Grilled Chicken Fajita Kabobs 🔥🌶️🫑 bring all the great flavors of chicken fajitas in fun and easy kabob form! Juicy chicken, tender veggies, marinated and seasoned to perfection, and ready in 10 minutes on the grill! Instructions provided for both outdoor grilling or an indoor grill pan.
Easy Grilled Chicken Fajita Kabobs Recipe
- These kabobs are everything I want in a summer grilling recipe! Protein + Veg with a marinade comes together in seconds. You stir it up, toss in the chicken, and let it sit while you prep everything else.
- The marinade is made with pantry staples including fajita seasoning, lime juice, honey mustard, and more. Marinating one hour is great but if you have more time, even better.
- You’ve heard of one-pan dinners, these are one-skewer. Colorful bell peppers and red onions are skewered with the chicken for a complete one-skewer dinner. If you have kids or picky eaters, I’ve always found that skewers tempt and entice them.
- Whether you need an easy weeknight dinner that’s high in protein and fiber, something to make for a backyard barbecue and summer entertaining, or just are a fajita fan, these skewers are great. I give both outdoor grilling and indoor grill pan instructions in the recipe card below.
- And if you want to do this sheet pan style, look no further than my Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas or my Sheet Pan Shrimp Fajitas recipes.
Ingredients in Grilled Chicken Fajita Kabobs
Marinade: Powdered fajita seasoning, water, olive oil, chile sauce*, lime zest, lime juice, garlic cloves or garlic powder, honey mustard (or use regular mustard with a touch of honey). For the chile sauce*, you can use red enchilada sauce, hot sauce, taco sauce, Asian chile garlic sauce – something red with a bit of heat (or a lot of heat) that you enjoy – it’s a marinade not a soufflé so there’s lots of flexibility.
Chicken: I use boneless skinless chicken breast but boneless skinless chicken thighs may be used instead.
Vegetables: I used a combo of red, yellow, and green bell peppers, but you can use any colors you’d like. Red onion is great but you can sub with yellow onion. If you want to add other veggies, you could try zucchini chunks or yellow summer squash.
Garnishing: Fresh cilantro, limes, and hot sauce to taste.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Grilled Chicken Fajita Kabobs on the Grill
- Make the Marinade: Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and whisk. Reserve ¼ cup of the marinade and set it aside to use for basting.
- Marinate and Soak: Add chicken to the bowl, stir to coat, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight for even more flavor. If using wooden skewers soak them in a separate bowl of water while the chicken marinates.
- Preheat Grill: Oil your gas or charcoal grill grates and preheat to medium-high heat or heat the charcoal. If you’re using a grill pan, no need to do anything more.
- Thread the Skewers: Remove chicken from the refrigerator and thread onto skewers, alternating between chicken, bell peppers, and onion.
- Grill: Place kabobs on the grill and cook for about 8 minutes, flipping halfway through, or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. See recipe card below for grill pan instructions.
- Baste, Rest, Garnish and Serve: In the final minute of cooking, brush with the reserved marinade. Allow kabobs to rest for a few minutes, garnish as desired and serve.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for step-by-step photos and process shots of the cooking process.
Grilled Chicken Fajita Kabobs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1- ounce package powdered fajita seasoning
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons chile sauce, (such as red chile sauce, enchilada sauce, hot sauce, Asian chili garlic sauce for heat, etc.)
- 1 teaspoon lime zest, about ½ lime
- 1 tablespoon lime juice, about 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon honey mustard, or as desired
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder, or freshly minced garlic, or as desired to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, diced into 1-inch pieces (boneless skinless chicken thighs may be substituted)
- 3 large bell peppers, I used red, yellow, and green, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 3 cups)
- 1 large red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 cup)
- Fresh cilantro, finely minced; optional for garnishing
- Lime wedges, optional for serving
Instructions
- Marinade: To a large bowl, add the powdered fajita seasoning, water, oil, chili sauce, lime, zest, lime, juice, honey, mustard, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and stirred to combine.
- Reserve: Reserve about 1/4 cup of the marinade to be used for brushing on the kabobs later.
- Marinate: To the large bowl, add the chicken, cover, and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (if all you have is 30 minutes, it'll work but longer is better for better flavor and tenderness), or up to overnight.
- Soak: If you're going to be using wooden skewers rather than metal, soak them in a bowl of water while the chicken marinates.
- Preheat Grill: If you're using a charcoal grill, get it going now or preheat your gas grill to medium heat or medium-high heat. If you're using a grill pan, there's nothing to do.
- Thread: Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and thread them onto the skewers alternating between peppers, onion, and chicken. Discard the used marinade. Threading Tips – You want to make sure the food is compact, but not overly packed or overly tightly threaded because it will not cook properly. The vegetables will tend to steam and the chicken could be raw in places. However, you don't want large gaps in between the food. Just a snug fit for all the food.Depending on the length of your skewers and the exact size of your chicken and peppers, you'll likely make anywhere between 7 to 10 skewers.
- Grill: Grill for about 8 minutes total, or as necessary, rotating and flipping the skewers as necessary during the process to ensure even cooking and nothing is burning. Use grilling tongs when rotating and flipping them.Outdoor Grilling Tip – Food on skewers cooks very fast compared to whole pieces of chicken or proteins so keep an eye on it and keep the heat under control. Medium to medium-high at most. If you're using a grill pan, place it over your stove's burner over high heat (a stove never gets as hot as a grill) and cook until done, about 8-10 minutes. It will likely take a bit longer to cook the kabobs on a grilled pan compared to an outdoor grill.Always cook chicken to 165F as measured with a digital thermometer; do not guess.
- Baste: In the final 1 minute of cooking, baste the skewers with the reserved clean 1/4 cup marinade.
- Rest: Allow the kabobs to rest for about 5 minutes.
- Garnishing and Serving: Optionally and as desired, sprinkle with cilantro, a spritz of lime, or for more kick, serve with the hot salsa or hot sauce of your choice.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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