Traeger Chicken Kabobs
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Traeger Chicken Kabobs are now my favorite dinner! Marinate them the night before and you’ll have dinner on the table in 15 minutes. Juicy with just a little spiciness – and loaded with veggies! Served over rice, these kabobs are the perfect dinner!
What You Will ❤️ About Smoked Chicken Kabobs
- Best Marinade Ever! What makes these chicken kabobs so delicious is the marinade! I combined cilantro & lime (a favorite combo) and added olive oil, garlic, brown sugar, cumin, salt and my favorite ingredient Chipotle Pepper Seasoning!
- Cool It Dip – making a little dipping sauce adds so much to theses kabobs!
- Versatile – Kabobs are great because you can change it up based on what you like!
Ingredients for Traeger Marinated Grilled Chicken Kabobs
Creating a marinade for these grilled kabobs was fun – I love putting together flavors and starting with Cilantro & Lime is always a winner!
- Marinade – If you want to use a pre-made marinade, go for it! (I always have a Mojo Criollo marinade in my pantry.) That said, this is super quick to put together and adds so much flavor to your chicken!
- Cilantro – if you’re one of those cilantro haters – you can swap out with Italian parsley
- Lime – be sure to use fresh limes!
- Olive oil
- Seasonings: garlic, brown sugar, cumin, chipotle pepper seasoning, salt
- Note: instead of using the canned chipotles, I like the powder chipotle seasoning because it’s much easier to use!
- Kabobs
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Vegetables: bell pepper, mushrooms, zucchini
- Additional veggies: cherry tomatoes, red onion, pineapple
- Dipping Sauce
- Sour cream & Lime Juice
How do you cook Traeger chicken kabobs?
So there’s a big debate – do you GRILL kabobs on the Traeger or do you SMOKE them? I even took a poll before making this and – for the most part – GRILLING was the winner. When people think of kabobs – it’s a quick meal – not one you want to wait 2+ hours for – so we grilled.
If you want to smoke them – I have notes in the Tips & Tricks section!
- Place cilantro, juice from 1 lime, olive oil, garlic, brown sugar, cumin, chipotle pepper seasoning, and salt in a blender and pulse until smooth.
- Place bite-size chicken chunks (approx 1-inch pieces) in a large zippered plastic bag. Pour the cilantro marinade over the chicken. Seal the bag and marinate overnight in the refrigerator.
- When ready to cook, set out chicken to bring to room temp. Prepare Traeger and set the Traeger temperature to 375ºF. Clean grill grates.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard bag and leftover liquid. Thread skewers with a piece of chicken and alternate with pepper, mushroom, and zucchini. This recipe made enough for 6 of the LONG skewers.
- When grill is up to temp, place skewers on the center of the grill for 6-8 min and shut lid. Turn skewers (they’ll have a nice char!) and cook an additional 6-8 min. Check chicken with an instant read thermometer and remove when the internal temp of the chicken reaches 160º.
- Let skewers rest for five minutes.
- While kabobs are resting, Zest lime. Mix lime juice and zest from second lime into sour cream.
- Serve kabobs over rice and sprinkle with cilantro and serve with zesty sour cream as a dipping sauce.
Tips, Tricks & FAQs
If using wood skewers, you should soak them for 5-10 minutes in water. If you don’t have time, at least rinse them for a couple of minutes with water.
I did NOT marinate the veggies, I don’t find that bell pepper really absorbs the marinade and I didn’t want the mushrooms or zucchini to get mushy.
Of course! Try and keep the temp to 375º or move the kabobs to indirect heat to prevent burning them.
You’re not cooking for very long, so if you want a smoky flavor – use a stronger wood like hickory or mesquite.
I think these were even better the next day! I removed the meat & veggies from the skewers and stored in air tight containers. You can reheat in the microwave for 1 min & 30 seconds or in the air fryer for 4 minutes.
Variations for Traeger Kabobs
- More veggies? Add red onion or cherry tomatoes for more veggies and to stretch the kabobs out to feed more folks!
- BBQ? If you like a barbecue flavor, you can marinate in a spicy bbq sauce instead of the cilantro lime marinade. Then baste with more sauce while cooking.
- Teriyaki? Make your own teriyaki marinade with 1/4 cup soy sauce, 3 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1 tsp fresh grated ginger and 1 tbsp water.
- Other Protein? You could easily swap out steak or pork loin for the chicken if you’d like. Steak kabobs would cook in 3 minutes per side to medium rare.
What to serve with Chicken Kabobs?
- Panera Chili Lime Salad – leave the chicken off and serve this salad on the side!
- Cheesy Mexican Rice
- Chuy’s Creamy Jalapeno Dip
More Chicken Recipes on the Traeger
Traeger Chicken Kabobs
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 lime
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp chipotle chili pepper seasoning
- 1 tsp coarse sea salt
Kabobs
- 1.5 lb chicken breast cut into 1.5" cubes
- 1 bell pepper cut into 1" chunks
- 8 oz mushrooms stems removed
- 1 zucchini cut into 1/2" slices
Dipping Sauce
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 lime
Instructions
- Place cilantro, juice from 1 lime, olive oil, garlic, brown sugar, cumin, chipotle pepper seasoning, and salt in a blender and pulse until smooth.1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, 1 lime, 1/3 cup olive oil, 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp chipotle chili pepper seasoning, 1 tsp coarse sea salt
- Place bite-size chicken chunks in a large zippered plastic bag. Pour the cilantro marinade over the chicken. Seal the bag and marinate overnight in the refrigerator.1.5 lb chicken breast
- When ready to cook, set out chicken to bring to room temp. Prepare Traeger and set the Traeger temperature to 375ºF. Clean grill grates.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard bag and leftover liquid. Thread skewers with a piece of chicken and alternate with pepper, mushroom, and zucchini. This recipe made enough for 6 of the LONG skewers.1 bell pepper, 8 oz mushrooms, 1 zucchini
- When grill is up to temp, place skewers on the center of the grill for 6-8 min and shut lid. Turn skewers (they'll have a nice char!) and cook an additional 6-8 min. Check chicken with an instant read thermometer and remove when the internal temp of the chicken reaches 160º.
- Let skewers rest for five minutes.
- While kabobs are resting, Zest lime. Mix lime juice and zest from second lime into sour cream.1 lime, 1/2 cup sour cream
- Serve kabobs over rice and sprinkle with cilantro and serve with zesty sour cream as a dipping sauce.
Nutrition
20 Must-Have Traeger Accessories
I absolutely love my Traeger Pellet Grill and you can pretty much use it right out of the box! But over the years I’ve definitely found that there are some Traeger smoker accessories that make everything a lot easier!
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