Pineapple & Coconut Marinated Chicken Kabobs

The most difficult part of this dish may just be skewering all of the ingredients. It's a little time consuming, very repetitive and possibly dangerous if you let your focus slip and skewer your finger instead of a piece of chicken. Fortunately, that scenario did not happen to me, but it did cross my mind a couple times, leaving me with thoughts of, "That would really suck if..."

This dish is simple, and tastes great. Soaking the chicken in my homemade marinade keeps it moist and saturates it with sweet and spicy flavors. Grilled pineapple is sweet and always delicious. The flavor of peppers and onions are also greatly enhanced when grilled.

Pineapple & Coconut Marinated Chicken Kabobs

Pineapple & Coconut Marinated Chicken Kabobs

Servings: 3
Total Time: ~1 hour + 20 minutes

Components
For marinade:
8 oz. can crushed pineapple in juice
3/4 c. coconut milk
1/4 c. honey
2 tbls. crushed red pepper
1 tbl. ginger, chopped
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Salt and pepper to taste

For kabobs:
3 chicken breasts, cut into uniform chunks
1 fresh pineapple, chopped into chunks
1 green bell pepper, chopped into chunks
1 red bell pepper, chopped into chunks
1/2 red onion, chopped into chunks
Salt and pepper to taste
6 wooden skewers, soaked in water

Method
1. Combine all ingredients for marinade in a mixing bowl. Place chicken and marinade into a large freezer bag. Refrigerate and marinate for 1 hour.

2. After the chicken has soaked, preheat grill to medium heat.

3. Build your kabobs. Obviously, order doesn't matter, but I went onion, chicken, bell pepper, pineapple, onion, chicken, other color bell pepper, pineapple, etc. until I had gone through the process 5 times.

4. Brush the kabobs with canola oil, or mist with cooking spray. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Space evenly on the grill. Cook 5 to 7 minutes on each side, or until chicken has cooked through.

Commentary
1. Plain pineapple juice will work just fine in the marinade. I only used a can of crushed pineapple because it was readily available and convenient.

2. Discard all marinade after the marination process has finished.

3. Keep all ingredients as uniform in size as possible in order to ensure even cooking.

4. For a very tasty and filling meal, serve kabobs with Shrimp-Coconut Rice and a side salad. Mixing all components of the kabobs with the rice also adds crunchy textural contrasts. Garnishing with lime wedges isn't a bad idea either.

Coconut-themed surf and turf meal