Grilled Pesto Chicken & Cherry Tomato Skewers
This simple, three-ingredient recipe from Twin Cities food blogger greens & chocolate is bursting with garden-fresh flavors.
While moving to a new house in the summer is ideal for not having to deal with cold weather and snow, it really cut into my plans for gardening this year. At our old house, which we were at for 4 years, I came to know what grew well and what didn’t, and last year I grew a pretty solid vegetable garden. This year, however, I knew gardening was not in the cards. Between moving, being out of town a lot, and the two little rugrats that I call my own, I just knew I wouldn’t have the time to put time into a garden.
Because of this, there has been significantly less zucchini bread, caprese salads, and pesto coming out of my kitchen this summer. I’ve been trying to hit up the farmers market as much as possible to make up for it, but there’s just something about having an abundance of produce in your backyard for cooking, ya know? Oh well, there’s always next year!
Regardless, I crave the flavors of pesto in the summer and came up with this fun, simple, and insanely easy recipe for pesto chicken kabobs. It almost feels silly calling it a recipe because there are only THREE ingredients.
You simply marinate cubed chicken breasts in pesto, which can be homemade or store-bought, thread them onto skewers with cherry tomatoes, and grill them up. The longer you can marinate the chicken, the better. I would recommend mixing the chicken with the pesto in the morning, so they are soaking up all of that yummy pesto flavor all day. Plus, it’s one less step to do in the evening.
My entire family loved these pesto chicken kabobs – even my 9-month-old. We served them with grilled vegetables and grilled bread, and it was a delicious summer dinner!
Makes 4 servings
Preparation Time: 30 minutes (or up to overnight for marinating time)
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
½ cup pesto (homemade or store-bought)
1 ¼ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
About 20 cherry tomatoes
Directions
- Combine ¼ cup of the pesto with the chicken breasts in a large bowl; stir well to combine. Let marinate for 20 minutes, or up to overnight.
- Once marinated, thread the chicken onto skewers, alternating with cherry tomatoes. The number of skewers that this will make will depend on how long your skewers are.
- Heat your grill to medium-high.
- Place skewers on the hot grill and cook for approximately 12-15 minutes, until chicken is cooked through, turning 2-3 times throughout.
- Brush skewers with remaining ¼ cup of pesto. Serve and enjoy!
Note: If you use wooden skewers, be sure to soak them in water for about 30 minutes before using them so they don’t burn. I like to use metal skewers because they don’t require any soaking time prior to cooking.