The Juiciest Grilled Kebabs You’ll Ever Make

This guys is a quintessential kitchen tool.

It's not an accessory, but there's a way to do it right,

and there's definitely a way to do it wrong.

So today we're gonna be making five of my favorite skewers.

Chicken, steak, shrimp, halloumi, and zucchini.

And they're all different.

I'm gonna show you how to cut them,

I'm gonna show you how to stack them,

and most importantly, I'm gonna show you how to grill 'em.

We are gonna create a feast.

The first kebab that we're gonna do today is the steak.

I like to cut the steak into one by one inch pieces,

and sirloin to me is one of the perfect cuts for that.

The reason why I cut it that way

is because I can control the cooking.

So if the steak is one by one,

it gives me an opportunity to cook it to medium rare,

but it will remain juicy and tender.

For the steak, I'm gonna be using a dry rub.

A dry rub is really a melange of spices.

So I choose to pre-mix my spice blend.

I'm gonna add a little bit of brown sugar,

smoked hot paprika,

some black pepper that's freshly ground.

We have some cumin, a coriander,

and a little bit of salt for right now.

Why are we using brown sugar?

You know when you make a cake

and there's a pinch of salt in there,

and then like that salt takes out the sweetness.

It's the same thing with the sugar on the savory side.

So with these spices, a little bit of that sugar

is actually gonna make, not the spices sweet,

but kind of round out the flavor in these spices

as we mix them together.

Now I know I told you that this was a dry rub,

but to be honest with you,

I'm gonna add a little bit of olive oil

and a very scant amount,

because I want the steak to have some moisture to it

so that the steak seasoning sticks to it.

The reason why I use a dry rub on the steak

is we wanna maintain the flavor of the meat.

I wanna taste steak when I'm eating it.

So the dry rub on top,

it's not really gonna penetrate deep inside.

The flavor's gonna be the first thing

that you taste on your tongue,

and then you're gonna bite into that juicy meat.

And that's what we all want, right?

The steak flavor.

Next step is to skewer our kebabs.

You don't wanna cram them together.

You wanna leave a little bit of space,

maybe like a quarter of an inch between.

And you can see that the skewer is showing here,

and that's gonna ensure that heat's flying through that,

otherwise it's on the grill.

We're gonna get grill marks,

and we're gonna be able to cook this medium rare,

medium whatever you'd like.

And then we're ready to go.

In my opinion, what people do wrong

is that they love to load up these kebabs,

these skewers with different things.

It's the wrong way.

Why is that?

It's because each of those things cooks

at a different temperature at a different time, right?

The red onion is never gonna cook at the same time

as the bell pepper or the piece of steak.

The skewer allows you to get perfect cook

on each of those items.

This could all be done beforehand.

You can have all your kebabs ready before your guests come.

They'll be cut and marinated on skewers

and it becomes like this complete feast

that you could enjoy while entertaining.

So now guys, the chicken.

For this recipe, I like chicken thighs

because I think that chicken thighs are juicy

and they are just delicious.

I don't know about you, but when I hear chicken skin,

the only thing I wanna hear is crispy and fried.

We're not gonna get that texture when we're gonna grill it,

so we're gonna take that off.

We're setting ourselves up for success, guys, not failure.

The other part that I like about this

is that chicken takes marinade really well.

Now I know that you're gonna think that this sounds crazy,

but I like to marinate my chicken

between two and three days.

Is that a long time? 100%.

Do I want flavor? 200%.

If you put this marinade on for a half an hour to an hour,

it will do the trick.

We're gonna need olive oil here.

And the olive oil is the part that, yes, it adds flavor,

but also it's gonna bind all of these things together.

What I like about the lemon

is that the acidity tenderizes the chicken.

So I'm gonna use the zest

because where there's zest, there's juice,

and you have to use all of the fruit, in my opinion.

Cut this lemon in half

and juice it right into the olive oil.

So I have a few cloves of garlic

that I'm gonna put on the microplane,

and I like to do this because the microplane

actually cuts the garlic really, really fine,

almost into a paste, and I don't have to worry

about chunks of garlic on the grill.

Black pepper is kind of like the quintessential foundation

of seasoning in my opinion, right?

I add the turmeric 'cause it adds color,

but also a nice floral note.

This is smoked paprika,

which gives you a little bit of heat and smokiness.

Cumin here, that's ground,

which gives you those earthy notes, and cinnamon.

And this is kind of like a secret weapon here.

The cinnamon is gonna allow those other spices

to really bloom.

Are you gonna taste cinnamon?

Maybe, but it's not gonna be an overpowering flavor.

It's gonna be like that backdrop of,

why is this so delicious?

Don't tell anybody it was the cinnamon.

We're gonna add a little bit of salt here.

You wanna have enough marinade that sticks to the meat

so that as it's resting in the fridge,

it's coating everything.

You don't want this like sitting

in copious amounts of this.

It's wet, but it's not like dripping with marinade.

And all that marinade that we put is glossy

and on top of this meat.

So we're gonna go in from kind of the bottom piece, right?

