Grilled Dill Ranch Chicken Skewers

Grilled Dill Ranch Chicken Skewers are prepared by marinating boneless, skinless chicken thighs in dill pickle juice with seasonings and oil. Grilled to perfection, the chicken skewers are drizzled with a homemade dill ranch sauce. They’re moist, saucy, garlicky, and savoury!

If there’s one thing that I can never get enough of, it’s food on sticks, and Grilled Dill Ranch Chicken Skewers are no exception. What is it about food on sticks that appeals so greatly to the masses? Think of any carnival or summer fair you’ve been too. Now, think about all of those lineups of hungry people at those brightly coloured food trucks. How many of those food trucks serve food on sticks?

Is it a cleanliness issue? Do we love food on sticks because it eliminates the need for us to get our hands dirty? I can certainly see the appeal at a fair or a festival. (We all know there’s so many germs on those rides!) Pulling food off of the stick with out teeth certainly helps to keep the germs on our hands from spreading to our food.

FOOD ON STICKS – PRIMATIVE OR JUST COOL?

I think it goes a little deeper than that. Preparing food on sticks is primitive really. Many, many years ago, before the invention of skillets and grills, meat was mainly cooked on sticks over an open fire. In many cases, that skewered rabbit or chicken was passed around the fire and every family member took a bite to help fill their bellies.

But, we’ve come a long way since mankind needed to cook meat that way. So, why the appeal still? Personally, I think it has continued to maintain its popularity simply because it’s fun. I can remember being a kid and eating those battered hot dogs on a stick and dipping it into ketchup or mustard. It was such a change from the everyday fork and knife routine that I’m not sure if the battered hot dog was as good as it seemed at all or if it was just that it was on a stick!

PREPARING TO COOK ON A SKEWER

When it comes to thinking about preparing a main such as chicken, pork, tofu, or even seafood, grilling on skewers helps to lower the cooking time. If you use metal skewers, the metal gets hot and helps to cook the inside of the meat, while the outside chars – both of those things together helps to lock in moisture, which can easily escape down through the grill if you’re not careful.

I tend to use wooden skewers when cooking meat simply because I cannot seem to source any short metal skewers. I have metal skewers, but they’re quite long and I use them only when grilling vegetables. When grilling vegetables, it’s easy to remove them from the skewer and pile them into a serving bowl. They still look fine; they still have those lovely grill marks; and, of course, they taste great.

Meat, on the other hand, does not have the same appeal when you remove it from the skewer and serve it in a bowl. Leaving the meat on the skewer is a better look for grilled meat. For some reason – even though it still tastes great – it does not look so good when you remove it from the skewer. So, use shorter skewers and serve the meat just like that. Everyone loves to bite or pull the meat from a skewer.

OUTDOOR GRILL VERSUS STOVETOP

If you’re preparing these Grilled Dill Ranch Chicken Skewers on a grill pan on your stove top, you can probably skip the part in the recipe card below that tells you to soak the wooden skewers. These chicken skewers don’t take very long at all and will cook quickly. There’s very little risk of a wooden skewer getting scorched or catching on fire.

Preparing these chicken skewers on an outdoor grill though might result in burned skewers. Be sure to soak them if that’s how you plan to grill the chicken. The reason is simple – chicken thighs have some fat on them and on an outdoor flame grill, that fat is going to melt down into the fire. The fire will shoot up and will burn your skewers. It just does not look as presentable with a black stick of charcoal sticking out of your chicken!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post. 

For the Marinade:

• Chicken – For best results, use boneless skinless chicken thighs. Lay the chicken flat and cut it into 1-inch pieces.
• Cooking Oil – I prefer to use avocado or olive oil.
• Dill Pickle Juice/Brine – This is the juice right from your favourite jar of dill pickles!
• Garlic – Use fresh minced garlic for best results.
• Seasonings – You will need onion powder, sweet (or smoked) paprika – you decide! – ground black pepper, and salt.

For the Dill Ranch Sauce:

• Mayonnaise
• Dill – This sauce works best with fresh and dried dill, so you will need fresh dill and dried dill.
• Chives – Fresh chives will add freshness and a bright oniony flavour to the sauce.
• Dill Pickles
• Dill Pickle Juice/Brine
• Seasonings – You will need onion powder, garlic powder, ground black pepper, and salt.

HOW TO MAKE GRILLED DILL RANCH CHICKEN SKEWERS

In a bowl, whisk together the avocado oil, dill pickle juice, fresh garlic, paprika, onion powder, ground black pepper, and salt. Transfer the chicken to the bowl and toss well to coat with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour. The chicken can be marinated up to a maxium of 12 hours.

30 minutes before you are ready to grill, if you are using wooden skewers, lay them flat in a pan of cold water to soak. They will need to soak for 30 minutes to prevent them from burning. Next, prepare the ranch dill sauce by whisking all of those ingredients together in a bowl. Set that aside.

Once the chicken has marinated, it’s time to assemble the skewers. Skewer the chicken pieces onto a water-soaked skewer, being sure to pack the pieces snugly, but not tightly. A snug fit will keep the chicken moist. Once your grill is preheated to 400 degrees F, place the skewers on the grill and cook the chicken for 4-6 minutes per side, aiming for a minimum temperature of 165 degrees F. Once the chicken is fully cooked, transfer it to a serving platter and drizzle with some of the dill ranch sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with extra dill ranch sauce on the side.

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR GRILLING

If you’ve been baking and cooking for some time, I’m sure you already know that pre-heating is key! Just like when you preheat your oven when you bake a cake, preheating a grill is vitally important for several reasons, but there are two I’ll discuss now.

First, preheating a grill will prevent the chicken from sticking. When the grill is hot, and the chicken is placed on it, it will instantly begin to sear the meat. This sear not only adds flavour and looks pretty, it also prevents the chicken from sticking.

Secondly, preheating the grill will pretty much eliminate the need to overcook! If you place the chicken on a cold grill and turn on the heat, before the grill is hot, the chicken has already started to cook from the heat building on the grill. This will overcook the chicken and make it dry and not very appealing.

WHICH CHOICE OF CHICKEN WORKS BEST?

For this Grilled Dill Ranch Chicken Skewers recipe, I would highly recommend boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I love working with chicken thighs. No matter what cooking method I throw at them, they always come out tender and moist. I’m also a fan of dark meat. I think it’s more flavourful. So, boneless, skinless chicken thighs are the way to go in my opinion.

You can certainly use breast meat for this recipe too. Because breast meat tends to cook faster than dark meat, you’ll want to ensure that the breast meat is cut into slightly larger pieces. The breast meat can dry out rather quickly; using a larger piece of breast meat will ensure that it doesn’t become overdone and too dry. There’s nothing worse than dry breast meat!

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!