen for 3 months, but do not freeze the leftover vegetables.
❓FAQs
Chicken thighs will work fine, but using a final internal temperature of 185°. And with the final internal temperature, cooking time will increase slightly. I suggest doing separate vegetable kabobs to prevent them from burning.
Use either a gas or charcoal grill.
Gas Grill: This is the preferred cooking method. This recipe uses a grill surface temperature of about 450°. That is about medium or slightly above on most gas grills.
Charcoal Grill: Cooking chicken over charcoal should be done over medium heat and not over the raging coals.
For more information on grill temperature, please see my guide to contolling your Grill Temperature.
This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.
Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
The ingredients are things I almost always have in the house.
Prep two peppers (any color) and two medium red onions. Chop into chunks.
Trim two skinless boneless chicken breasts and chop them into 1-inch chunks.
Add the chicken and veggies to a one-gallon ZipLock bag. Add ¼ cup of olive oil, ¼ cup of low-sodium soy sauce, and ¼ cup of honey. Add ½ teaspoon of black pepper and 4 cloves of crushed garlic. Seal the bag and mix well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
Preheat grill to 450°-500° surface temperature.
Place meat and veggies on kabob skewers.
Grill over direct heat. Rotate ¼ turn every 6-7 minutes. Cook until the internal temp of the chicken is 165°. Check the thickest pieces near the center of the kabobs—total cooking time is 25-30 minutes.
Serve hot off the grill.
👨🍳Recipe
Chicken Kabobs with Honey Garlic Marinade
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Ingredients
- 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts - 1 ½ to 2 pounds
- 2 peppers - any color
- 2 red onion - medium
Marinade
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup soy sauce - Low Sodium
- ¼ cup honey
- 4 cloves garlic
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Prep two peppers (any color) and two medium red onions. Chop into chunks.
- Trim two skinless boneless chicken breasts and chop them into 1-inch cubes.
- Add the chicken and veggies to a one-gallon ZipLock bag. Add ¼ cup of olive oil, ¼ cup of low-sodium soy sauce, and ¼ cup of honey. Add ½ teaspoon of black pepper and 4 cloves of crushed garlic. Seal the bag and mix well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
- Preheat grill to 450°-500° surface temperature.
- Place meat and veggies on kabob skewers.
- Grill over direct heat. Rotate ¼ turn every 6-7 minutes. Cook until the internal temp of the chicken is 165°. Check the thickest pieces near the center of the kabobs. Total cooking time 25-30 minutes.
- Serve hot off the grill.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- A very easy recipe to cut in half or scale up for the amount you need.
- You can use thigh meat, but I suggest using a final internal temperature of 185°. And cook separate vegetable kabobs to prevent burning.
- I prefer metal skewers since they will transfer heat to the center of the chicken.
- You can use wooden skewers but be sure to soak them in water for about 30 minutes to prevent them from catching on fire.
- The grill temperature needs to be in the 450°-500° range.
- You can also bake these in an oven. About 20 minutes at 450°.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Originally published April 24, 2016. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Susan says
Would it be advantageous to brine the chicken first?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Susan,
The soy sauce (even the low sodium) has lots of salt already. It acts a little like a brine. So I wouldn't bother.
Dan
Patty says
As expected this was delicious!! I've found its easier & less messy to put everything on the skewers before I marinating. Depending on how big I'm making them I may have to marinade in a pan instead of a bag. Thanks for your great recipes!!
DrDan says
I have a tupperware container specifically made for marinading. But I had something else in it plus I try to do a technique the readers can follow, so the bag won. So you don't like chicken stuff on your fingers....
Thanks so much for the note.
Dan
Jual Genset says
Hmm so tasty, thank you for share this recipe, so i can try it at home.
Cindy says
Sounds delicious as many of your recipes. I see in the photo looks like you are grilling small potatoes in the pan next to the skewers. Do you have a recipe for those? I never know whether to parboil or not and seasonings. Thank you!
DrDan says
Hi Cindy, Thanks for the comment.
The potatoes are something my wife brought home are called "tiny potatoes". They are white skinned and about 1 inch to a little less. No real instructions came with them so I made it up. Since I was controlling the surface temp in this recipe at 450, think of it as an oven. So I coated with olive oil and gave them a good coating of my 7:2:2 (see Food FAQs in the menu). Into a grill pan and stir when I flipped the kabobs every 6-7 minutes. At about 15 minutes I added a couple of cut up squash. Cook another 10-15 minutes and everything was done just as the kabobs were done. I know somebody was going to ask.
DrDan