And then we're gonna find a top piece

and then put it through there.

So it's almost like a ribbon.

And the reason why is because you wanna make sure

that the chicken is getting enough surface area

so that when it hits the grill,

you're getting those beautiful and delicious grill marks.

The most common mistake I find with people

when cooking chicken is that they overcook it.

You wanna take them off a minute or two

before they're overdone.

And while they're sitting there, resting,

before you're gonna get your nice plate together

for your feast, they're still cooking.

Don't forget that the metal in the middle of this kebab

is going to retain its heat.

The chicken's done and we're moving on to the shrimp.

Shrimp take on a lot of flavor.

We're gonna do a dual marinade.

And what do I mean by that?

We're gonna make a wet marinade

and we're gonna break half off.

And while it's on the grill,

we're gonna baste the marinade and after it's done,

so that we're getting that freshness from it.

We're gonna start with one of my favorite ingredients,

which is fresh ginger.

What I like about this is that stops the fibers

from getting through,

but it gives you that nice ginger pulp,

which is where the flavor's at.

Same thing with the lemon here.

I use lemon juice in everything.

A good amount of olive oil,

and then I'm gonna use the grater

to do some cloves of garlic.

A little bit of our coriander, some smoked paprika,

and then some chopped cilantro.

The stems and the leaves have flavor,

so don't always throw the stems out, guys.

A little bit of salt,

and then we're gonna need good amounts of olive oils.

You really want this marinade to be wet.

So the olive oil is kind of the thing

that's gonna carry all that flavor.

So before I put all the marinade in there,

I'm gonna take about half of this, put it in the bowl.

And what we're gonna do with this is that

when the shrimp come off the grill,

we're gonna baste the shrimp in that marinade.

These shrimp have the tail on them.

I love to pop out that little piece of meat

that everybody forgets in there.

This is something that you can do like the morning of.

If you wanted to do it the night before,

for sure that you can do that.

So we are going to skewer our shrimp

right underneath where this little bottom shell is.

You're gonna put the skewer through the bottom

and then through the top.

What I like about this

is that we're only gonna flip the shrimp one time.

It's gonna cook flat on one side and then flip 'em over

and it's gonna be evenly cooked and beautiful.

I am a late comer to shrimp.

I always felt like, what was the purpose?

It didn't have much flavor,

but now that I've been marinating and skewering shrimp,

like who doesn't love this?

I also love shrimp because it cooks really quickly.

Now that the shrimp is done,

we're gonna move on to the zucchini.

Zucchini, doesn't have a lot of flavor, but yes it will.

Cut the ends off and the stems off.

I cut it into rings like this.

Super easy.

There's no sorcery or magic here, straight up cooking.

I go up the center like this

because they're not going anywhere.

Simple is delicious.

And also think about all the other flavorings

that we've had on there.

So sometimes you need a little reprieve, right?

Sometimes you need something that compliments it

and not contrasts it.

I'm gonna leave these plain.

If I season this now, what's gonna happen is that

it's gonna draw moisture out of the zucchini,

and I don't wanna do that.

And why is that?

It's because I wanna get grill marks on these bad boys

when they hit the grill.

Okay guys, halloumi, the princess of grilling cheese.

I mean, even on the packaging,

it says the cheese that grills.

Halloumi is one of my faves.

It's like one of the few cheeses

that you could actually grill, which I love.

I'm a textural eater, and halloumi has got that squeakiness

that everybody loves, right?

Because it's so dense and kind of like compacted together,

When you put it on a skewer,

it's never gonna give you that melty feel

that like provolone or mozzarella will.

But what it does is it retains its shape

and it gives you this beautiful texture and creaminess.

We're kind of taking the same thickness

as we did with the zucchini and we're just cutting it.

Sometimes halloumi's got this little Pac-Man situation.

Don't fret, okay?

Because once you put this on the skewer

and that's kind of why I'm going at an angle,

it's gonna make sure that the cheese doesn't fall off.

One of the inherent flavoring of halloumi

is definitely that it has some saltiness to it.

There is some salinity there.

This is something that I would put on the grill

with a little bit of olive oil,

but I'm gonna skip the salt.

Because we're creating this kebab feast,

I'm kind of thinking about the bigger picture.

I'm thinking about how these flavors

are gonna layer together.

The skewers of the halloumi and the zucchini

are gonna kind of offer reprieve.

They're gonna give a refreshment, if you will,

to this entire kebab platter.

All of the prep is done.

We have our steak, our chicken, our shrimp, zucchini,

and halloumi, and we are gonna season,

because we're about to head over to the grill.

So I'm gonna add a little bit of olive oil to the proteins.

So we're gonna season from far up here.

You can see we're doing like a sprinkling.

Okay, so make sure that every piece gets hit

with a little bit of that salt.

And then we're gonna flip them

and do the same thing on the other side.

The grill's ready to go and we're gonna head over now.

[upbeat music]

The game plan is gonna cook these in order

of their doneness,

meaning like the chicken's gonna take the most time,

then the steak into the shrimp, halloumi,

and zucchini, which probably will take all the same time.

