Grilled Chicken Kabobs on the Traeger 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 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! That adds a little zing that gets cooled off with the zesty lime dip!
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!
- 1/2 cup cilantro – if you’re one of those cilantro haters – you can swap out with Italian parsley
- 1 lime – be sure to use fresh limes!
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp minced garlic – I use the jarred kind, but feel free to use fresh
- 1 tbsp brown sugar – just a touch of sweet! You can swap out with a tablespoon honey if you like.
- 1 tbsp cumin – essential to everything!
- 1 tbsp chipotle pepper seasoning – instead of using the canned chipotles, I like the powder chipotle seasoning. It’s much easier to use!
- 1 tsp salt – I always use coarse sea salt
- Kabobs
- 1.5 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1.5” cubes – you could swap out steak if you like
- 1 orange bell pepper, cut into 1 inch chunks – you can use red bell peppers or any color you like – I think the orange are the sweetest
- 8 oz mushrooms, stemmed removed
- 1 zucchini, cut into 1/2” slices
- Dipping Sauce
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 lime
How do you cook Traeger 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 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. So I just marinated the chicken. You could brush some of the remaining marinade over the veggies before you discard it.
These chicken kabobs took approximately 15 minutes.
If you’re grilling kabobs, I found 375ºF to work well – the chicken didn’t burn or cook too quickly and dinner was still ready in 15 minutes.
Of course! Try and keep the temp to 375º or move the kabobs to indirect heat to prevent burning them.
Lower your temp. There’s a big guard over the fire pot on the Traeger so they’re not hitting the flames. That said, lowering the temp to 375º instead of 400º+ will help in ensuring nothing burns.
Using an instant read thermometer, place the probe into the thickest part of a chicken bite and remove from the grill when they are 160º internal temperature. They will rise in temp as they rest. I always check 2-3 pieces of chicken from different parts of the grill to make sure everything is to temp.
Lid closed! You want to keep that heat inside the grill.
You’re not cooking for very long, so if you want a smoky flavor – use a stronger wood like hickory or mesquite. If you don’t want any smoky flavor, go with a fruitwood like apple or cherry.
First, use a stronger wood like hickory or mesquite. Then you can also add a smoke tube to the grill. Add wood pellets to the smoke tube and light with a butane lighter. Once lit and smoking, add to the grill. Alternatively, you can lower the temperature of the grill and smoke these for longer which will impart more smoke into the kabobs.
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.
I loved the leftovers! One day, I served them over rice pilaf. Another day, I made tacos with them. And yet another day, I served them on a salad!
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 Cilantro Lime Grilled 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!
… [Trackback]
[…] Informations on that Topic: thefoodhussy.com/traeger-chicken-kabobs/ […]