Best Chicken Kabobs Ever

Today we had chicken kabobs for dinner.  Usually I think of chicken kabobs as a distant second place to beef kabobs, but these were very good.   In fact, it occurred to me they were the best we had ever made.   So I thought it's time for a way-overdue blog post to record the event.  Luckily I took a photo of the last remaining kabob before they were all gone.

Ingredients:

(Makes about seven kabobs)

Three boneless skinless chicken thighs
One green bell pepper
One red bell pepper
One medium sized onion
Approx 10 medium sized mushrooms
One small zucchini
Approx 1 cup Italian salad dressing
Small amount of white wine
Salt and pepper*

• Combine salad dressing and white wine to make marinade
• Marinate chicken for several hours in the mixture
• Cut ingredients (except mushrooms) into appropriate sized chunks (approx 1.5 inches).
• Place ingredients randomly on skewers
• Cook on low to medium indirect (or semi-indirect) grill for approx 30 minutes.
• Baste the kabobs with the marinade mixture during cooking, but only in the early stages.   Since the marinade might contain raw chicken juices, you want to make sure it's all cooked in the end.  So don't baste for the last 10 minutes or so.
• Turn kabobs a few times while cooking
• Season a few times while cooking
• Check chicken with thermometer (I use approx. 145 degrees F)

What made them good:

1. Use chicken thighs, not breasts.   They are much juicier.
2. Do not try to cook them over a very hot grill.   You will get too much charring before the chicken is cooked.   I have a 3-burner grill.   I set the two side  burners on high, and the center burner on low.  Then placed the kabobs only over the center burner.   And closed the lid.  It's more like baking them.   Give them plenty of time to cook.
3. The mushrooms add flavorful juice.
4. Don't waste your time adding cherry tomatoes.   They cook much faster than everything else, turn to a saggy mess and fall off.
5. Don't bother with pineapple either.  Unless you really like the combination of fruit and meat.
6. Be generous with the onions.   They add a lot of flavor.

* oops, how could I make such a grievous error.   I meant to say SEA SALT and FRESH GROUND PEPPER