Asian Marinated Chicken Kabobs
This easy recipe for Asian Marinated Chicken Kabobs is delicious, low-carb, and it’s definitely kid-approved! And summer may be winding down, but you still have quite a few weeks left of grilling weather to enjoy making this Asian Marinated Chicken!
PIN the Asian Marinated Chicken to try it later!
I love chicken kabobs, and this recipe for Asian Marinated Chicken Kabobs was hit when I made it for my niece Kara’s family, so I can report that they’re not only healthy and low in carbs for the adults, they’re definitely kid-friendly as well. If you’re looking for an idea for end of summer grilling, I can heartily recommend this recipe.
And although some people treat Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer, I like to stretch out summer as long as I can. My garden is still giving me zucchini and tomatoes, and I’m still grilling outside, so there might be a few more summer food ideas coming before we switch to casseroles and baked dishes!
How do you feel about the arrival of cooler weather? Are you still celebrating summer, like me? Or are you one of those people who’s already thinking about (gasp) pumpkin recipes?
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- skinless, boneless chicken breasts
- Peanut Oil (affiliate link), or use all olive oil
- Olive Oil (affiliate link)
- soy sauce or Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (affiliate link)
- Asian sesame oil (affiliate link)
- Minced Garlic (affiliate link) or garlic puree
- Minced Ginger (affiliate link) or ginger puree
- fresh-squeezed lime juice, I used my fresh-frozen lime juice
- Madras curry powder (affiliate link) or any curry powder you prefer
- salt, pepper to taste
What Asian flavors are in the Asian Marinated Chicken?
I am not claiming this is an authentic Asian recipe, but with soy sauce, Asian sesame oil, garlic, and ginger, there are a lot of Asian flavors going on here.
What skewers did I use for Asian Marinated Chicken Kabobs?
This recipe uses those beautiful blade-type skewers I got in Turkey, and if you’re making kabobs I highly recommend using either thicker blade-type skewers (affiliate link) or double skewers (affiliate link) to prevent the meat from spinning around on the skewers. But if you don’t have any skewers like that, make sure you squeeze the food together to hold it in place.
How to make Asian Marinated Chicken without an outdoor grill:
If you don’t have an outdoor grill (or it’s not grilling weather) the grilled chicken kabobs can be cooked on a stove-top grill pan with ridges or George Foreman Grill as well. (affiliate links) Remember the George Foreman Grill cooks both sides at once, so adjust the grilling time.
Want more ideas for low-carb kabobs?
Check out 35 Amazing Recipes for Grilled Kabobs if you want to see some other options for low-carb dinners cooked on a skewer! And if you’re not grilling, check out Low-Carb and Keto Baked Chicken Recipes.
How to make Asian Marinated Chicken Kabobs:
(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
- Mix together the oil, soy sauce or Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (affiliate link), sesame oil (affiliate link), garlic puree, ginger puree, fresh lime juice, and curry powder to make the marinade.
- Trim chicken breasts (or use 8 skinless, boneless thighs if you prefer) and cut in 4 or 5 pieces crosswise.
- Put chicken and marinade in a Ziploc bag and let it marinate all day in the fridge.
- When it’s time to cook, drain the chicken pieces while you preheat the grill to medium-high.
- Thread chicken on to skewers, folding each piece over so it won’t spin around on the skewer.
- Cook chicken about 8 minutes on the first side, or until you see nice grill marks and the chicken is starting to feel firm.
- Then turn skewers over and cook about 5 minutes more on the second side.
- For best results, use an instant-read meat thermometer (affiliate link) and take the chicken off when it reaches 165F/75C. (See more about safe temperatures for food.)
- Serve hot and enjoy.
Make it a Low-Carb Meal:
This Asian Marinated Chicken would taste great with Crunchy Napa Cabbage Asian Slaw, Green Beans with Tahini and Lemon, Cucumber Salad with Avocado and Feta, Grilled Eggplant Salad, or Thai Cucumber Salad for a low-carb meal! If you have any leftover chicken, make Asian Chopped Chicken Salad the next day.
