Grilled Chicken and Tomato Skewers
This recipe for grilled chicken and tomato skewers might just be the easiest dinner to make when you want to be cooking outside. Except for the homemade marinade, you’re using just two ingredients — chicken and tomatoes. Dinner doesn’t get easier than that.
Grilled Chicken and Tomato Skewers
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If you’re looking for a new recipe to try on the grill, you’ll love this one. It’s so easy to prepare and grilling the meat and veggies gives it a delicious char. You can serve these skewers with a side of low-carb cauliflower rice or over a green salad like you would with this Mediterranean Steak Salad.
Ingredients
I’ve presented the ingredients here in two batches. First is the marinade. After that are the rest of the ingredients for the grilled ingredients.
Marinade
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons organic lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano chopped and crushed to release oils
- 1 piece fresh rosemary broken into small pieces and crushed to release oils
- 3 cloves garlic smashed, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Skewers
- 1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast cut into one inch cubes
- 9 cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, chef’s choice
- 2 lemons cut in half
Instructions
- Add marinade ingredients to a large glass bowl and whisk together. Add the cubed chicken to the same bowl and gently toss to combine. Ensure that all of the chicken is evenly coated on all sides. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to one hour.
- Remove chicken from the refrigerator 15 minutes before cooking. Pour into a colander or mesh strainer to drain the marinade.
- To assemble your skewers, thread a tomato onto a skewer, followed by two pieces of chicken. Then add another tomato, two more pieces of chicken and a third tomato at the end. Repeat with the remaining chicken and tomatoes on the remaining skewers. If there are additional chunks of chicken leftover, place them on another skewer and cook with the rest.
- Start the grill and get it to a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the skewers and cook for 4-5 minutes. Flip each skewer and cook on the remaining side for another 4-5 minutes.
- Transfer the skewers to a platter and set them aside. Add the lemon halves to the hot grill pan and press down on each with a spatula. Heat until the exposed surface is warm and nicely browned, approximately 2 minutes. Remove from heat and squeeze the warm lemon halves over the chicken skewers right before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
For a make-ahead option, you can prepare the marinade and marinate the skewers in the refrigerator for up to 2 hours before grilling. This will allow the flavors to meld together and make the skewers even more delicious.
Nutrition information provided includes the marinade ingredients. However, since you’re draining them off and then burning them off while grilling, it is possible that these macros are not 100% accurate.
The recipe calls for fresh herbs and spices. You can substitute dried if that’s what you have on hand. Keep the following in mind: 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs equals 1 teaspoon of dried herbs.
In this recipe, you can see that I’ve used bamboo skewers. Here is an important safety tip when using bamboo or another kind of wood skewers to cook over an open fire: you have to soak the skewers first. That’s because if the wood is dry, it will catch on fire and you don’t want the skewers burning before your food is cooked. If you’re not interested in soaking wood skewers, invest in metal skewers instead.
Grilled Chicken and Tomato Skewers
Equipment
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons organic lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano chopped and crushed to release oils
- 1 piece fresh rosemary broken into small pieces and crushed to release oils
- 3 cloves garlic smashed, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Skewers
- 1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast cut into one inch cubes
- 9 cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, chef's choice
- 2 lemons cut in half
Instructions
- Add marinade ingredients to a large glass bowl and whisk together. Add the cubed chicken to the same bowl and gently toss to combine. Ensure that all of the chicken is evenly coated on all sides. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to one hour.
- Remove chicken from the refrigerator 15 minutes before cooking. Pour into a colander or mesh strainer to drain the marinade.
- To assemble your skewers, thread a tomato onto a skewer, followed by two pieces of chicken. Then add another tomato, two more pieces of chicken and a third tomato at the end. Repeat with the remaining chicken and tomatoes on the remaining skewers. If there are additional chunks of chicken leftover, place them on another skewer and cook with the rest.
- Start the grill and get it to a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the skewers and cook for 4-5 minutes. Flip each skewer and cook on the remaining side for another 4-5 minutes.
- Transfer the skewers to a platter and set them aside. Add the lemon halves to the hot grill pan and press down on each with a spatula. Heat until the exposed surface is warm and nicely browned, approximately 2 minutes. Remove from heat and squeeze the warm lemon halves over the chicken skewers right before serving. Enjoy!