Cardamom and Tea

This is the most flexible recipe for chicken kebabs you’ll ever find. Make it your own with whatever you’ve got on hand:

Use breasts or thighs
Use a grill or oven (or even a fire pit!)
Let it marinate or skip right to cooking with 0 wait time
Use any spices
Make it dairy free

In this post, I’m going to walk through each of these customizations, or you can jump to the recipe.

chicken kebabs on a blue gingham tablecloth

How to keep your chicken kebabs juicy (no matter the cut or cooking method)

This recipe for chicken kebabs is super forgiving, and that’s because of the important first step: salting the chicken. Salting it right at the beginning is the key to juicy chicken, whether you’re using breast meat, thigh meat, and whether you’ve got a super hot gas grill or a pretty ho-hum oven broiler. You can even roast them over an open fire.

This salting step is technically called “dry brining,” but it’s as simple as giving your chicken a moment to absorb some salt. With dry brining, even if you go a little bit above the ideal doneness temperature, or even if you don’t have a thermometer in the first place—there’s a lot more wiggle room.

Why you don’t need to let chicken kebabs marinate overnight

Let’s talk about one of the most overrated cooking techniques out there: marinating meat overnight.

Here’s the thing: soaking meat in a zippy marinade? It’s mostly just a surface-level improvement (literally!). Flavors in marinades don’t actually make it past the outer layer of meat. So while your chicken might smell incredible in the bowl, once it hits the grill, most of that marinade drips right off. Whatever’s left behind in the bowl? Lost forever.

That’s why I prefer a different approach. Rather than letting your kebabs sit around in a marinade that may never make it past the surface, go with a punchy, clingy coating—something that sticks around and builds flavor as it cooks.

It’s faster, tasty, and (best of all) it skips the overnight wait.

One caveat: Salt does make a difference, because it can actually chance the texture of the meat. But when your chicken pieces are small (like the ones in this recipe), they don’t need a whole night to get the benefits. Salt early in the cooking process, and you’ll get tender, juicy results without all the waiting around.

All that said, if you want to prep your kebabs the night before, go for it. There’s no harm in letting them rest in the fridge overnight. It just doesn’t need to take that long.

Other ingredient substitutions

You can use pretty much any warm spice blend you have on hand, and you don’t need to use yogurt. If you’re fully omitting the yogurt, you’ll need to scale back on the lemon to make sure the spices don’t get washed away. Add just enough lemon to make a thick paste with the spices.

Step-by-step chicken kebab instructions

Cut the chicken into 1 1/2 inch [4 cm] cubes and place in a medium mixing bowl.

Sprinkle the chicken evenly with 1 1/4 tsp [7 g] salt.*** Let it sit for 5 minutes before proceeding. Salting it first will help it stay juicy. If you plan to cook them right away, preheat your oven’s broiler to its highest setting or your grill to medium-high (brush your grill grates with a thin layer of oil first).

Top the chicken with the yogurt, paprika, spice blend, garlic, and lemon zest and juice. Mix together until coated evenly.

Skewer the chicken, alternating each piece of chicken with a piece of onion. If you’re making them ahead, cover and refrigerate overnight and preheat your broiler or grill the next day. If you’re making them now, proceed.

For grilling: Place on the grill, cover, and cook for about 10-15 minutes for breasts (15-18 minutes for thighs), flipping once halfway through. They’re ready to flip once the first side is caramelized and a little charred. If they caramelize too quickly, turn the heat down.

For broiling: Place on a aluminum foil-lined aluminum sheet pan. Place under your oven’s broiler and cook for about 10-17 minutes for breasts (15-20 minutes for thighs), flipping once halfway through. If they caramelize too quickly, turn the heat down.

The chicken is done once it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F [74°C] for breasts, 185°F [85°C] for thighs.

chicken kebabs (easy and flexible)

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Instructions

Cut the chicken into 1 1/2 inch [4 cm] cubes and place in a medium mixing bowl. Coat the chicken evenly with 1 1/4 tsp [7 g] salt.*** Let it sit for 5 minutes before proceeding. Salting it first will help it stay juicy.
If you plan to cook them right away, preheat your oven’s broiler to its highest setting or your grill to medium-high (brush your grill grates with a thin layer of oil first).
Top the chicken with the yogurt, paprika, spice blend, garlic, and lemon zest and juice. Mix together until coated evenly.
Skewer the chicken, alternating each piece of chicken with a piece of onion.
If you’re making them ahead, cover and refrigerate overnight and preheat your broiler or grill the next day. If you’re making them now, proceed.
For grilling: Place on the grill, cover, and cook for about 10-15 minutes for breasts (15-18 minutes for thighs), flipping once halfway through. They’re ready to flip once the first side is caramelized and a little charred. If they caramelize too quickly, turn the heat down.
For broiling: Place on a aluminum foil-lined aluminum sheet pan. Place under your oven’s broiler and cook for about 10-17 minutes for breasts (15-20 minutes for thighs), flipping once halfway through. If they caramelize too quickly, turn the heat down.
The chicken is done once it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F [74°C] for breasts, 185°F [85°C] for thighs.

