We love kabobs on the grill, and we certainly have some fabulous ones to choose from at Nino’s. From Italian Marinated Chicken to Chinese BBQ Marinated Beef, there’s something for everyone.

For us, if you’re not buying one of Nino’s huge, meaty kabobs, construct your own custom creations, which are every bit as impressive and delicious. They also give you the opportunity to offer guests even more variety. All of these ideas can be assembled the day before and kept in your fridge (covered) until you’re ready to grill them.

Here are some of my favorites:

One of our all-time favorites is the Smorgasbord Kabob. We begin the skewer with bell pepper and onion followed by a 2” cube of chicken breast, a 2” piece of Italian sausage, a jumbo shrimp, and a 2” cube of pork tenderloin. We finish it with an end cap of bell pepper and onion.

We don’t marinate these kabobs. We just season them with oil, salt, and pepper. After they’re grilled, we place each kabob on a bed of white rice, and we either top it with a generous ladle of Thai curry sauce, with some chopped, fresh cilantro and crushed, salted peanuts, or we take a different direction altogether and brush it liberally with some Sweet Maple Chipotle Grilling Sauce just before taking it off the grill, and then once again, just before serving.

Another favorite of ours uses fresh lemon grass as the skewer. Purchase one stalk for each kabob, trim each to about 8” to 10”, and soak each one in cold water for a couple of hours. For this recipe, we begin and end the kabob with bok choy and red onion. In the middle, we have chicken, shrimp, chicken, sea scallop, and more chicken.

After skewering the ingredients on the lemon grass stalks, marinate the kabobs for a couple hours in Thai Lemongrass Dressing and Marinade. Then grill them.

One excellent way to serve these kabobs is over a bed of stir-fried, julienned, napa cabbage; julienne red onion; finely sliced red chilies, and match-stick carrots dressed with some of the Thai Lemon Grass Dressing.

My last suggestion is a bit tropical and colorful and perfect for multiple sauces. It’s all chicken, but between each 2” cube of chicken breast, you’ll skewer an equally sized piece of each of the following: fresh pineapple, colorful bell pepper, red onion and partially cooked hickory-smoked bacon (one strip), folded up into a 2” packet.

You have some sauce choices here, but here are three of our favorites:

1. Mongolian Marinade and Dressing
2. Any sweet and sour marinade and sauce
3. Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce

If you want, you can garnish with a chopped mixture of fresh mint, cilantro or green onions.

For more about kabobs or for tips on how to grill your kabobs, check out this helpful guide

• Nino’s Grilling Guide

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