bacon barbecued chicken kebabs

Looking at these grilled chicken kebabs you’d never guess that bacon comes into play. But since I had practically a whole package of bacon left from the grilled cheese and bacon potatoes, I decided to try this unique chicken kebab recipe. And actually the way you prepare the bacon was quite weird to me.

I’ve never heard of making a paste with bacon before but what the heck, I thought I’d give it a try. Once you make the bacon and spice paste, you rub it onto the raw chicken kebabs before grilling. Then as you grill, baste the chicken kebabs with the homemade barbecue sauce.

These are some really good grilled chicken kebabs. The bacon and the smoked paprika give them a great smokey flavor while the barbecue sauce gives them some zippy tang.

This recipe does take a good amount of prep work but you’ll find the taste is well worth it. Next time I make them, I may skip the kebab prep portion and just use whole chicken breasts.

Bacon Barbecued Chicken Kebabs

from First Look, Then Cook

Ingredients:

1 – 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch cubes

Bacon Paste:

2 slices bacon, cut into small chunks
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
4 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons smoked paprika

Barbecue Sauce:

1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon onion flakes
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions:

1. Start with making your barbecue sauce. Add all of the sauce ingredients into a small sauce pan and mix. Simmer on medium and cook until sauce thickens. Remove from heat right before grilling chicken. (This makes a lot of sauce. Before using to baste kebabs, I transferred half to a resealable container, refrigerated it and saved it for another meal.)

2. Cube chicken and place in medium sized bowl, set aside. In a food processor, process bacon until a thick paste forms. Add sugar and paprikas and process until mixed well. Add paste to chicken and mix completely. Thread chicken onto skewers and place on hot grill.

3. As kebabs cook, baste chicken with your homemade barbecue sauce. Turn and continue basting as they cook. Kebabs should only need to cook for maybe 15 – 20 minutes total depending on the size of your chicken chunks.