More Tasty Chicken for Dinner:
Asian Marinated Chicken Kabobs
These Asian Marinated Chicken Kabobs are perfect for grilling weather, and when I tested the recipe out on some kids it was a hit.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (see notes)
Marinade Ingredients:
- 1/8 cup peanut oil (see notes)
- 1/8 cup olive oil (see notes)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (see notes)
- 1 T Asian sesame oil
- 1 T garlic puree
- 2 tsp. ginger puree
- 3 T fresh lime juice (see notes)
- 1 tsp. Madras Curry Powder or any curry powder you like will work
- salt, pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix together the peanut oil (or more olive oil), olive oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic puree, ginger puree, fresh lime juice, and curry powder to make the marinade.
- Trim chicken, removing all visible fat and tendons.
- Cut chicken breasts into 4 or 5 crosswise strips. (For thighs, cut into two pieces each.)
- Arrange chicken in single layer in Ziploc bag, pour marinade over and marinate at least 8 hours in the refrigerator. If you’re going to be home, turn it a few times, but it’s not essential.
- To cook, drain chicken in a colander in the sink and let it come to room temperature while you preheat gas or charcoal grill to medium high.
- Spray the grill with non-stick spray or brush with oil before you heat. (You can also brush a little oil directly on the kabobs after you’ve assembled them.)
- Thread chicken on to skewers, folding each piece over so it won’t spin around on the skewer. I like blade shaped skewers (affiliate link) or double skewers (affiliate link) to prevent the meat from spinning.
- Put chicken on grill and cook about 8 minutes, rotating a partial turn a few times for maximum grill marks.
- Then turn chicken over and cook about 5 minutes more, or until chicken feels firm but not hard to the touch.
- For best results, use an instant-read meat thermometer (affiliate link) and take the chicken off when it reaches 165F/75C. (See more about safe temperatures for food.)
- Serve hot.
- Leftover grilled chicken would be great on a salad like this one.
Notes
You can use 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs if you prefer. I liked this with a combination of olive oil and peanut oil, but just use 1/4 cup olive oil if you don’t have peanut oil or don’t want to use it. I used my fresh-frozen lime juice for this recipe. Use Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (affiliate link) if needed.
This recipe created by Kalyn.
Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 363Total Fat 21gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 16gCholesterol 102mgSodium 1111mgCarbohydrates 4gFiber 1gSugar 0gProtein 39g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This Asian Marinated Chicken would be great for a low-carb or Keto diet, or any phase of the original South Beach Diet.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Grilling Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
Asian Marinated Chicken cooked on kabobs was first posted in 2008. The photos were updated in 2016 and the recipe was last updated with more information in 2024.
27 Comments on “Asian Marinated Chicken Kabobs”
This was my go to recipe but now the peanut sauce recipe which accompanied this recipe went missing. 🙁 Where can I find it?
Hi Linda, I am e-mailing it to you!
I thought I’d also put it here in case someone else was looking for it:
________________________
Grilled Curried Chicken Skewers with Spicy Peanut Sauce
(Makes 4 main course servings, recipe adapted from Fine Cooking Annual.)
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Marinade Ingredients:
2 T soy sauce (be sure to use gluten-free soy sauce if needed)
2 T fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup peanut oil
2 tsp. garlic puree
1 tsp. curry powder (I used Penzey’s Sweet Curry Powder)
Peanut Sauce Ingredients:
(This sauce is good on so many things, I recommend doubling or tripling the amounts here.)
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup natural peanut butter (without sugar, regular or chunky)
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 tsp. Stevia In the Raw Granulated Sweetener or sweetener of your choice (use an approved sweetener for South Beach)
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. Cayenne pepper
Instructions:
Trim all visible fat and tendons from chicken breasts and cut each breast in half lengthwise to make two strips. Combine marinade ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together. Put chicken pieces and in Ziploc bag, pour in marinade, then seal bag and turn over several times so chicken is well-coated with marinade. Let marinate in refrigerator, a minimum of a few hours, or all day.
