Your email address is safe with us. View our Privacy policy.
Chicken Kabobs and Italian Sausage Kabobs
Zola Gorgon
Fire Up the Grill
Ever since I got my ridged grill pan I've gotten kind of lazy. I have rarely used my gas grill. Horrors, you say! No authenticity!
The reason I got lazy is at our place in Chicago is that my grill is up one floor-- instead of off my kitchen. When you are a large city dweller, your apartment might be stacked completely upside down compared to how a conventional home is built.
Consider the freestanding homes in London, England. Those are even more extreme. When you tour one of those you're likely to find the kitchen on the basement level. Basements in London usually look out over a small garden so it's not like you're in a dungeon or anything, but you are definitely on the bottom floor. If you came in the front door you'd walk down to get to the kitchen level. That's because their buildings are so much older than ours. When those buildings were built some of the cooking prep was done in the house in the kitchen but if it involved a bigger fire it was usually done in a small out building. That cut down the likelihood that you'd burn the house down when you were roasting your spare ribs. The fire in the kitchen was more for heat, or it might have a kettle suspended over it. The other reason was that if you had enough money, the "help" was doing the cooking, not you. You were upstairs relaxing; reading the novels of the day or chatting amiably with friends.
So back to Chicago. My kitchen is on the first level of my home and up 21 stairs you get to the top level where we have the roof decks. That's where the "family room" is, a small bar, and the grill is out on the front deck. Sometimes I'm just too lazy to climb up and down the stairs while making dinner so I just use the grill pan.
This past week I decided it was time to get back up to the grill. The weather was perfect and I was in the mood for something simple. With my back healing I still need meals that are very simple and quick to make.
For the kabobs we could do the cutting up of the ingredients downstairs and then take the assembled kabobs up to the grill. We could even take the side dishes up there and heat them if necessary but the kabobs were the main feature. Then we could eat on the roof deck and watch the sunset. Perfect.
Today's offerings are going to involve two recipes. One for chicken kabobs and one for Italian sausage kabobs. Both use the same glaze. You can make both flavors or choose one. They have a very different flavor from each other and make a good mix if you make both.
Chicken kabobs
Serves 4
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves cut into 1" cubes
1 green pepper cut into 1" - 1 1/2" cubes
1 red pepper cut into 1" - 1 1/2" cubes
1 large onion cut into 1" wedges
Flavor sprinkles. (These can be anything you like. Italian, Southwestern, Asian). I did Southwestern this time.
Olive oil spray
The glaze
3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 Tbl honey
Cayenne powder to taste. I used about 1/8 tsp.
Pre-heat your grill and prep the shelf by removing old cooking debris and oiling the grill shelf.
Assemble your kabobs by alternating the ingredients on your skewers. (If you are using wooden skewers don't forget to soak them in water for 30 minutes before assembly so they don't burn on the grill).
Sprinkle all sides with your herbs or spice mix.
Place your kabobs on the grill and roast on a medium heat level for approximately 12-15 minutes until the chicken is done. Rotate the kabobs so all sides get cooked and you can even move them from one side of the grill to the other if you have "hot spots" on your grill. The most important thing is to make sure the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.
While the kabobs are grilling you'll be mixing your glaze in a small bowl. Stir with a basting brush until the honey gets well incorporated. It will be almost like it melts into the Worcestershire and the cayenne gets mixed in. Taste it. You can always add more cayenne to make them as zippy as you'd like but it's truly impossible to take the cayenne back out. The mixing will only take a minute or so and then it can sit until the kabobs are done.
I "baste" my kabobs after they are cooked and off the fire. Because of the honey in the sauce, if you baste them sooner, you run the risk of drips falling into the bottom of the grill and starting flare-ups. I'd rather not have a burnt honey taste on my chicken so I just wait until the chicken is cooked and then brush them and even drizzle on extra sauce. You can even pass the extra because the sauce will not have been tainted by under-cooked chicken juices.
Your entrée is ready in 15 minutes or less.
Italian Sausage Kabobs
Serves 4
4 pre-cooked Italian sausages cut into 1"chunks
1 can pineapple chunks
12-15 cherry tomatoes
15 green onions. Trim the green onions and make 2-3" pieces. You just want a chunk with the white part on the end.
Olive oil spray
Flavor sprinkles. (These can be anything you like. Italian, Southwestern, Asian). I did Southwestern this time.
For the sausages:
I am recommending that you either buy pre-cooked Italian sausages or that you boil them ahead of putting them on the grill. When they are on the grill my intention is that you are only heating them and getting grill marks on them. The rest of these ingredients are delicate enough that if you had to wait for the sausages to get cooked all the way through the cherry tomatoes would have burst and the onions charred etc.
The glaze
3/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce
3 Tblsp. honey
Cayenne powder to taste. I used about 1/8 tsp.
Pre-heat your grill and prep the shelf by removing old cooking debris and oiling the grill shelf.
Assemble your kabobs by alternating the ingredients on your skewers. (If you are using wooden skewers don't forget to soak them in water for 30 minutes before assembly so they don't burn on the grill).
Sprinkle all sides with your herbs or spice mix.
Place your kabobs on the grill and roast on a medium heat level for approximately 10 - 12 minutes until the ingredients have nice grill marks and are hot. Rotate the kabobs so all sides get cooked and you can even move them from one side of the grill to the other if you have "hot spots" on your grill. While the kabobs are grilling you'll be mixing your glaze in a small bowl. Stir with a basting brush until the honey gets well incorporated. It will be almost like it melts into the Worcestershire and the cayenne gets mixed in. Taste it. You can always add more cayenne to make them as zippy as you'd like but it's truly impossible to take the cayenne back out. The mixing will only take a minute or so and then it can sit until the kabobs are done.
I "baste" my kabobs after they are cooked and off the fire. Because of the honey in the sauce if you baste them sooner you run the risk of drips falling into the bottom of the grill and starting flare ups. I'd rather not have a burnt honey taste on my kabobs so I just wait until the kabobs are cooked and then brush them and even drizzle on extra sauce. You can even pass the extra because the sauce will not have been tainted by under-cooked sausage juices.
Your entrée is ready in 15 minutes or less.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola
This news arrived on: 08/31/2007
Printer Friendly Version | Send this page to a friend | Post Comment
Rate This Story:
Great - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Bad
Posted Comments:
Comment archive | Comment FAQ's
 |
 |
View ArcaMax Chef ezine stories by date or visit the complete archive |
The ArcaMax Politics channel is one of 70 content categories offered by ArcaMax Publishing on this ... |
FIND JOBS