Notes

* Omit the yogurt if you want to make this dairy free (and add just enough lemon juice to make a paste with the spices that will cling to the chicken without washing off—you may need more or less than is listed in the recipe), or substitute a plain, unsweetened dairy free yogurt.

** You can use any savory spice blend. If you don’t have a spice blend on hand, you can use a combination of cumin, black pepper, and a tiny bit of cardamom or cinnamon.

*** If you need to cut back on salt for health or personal preference, feel free to. Salt helps chicken stay juicy, so you will need to be more careful not to overcook it if you use less.

Video note: You can find the video in the introduction to this blog post. If you don’t see it after scrolling up, please disable ad block and reload the page.

Of the 500+ recipes I have ever written, this Victoria sponge cake (AKA Victoria sandwich cake) is the one I am proudest of—and I don’t say that lightly.

The crumb is extremely tender, almost like a buttermilk biscuit or very delicate scone. It’s fluffy and springy—buttery, yet light. And when I bake it for friends and family, no one can resist a second slice.

If you’re going to master just one cake recipe, I humbly present this one. And even if you already have a few dozen cake recipes under your belt, you’re in for a treat.

Jump to the recipe to get to baking, or read on for a bit about why this one has earned a special place in my kitchen. Here’s why I love it, and what we’re gonna cover in this post:

You can get creative with the filling! (Fun!)
It uses a special technique called reverse-creaming, which is way easier than it sounds.
That method is easiest to explain visually, so I made a quick video and step-by-step instructions.

victoria sponge cake being layered, rugelach before rolling up, and a whipped cream fool

victoria sponge cake being dusted by powdered sugar

How to get creative with the filling

Victoria sponge cake is also known as Victoria sandwich cake, because it’s traditionally filled with strawberry jam and whipped cream. But there are so many ways you can get creative with it.

Filling ingredient possibilities:

Add fresh strawberries or skip the fresh fruit entirely.
Opt for a store-bought jam, preserves, or even a homemade compote.
Whip the cream to medium-firm peaks and dollop it, or go a skosh further to stiff peaks and then pipe it with a fluted tip.
Go wild and use a totally different jam flavor/sprinkle on another kind of fresh berry
You can even opt for a lemon or passion fruit curd or lemon curd instead of the jam.

What order to layer the ingredients:

You must layer your cake strategically, depending on the ingredients you choose. Here is the key:

Start with the firmest spread, end with the softest spread, and put the fresh berries in the middle (if you are using them).

So if you’re using a super set jam that’s right from a store-bought jar, you will likely need to start with that and end with the whipped cream. If you’re using a soft homemade compote, you should start with the whipped cream and end with the compote. Likewise with any kind of curd, which will be much softer than whipped cream. If you’re not using fresh berries, that’s cool. But if you are using fresh berries, just make sure they go in between the two spreads.

And be prepared for a bit of the filling to pop out of the side, especially if your fillings are particularly soft—that’s just part of the charm!

I love this recipe so much, I even made this wonky little painting of it!

Why is this Victoria sponge cake special? Reverse-creaming!

What is reverse-creaming?

Rose Levy Beranbaum invented this method. It might sound fancy, but it’s actually even easier than the usual method. Instead of creaming the butter and sugar together first, you cream the butter and sugar along with the flour and other dry ingredients. Then you add the wet ingredients.

Why does reverse-creaming work?

Cake’s natural enemy is gluten. Too much gluten activation will make a cake turn out dry, chewy, and dense instead of moist, fluffy, and light.

In a typical cake recipe, you can avoid this by not over-mixing your batter. Mix the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients separately, and then bring them together with as few passes as possible.

But for an even more tender crumb, we reverse-cream. By working the butter and flour together, all those flour bits get coated in fat, which creates a water-resistant seal. Since the flour has been waterproofed, it can’t quickly absorb all the moisture from the eggs and milk. And since gluten needs moisture to form, this waterproofed batter can’t form gluten as easily.

(Allergy note: This does not mean this is a gluten-free cake or even a low-gluten cake. It’s just aesthetically not glutinous. It still contains gluten.)