Skewers of chicken, pineapple, onion, green pepper, zucchini and cherry tomatoes, brushed with a sweet-salty soy and honey glaze and broiled until lightly charred. The pineapple and the teriyaki-style glaze give the kebabs a Hawaiian flavor, and they are quick enough for a weeknight.
Ingredients
Instructions
Soak the bamboo skewers in warm water for 45 minutes, then drain and dry them. This keeps the skewers from burning under the broiler.
Peel the onions, cut each in half, and cut each half in half again to make 8 wedges. Wash and dry the peppers, zucchini and tomatoes. Cut the peppers in half, remove the seeds and ribs, and cut each half into 4 wedges. Slice the zucchini into ¼-inch rounds and cut each round in half. Cut the chicken into 2-inch pieces.
Whisk the soy sauce, honey, vegetable oil and Worcestershire sauce together in a small bowl. Pour about 2 tablespoons into a separate clean bowl to drizzle over the cooked kebabs later.
Thread the chicken, onion, pepper, zucchini, tomato and pineapple onto the skewers in a repeating pattern, dividing everything evenly among the 6 skewers (about 3 or 4 pieces of chicken per skewer). Leave a little space between the pieces so the heat reaches all sides.
Spray a broiler pan with cooking spray and set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heating element. Preheat the broiler. Place the kebabs on the pan and brush them with the sauce from the larger bowl.
Broil for 5 to 6 minutes, watching closely, because the honey glaze scorches quickly. Using oven mitts, slide out the pan, turn the kebabs over and brush again with the sauce. Broil for 3 to 4 minutes more, until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables and pineapple are lightly charred at the edges. Check that the thickest piece of chicken has reached 165°F; if it has not, broil another 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove the kebabs with oven mitts, drizzle with the reserved sauce and serve hot, with steamed rice if desired.
Notes
Discard any sauce left in the bowl used for brushing, since it has touched raw chicken. That is why a little is set aside first for serving.
If the ends of the skewers start to blacken, wrap them in a small piece of aluminum foil. Metal skewers need no soaking.
Cutting the chicken and vegetables into similar-size pieces helps them cook at the same rate. Chicken thighs also work and stay juicier, but they take a few minutes longer.
Variations
Grill the kebabs over medium-high heat for about 10 to 12 minutes, turning them every few minutes and brushing with the sauce.
For a closer match to huli huli chicken, add a splash of pineapple juice, a teaspoon of sesame oil, a little grated ginger and a minced garlic clove to the glaze.
Marinate the chicken in half of the sauce for 30 minutes before threading it, and use a fresh batch of sauce for brushing.
Swap in red bell pepper, mushrooms or red onion for any of the vegetables.
Source
The glaze echoes huli-huli chicken, Hawaii's best-known barbecued chicken. It was first sold in 1955 by Ernest Morgado and Mike Asagi of the Pacific Poultry Company in ʻEwa, who basted chicken in a teriyaki-like sauce. The name comes from the Hawaiian word huli, "to turn," which onlookers shouted when the chickens needed turning on the spit.