In my college years, I worked at a terrible franchised restaurant, where I both came up with my nickname and the concept for this recipe. These are excellent for cookouts in the summer, tailgate parties, or just casual gatherings. The sauce is reasonably adaptable and may be used with a variety of meats and dishes (I first put the sauce on chicken wings). I’ve listed a few things that can be omitted for those with acid reflux, like myself, in order to reduce heartburn.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 16 kabobs |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon lime juice (Optional)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (Optional)
- ¼ cup pineapple juice
- ¼ cup dry white wine
- ¼ cup hot pepper sauce (such as Crystal®) (Optional)
- ¾ cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1 (8 ounce) package fresh mushrooms, stems removed
- 1 small red onion, cut into chunks
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
- ½ pint cherry tomatoes
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into 1 inch pieces
- 16 wooden skewers, soaked in water
- 16 fresh pineapple chunks
- 16 maraschino cherries, stemmed
Instructions
- Make the marinade by whisking the brown sugar, honey, lime juice, lemon juice, maraschino cherry juice, garlic powder, ginger, black pepper, cayenne pepper, pineapple juice, wine, hot pepper sauce, and soy sauce together in a large, non-metallic bowl. Toss the mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, and chicken in the marinade; cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
- Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat and lightly oil the grate.
- On each skewer, thread a piece of chicken, then three of the veggies followed by another piece of chicken then a pineapple slice and one maraschino cherry at the end. Mix and match the vegetables as you assemble the skewers. Cook on the preheated grill until the chicken is no longer pink in the center and the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 191 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 29 g |
| Cholesterol | 34 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 15 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 1018 mg |
| Sugars | 16 g |
| Fat | 2 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Yum. Made these for dinner tonight and the hubby and I loved them. I didn’t have any cherry juice so I used more lemon and pineapple juice in the marinade, and I ran out of soy sauce so topped that up with some Worcestershire sauce, but other than that made the marinade as is. Threw in the chicken and the veggies I had on hand then marinated an hour before skewering it all and put them on the barbeque. Made a lovely dinner which I’m sure I’ll repeat.
I picked up chicken tenders instead of cutting up a chicken breast, and used chili paste instead of hot sauce. I used onion, pineapple and fresh tomato on the skewers. This was absolutely amazing, and I will make it again.
A huge hit with husband and son. The only changes were: left out lime juice and cherry juice (didn’t have any), used beer instead of wine, and used about 1/2 cup soy sauce as that’s all I had. Wasn’t too spicy, but a great flavor. My husband insisted I go back and save this recipe. Well worth the time!
This was amazing. I had never made kabobs before and it was simple to make and very flavorful. I am kind of a wimp when it comes to hot and spicy, but I made it with the full amount of cayenne pepper and hot pepper sauce. It had a pretty good kick; it was hot, but not too hot, and the sweetness complemented it nicely. I’m getting ready to make them again for Memorial Day Weekend.
Very good recipe
I made this marinade, but not all the veggies called for. Instead I used just chicken, zucchini, and yellow squash. It was awesome, this will definitely be a part of my Summer grilling rotations from now.
Making this again tonight! So good!
We loved loved loved these Kabobs! The only thing I changed was to use chili sauce vs the hot pepper sauce in the marinade because the bottles are identical and I didn’t have my glasses on! Doubled the marinade. One half I poured into a sauce pan to thicken on the stove top with two tsps of cornstarch. When I cut up all the veggies/meat I skewered them right away while I had the mess out. Then I put the kabobs into a 9×13 glass pan and poured the marinade over them. This way the kabobs were ready to go straightaway to the grill and there was no need to soak the skewers. Marinated overnight which produced moist flavorful chicken. Brushed the kabobs with the thickened marinade while grilling. Grilled the maraschino cherries and the pineapple chunks on separate skewers. Delicious. The marinade is sweet and spicy. Served over white rice. Fantastic.
I absolutely LOVED this. I did not use the cherries or cherry juice, that was my only change. I marinated the chicken for 24 hours, then brushed the marinade on the k-bobs several times while I was grilling. Definitely a keeper!!!!
I was only able to marinate half an hour, which really isn’t enough time but I am going to rate the recipe anyway. The only things I changed in the marinade was Ouzo for the white wine (I thought the licorice flavour would pair well with the other sweet flavours in this recipe), reduced the soy to 1/4 cup and added 1/4 cup mandarin juice (well syrup from the can- it was already open so why waste) skipped the cayenne, omitted tomatoes and switched the red onion for a Vidalia onion. The cooks up perfectly in 10 minutes and the taste is quite good. The heat from the hot sauce definitely comes through (I used a Louisiana-style one) and the others play to mellow it a bit. I can only imagine how it would be if marinated longer!
Very good recipe! This will be my go-to soak, the chicken was tender and flavorful. I had no low-sodium soy sauce so used the regular stuff. I was worried it would be too salty but it wasn’t. I tried some of the pineapple marinated and some without and both were delicious. I added zuchinni to the skewers and they tasted great. Thanks for the great recipe Snacks!
It didn’t taste bad, but it wasn’t sweet, tangy, or spicy. bland. I would choose another recipe
This was interesting… reminded me of a mai tai with the cherry juice and pineapple. I did add all of the optional ingredients, but lessened the amount of soy sauce a bit. Threaded marinated chicken pieces alternately with fresh pineapple chunks on skewers then grilled. The finished dish was less mai tai and more of a spicy sweet and sour… quite tasty with the grilled pineapple. Thanks ~Snacks~ for the recipe.
This was amazing!!! I only changed a couple of things. I only used 1/4 cup of soy sauce, about 8 shakes of Tabasco sauce and I had to use canned pineapple. I also used steak instead of chicken but I think it would be wonderful on chicken or even shrimp. I will be using this again for sure!!! Thank you for the recipe!
I used only 1/8 tsp. cayenne and 1 tsp. of hot sauce in the marinade and it was spicy enough for my family. I made the marinade in the morning, added the boneless breasts and let them marinate all day. I didn’t have time for kabobs so I left out the fruit completely and just cooked the breasts. I also boiled the marinade then thickened it with cornstarch mixed with a little water. I served the sauce alongside the chicken. When I have more time, I will make the kabobs. Very good recipe.
Bland . . . not bad; just bland.
We all enjoyed these inspite of the fact that I had made these with tofu and no pineapples. I was out of pineapples.
This recipe is yummy. I left out the hot stuff but it didn’t seem to hurt the flavor. I also subbed beer for the wine since I didn’t have any on hand. We really liked this and will make it again. I will say though that I will use small whole mushrooms next time rather than just the caps.
Really great recipe! We left out the spicy ingredients since we were also cooking for a four year old, and it still turned out really good. Also I used canned bing cherries instead of the maraschinos because I like them better. This recipe passed the pregnant lady and four year old taste test!
I made this last night for a cookout and it got rave reviews. No leftovers at this event! I left out the maraschino cherries and juice and also the hot sauce because I didn’t have them. But, they were awesome! A couple people specifically said the marinade was what made the meal…
These were really good! I tripled the recipe and made about 4 dozen. I went light on the cayenne pepper and left out the hot sauce. A nice change from the usual grilled hamburgers. Great flavor!