Last updated on January 30th, 2017 at 05:08 pm
Incredibly delicious Beer and Honey BBQ Chicken Skewers – Perfect for a weekend or even a busy week night. Just prepare the night before, let marinate overnight and grill when ready.
For as long as I can remember I’ve always hated beer, I could never understand the fascination with it. I always found it bitter, I’d much rather enjoy a cocktail or just a pop. So my parents never had to worry about me drinking their beer. As a matter of fact alcohol was never my thing, probably because I can’t hold my liquor. One drink and I start singing Gloria Gaynor. Ok, we don’t want to go there.
But I do remember years ago when my parents went on vacation and left my sister and I alone, we were actually around 19 or 20. Back then my dad used to make his own wine and sherry and we used to have a cellar in the basement where he’d keep the barrels. Mom and dad if you’re reading this, this is the honest truth. For some unknown inexplicable reason just when they were gone for that week the barrel of sherry decided to explode all over the cellar. No lie! I have no idea why, my guess is something to do with temperature and pressure, but who knows, I’m no expert. As you can imagine this did not look good on my sister and I. We spent an entire day cleaning up sherry from all over the cellar walls and other bottles and cans in there. But I don’t think that to this day my parents believe us, I think they still think we had a huge party and drank all the sherry. While I’ll admit to having a party, we DID NOT drink that sherry, I wish we had, it was really good. Glad I got that off my chest.
Back to the beer thing. Never liked beer but then I got married. My husband taught me to appreciate a good beer, and although I can’t call myself a beer drinker now, I will occasionally enjoy a beer on a hot summer day.
I have also learned to appreciate the power of beer in cooking, especially in marinades. The beer tenderizes the meat and it gives it tons of great and delicious flavor.
So for this incredible marinade here I used a darker ale, though any beer would work, and I mixed it with honey, and soy sauce and a bit of Dijon mustard. I let the chicken marinade for a good couple hours, obviously the longer you leave it the better it will taste and the more flavor it will have. One thing you could do is prepare this the night before and let it sit and marinate in the fridge until next day when you come back from work. Then all you’d have to do is thread the chicken on skewers and grill ’em. You can make this year round if you’re like my husband. No matter what the weather, snow rain or shine, he’ll be out there on the deck grilling! He’s usually the grill master here but I’m proud to say that I grilled this chicken myself and am darn proud of it. Now go marinate some chicken! You’ll love it!
If you guys love this recipe, and most importantly make it yourselves, please let us know. Take a picture and tag it #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3/4 cup beer
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 4 chicken breasts cut into small cubes
- cilantro for garnish
- Cut chicken in small pieces, about 1 1/2 inch cubes.
- In a medium bowl whisk all the ingredients together. Add chicken, there should be enough marinade to cover the chicken. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge. Let it marinate for at least 2 hours to 24 hours.
- Fire up the grill.
- Thread chicken on skewers, about 5 pieces per skewer. Do not throw away the leftover marinade.
- Place chicken skewers on grill and turn every couple minutes or so, at the same time brushing some of the leftover marinade over the chicken. Grill until chicken is cooked through.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
More delicious recipes from my kitchen
Marinated Chicken Spiedies with Garlic Sauce
Shiner makes a Smokehouse beer that I have to try this with! Could be good!
This looks so delicious and I’m planning on making this for a BBQ birthday party I’m throwing for my husband! I don’t know anything about beer so may I ask exactly what beer brand you used?
We used Corona, but really any light beer would be fine.
Great marinade! This has become my new “go-to” recipe for grilled chicken. I don’t cook it on skewers; I slice large breasts into 3-4 strips and grill. I also increase honey to 1/2 cup and add more dijon.
Sounds like a great idea and thanks for the five star rating
Looking forward to trying this recipe. What kind/flavor of red pepper flakes do you use?
I don’t do too much grilling. Can I cook these in the oven? They look delicious. My son would just gobble these up.
Of course you could. Also if you have a grill pan you could use that too.
These were great!
I made these Sunday night for dinner with some grilled green and yellow zucchini. Very tasty! I followed your recipe, but added an extra little squeeze of mustard and some black pepper. My only concern with the recipe was using the left over marinade after the chicken soaked in it. Growing up, I was told not to “reuse” the original to baste with because of the raw chicken being in it. Perhaps times have changed. I put about a 1/4 cup to the side, added some chopped cilantro to it and used that for basting.
Thank you for sharing the recipe. Sending your link to one of my girlfriends shortly. I will browse it as well!!!
Hi Mary,
What they taught you about left over sauce/marinade/baste is partially right… you should not use it to pour over the finished, ready-to-serve product–let it be red meat, poultry, or fish–, but when basting, by definition one returns the product back into the oven, so any raw fluids and small bits will cook right away… so, nothing to worry about… keep on basting and enjoying these wonderfully delicious recipes worry free. Cheers!
You are 100% correct! If you wanted to re-use the marinade. I would suggest placing the leftover marinade in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Skim off any scum and cool before using to baste the chicken on the grill.
Made these tonight. They were flavourful and moist, but next time I would skip the beer. It had a weird after taste (which went away after dipped in peppercorn ranch…Mmm)
Hi, I was thinking of making this next week. What do you typically serve with it? Thanks.
Hi Mari, I usually serve this with a salad with greens, tomatoes and cucumbers. 🙂
Can’t wait to try this now that grilling season has begun! What type of beer do you use?
You can use any kind of beer really, but I used corona.
Could I do this recipe just with boneless chicken thighs instead and just grill it rather than making kabobs?
Of course you can. They’ll be great!
This sounds very tasty but living in Florida I don’t grill during the summer unless I am forced into it. Just way to hot and humid. When the weather moderates this fall this is one of the recipes I’ll be trying out.
I believe you about
the exploding sherry. Sounds to me as if it wasn’t finished fermenting prior to being barreled. The secondary fermentation in the wood ultimately generated enough pressure to blow the cask. I’ve heard of bottle conditioned ale and soft drinks doing this.
Well thank you, at least someone believes me. 🙂
I’ve never been a big beer drinking but I swear I’d start if it meant I could have these chicken skewers. 🙂
LOL glad to see I’m not alone with beer. 🙂
Drool worthy. I’ve been eating dinner out on my deck. So wow this takes me out on
my deck and I am downing those chicken skewers.
I wish I was eating this out on my deck, but we’re getting some landscaping done so that’s out of the question for a couple weeks. 🙁
I believe you Jo. We made some Elderflower champagne a couple of years ago and some of the bottles exploded when the oven was on. Kitchen was probably not the right place to store the bottles.
Your recipe is excellent and will be used this weekend at our BBQ. Would it be possible to use thighs pieces on the bone in addition to the chicken breast?
Have a nice weekend
Sabine
Well thank you for believing me Sabine, love your name btw. 🙂
Chicken thighs would be great, and you should have enough marinade for that. You’ll love them!
Come on. Exploding barrels of sherry? You can admit the truth to me. I won’t tell your parents!! 🙂
Beer is a fantastic marinade. I have no idea why I don’t use it more often. Thanks for the reminder for this grilling season!! 🙂
Nagi! Even you won’t believe me?? I’m shocked! 😉
Ooooh Man! This looks AMAZING! I do a lot of grilling during this season and never thought of adding beer to my creations. Now I will! Thanks for sharing.
I hope you try it!
Thank you Jo for the nice recipe. I love all your recipes. Have a great day!
!
Thank you so much, Liz!