To cook chicken, first spray grill with olive oil or nonstick grill spray, or wipe with paper towel dipped in oil if you don’t have an olive oil mister. Preheat charcoal or gas grill to medium high (you can only hold your hand there for a few seconds.) Thread two chicken pieces onto each skewer, folding back and forth as many times as you can to get a lot of the chicken surface exposed to the grill. Grill chicken, turning every 3-4 minutes, until it’s nicely browned and feels firm (but not hard) to the touch. (When I first posted this recipe I said the cooking time was about 15-20 minutes, but on my new natural gas grill they were perfectly cooked in 12 minutes, so check them as you cook for the time on your grill.)
While chicken grills, whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, peanut butter, coconut milk, sweetener of your choice, and cayenne pepper in small saucepan. Heat over low heat, thinning sauce with a little water if it thickens too much. Serve chicken hot, with some sauce on the side for dipping chicken pieces.
Thanks a lot for sharing this recipe.
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We made this for dinner last night and my entire family loved it! Thanks for the recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it; thanks for letting me know!
My husband loves chicken thighs and this was a great easy summer recipe. We enjoyed it. Thank you!
Katharine, so glad you liked it!
Is garlic puree in the asian section of grocery store? I don't have any on hand so I will try substituting some minced garlic.
Katherine minced garlic will work fine for this. I've seen the garlic puree (sometimes called ground garlic) by Asian foods and also in the produce where the jars of garlic are. But no need to buy it if you have fresh garlic!
Hi Kalyn – I used your marinade recipe on boneless chicken thighs and grilled them. My family has pronounced this the BEST chicken ever! Thank you so much for so many wonderful and inspiring recipes…you are a real blessing!
I really like this recipe. My top tip is to mix in a bit of meat tenderiser which is just a bit of papaya enzyme and it softens the fibres in any meat.
These look delicious and I loved the post with tips on grilling chickem breasts. We only ever grill bone-in chicken, with the skin on, precisely because I fear from shoe-leather consistency chicken breasts! But I’m loving the idea of leaving some chicken breasts marinating in the fridge, ready to be popped onto the griddle pan when I get home from work with a nice, fresh salsa 🙂
Thanks for the tips and all those links. Pretty good timing since I’m doing something similar for the weekend.
My god, that is the most delicious chicken kebabs I have ever seen.
Time to go cook some chicken!
Adele, thanks for the feedback. I’m afraid there isn’t a way to print the recipe with photos. I would have liked to have the option to choose with or without photos, but it wasn’t possible with the method we used to eliminate the header and sidebars from printing.
Love this newly found site. You are putting an end to all my other food sites.
Question – how can I print the page WITH all the photos?
Thank you,
Adele
Hi there, nice to see such a great variety of recipes on your blog.
I’m from Singapore and we call meat kebabs with Asian marinade “Satay” and we dip the meat into a spicy peanut sauce (still South Beach in spirit I think!).
Yum! I love Asian style chicken and I just got a new grill! 🙂
I love chicken marinated with asian flavors. Thanks for a great recipe.
Beautiful. I love these little bites of meat in a meal. I agree a good marinade seems to keep skinless chicken moist when grilled like this.
Glad people like the sound of this old favorite of mine.
Paula, canola oil will work, or use all olive oil.
Great picture! Will try asap.
Great marinade! I don’t have peanut oil, but I’ve had good luck grilling with canola oil, so maybe that would work. This will be a hit with my family!
yes please, any time, delicious for summer cooking, they go with all the vegetables in my garden!
l1 A lot like satay, which is a personal favorite of my family! Great photo, too!
I was reading your tips on how to grill chicken! So informative and lovely. I will be trying this one day!