So I have the grill on medium hot.

So you're looking for like what I call the five count.

So when you put your hand over the grill,

you can count to fives.

If you put it on here and you have a two count,

it's ripping hot and that to me will burn the exterior,

but not be able to cook the interior.

We're throwing the chicken down.

I'm putting the chicken kind of perpendicular

to the grill marks because that's what I want to get them.

If you don't have an outdoor grill,

you can use a cast iron or a grill plate on a regular stove

and it will do the trick.

And now you have to exude a little bit of patience, right?

I know that when people have tongs in their hands

they're feel inclined to moving things.

You wanna kinda let the meat do its thing.

The meat will not release from the grill.

You get it stuck and you start to shred it

if you pick it up and it's not ready to release.

Steak's gonna go on, same thing.

I'm gonna go against the grill grates.

You don't want to really jostle these skewers up much.

You see the steak?

If I try to lift this up, you see it's not going anywhere,

it's not ready to be turned.

When the meat is caramelized

and that like Maillard reaction happens

between the grill and the meat,

then you'll know it'll be ready to turn.

Chicken is looking really beautiful.

As soon as it comes off the grill,

let's hit it with a little bit of lemon

and a little bit of sea salt.

Now why am I doing that?

Picture it like a facial, right?

If the chicken is heated up, all the pores are open,

right now I'm gonna let it rest

so it continues to cook a little bit

and it's also gonna soak in a little more seasoning.

Shrimp going down.

And we're ready for our zucchini,

so remember, we didn't add any salt to the zucchini before,

we're gonna hit it with salt now.

Halloumi down.

Steak's ready.

We kind of want there to be space in between these skewers

when we're having them rest

because we want the heat to be dispersed.

You don't want to like layer these kebabs

on top of each other

because they're hot, we don't want them to overcook

so that we want to give them enough room

to kind of breathe and rest.

Okay, shrimp are ready.

We saved the marinade to kind of re-marinate the shrimp.

So we're gonna take a pastry brush here

and be generous here.

We're gonna do this on both sides.

Just the way we put the lemon juice and the salt

on the other proteins, we're gonna use this marinade

to pack flavor in.

You can smell the ginger, the coriander,

the cilantro, the garlic.

So the halloumi is sticking a little bit.

So I'm gonna take a little fish spatula

or regular spatula, kind of just nuzzle it around

so that it can move over.

If it falls off or flips, don't fret, you'll be okay.

Wow, that's looking good.

The zucchini's gonna get a little bit of salt,

a nice squeeze of lemon.

I'm gonna give everything a little bit of drizzle

of olive oil just to gloss this bad baby up.

So we're done at the grill and now we're gonna plate

and we're gonna see what this grilling feast looks like.

Look what we have created.

I am about to plate you the most beautiful kebab feast

that you ever had in your life.

So I'm gonna rip the bread a little bit

and we're gonna throw this some on the bottom,

We'll keep some whole on the top here.

And this is all about like aesthetically layering, right?

Let everybody kind of serve themselves and do their thing.

Beautiful, juicy chicken.

We have the zucchini that are going down

that are probably the sleeper

'cause nobody's gonna believe how delicious they are.

And then who says no to halloumi?

I might just like take these off a little bit

so they kind of scattered around.

If you wanted to cut them in half, do your thing.

Don't forget they have that Pac-Man situation

so when your guests go in there and they rip 'em,

they'll fly apart.

Tomaca, which is grated fresh tomato with olive oil,

a little bit of garlic and oregano.

I just kinda like to put this a little bit

over the zucchini,

let some of it touch the halloumi and the bread.

We're gonna rip some of these fresh herbs off,

finish this with some lemon,

and then you're gonna tuck some lemons in here.

Whole sprigs, guys, whole sprigs.

We're not cutting anything here.

This is rustic, this is beautiful.

This is the painting of your dream.

Doing this with a little bit of that Maldon,

just as a kiss at the end,

and you know I can't live without,

I'm inclined to drizzle.

Look at this.

Honestly, it just makes you happy.

I don't care if you're in a bad mood

or whatever happened to you,

you gotta pay your mortgage,

this platter will put you into a good mood.

I'm always gonna pick the piece of the bread on the bottom

'cause any of those juices that drip off

from the meat are gonna be in there.

And you know me, I'm gonna make a rip and dip moment.

This is a megabyte, but you know I only take monster bites.

Let's see what happens.

[upbeat music]

The flavors are like igniting a party in my mouth.

But the most like soulful part of this

is that all the time that we took, right?

From the preparation to grilling everything separate,

everything is cooked properly

and the maximization of flavor is over the top.

Let alone like the visual appeal of this kebab feast.

It's an easy way to entertain.

When the kebabs hit a table, they always deliver.

It's really a showstopper.

I know you guys love me and I know you love my cooking,

so that's why you need Mediterranean All the Way.

This is my new cookbook coming out.

It's got simple recipes like this

for showstopping moments for you at home.

Kebabs for life.