Skewers are perfect for grilling up multiple things at once and let’s face it, they look pretty too! Did you know that we sell 3 different products that are great for making kebabs?
Our classic Air Fryers, our new Air Fryer Oven, or the new Smokeless Electric Grill will make this week’s recipe turn out perfect, and you may just add it to your list of go-to recipes for this summer and beyond. We will feature 2 of them today – the 5.8 Quart Air Fryer with Skewer Rack Accessory, and the 2-in-1 Smokeless Electric Grill.
Benefits of Cooking with Skewers
There are several benefits to cooking with skewers that you may not have thought of (we sure didn’t!) Sure, cooking food on a skewer can be faster than other cooking methods – as the food is cut into smaller pieces. It can be easier to flip on the grill with skewers. But there are also some health-related benefits you may not have considered. Skewers can actually help with portion control. The food is limited to what fits on your skewer is visually spaced out making it feel like you are eating more than you are. Mixing protein with veggies on a skewer also makes for a balanced, lower calorie meal. You don’t need much (if any) oil to achieve a nice flavor and texture.
Now that you know the benefits of this cooking method, let’s move on to the types of skewers of you can use before we get grilling (or air frying).
Types of Skewers
There are 2 main types of skewers, metal and wooden. Within those 2 types, you will find a wide variety of features available including fancy handles, double vs. single prongs, curved, flat or flexible blades. Some have non-stick coating; some include a tab to help you push the food off the skewer when you’re done - there are a LOT of options out there! It’s up to you to decide what works best for your situation.
Metal skewers have a much easier time piercing through your meats and vegetables and are reusable which is great. On the other hand, sometimes you may want a quick disposable solution for appetizers or hors d’ oeuvres, camping, or just feel like minimizing your dishes.
Bamboo/wooden skewers are nice and easy as you simply throw them away afterward. However, they can split easily and sometimes burn on the ends. Soak the wooden skewers in water prior to adding the ingredients to prevent some of this burning.
Our Choices:
This week we decided to take our recipe and make it in both an air fryer and on our electric grill.
The Air Fryer Accessory Kit comes with a mini skewer rack that is perfectly sized to fit the air fryer. The included skewers are stainless steel and the blades are flat.
With the Electric Grill, you have a little more freedom with the type of skewers you select. We opted to use bamboo skewers, as metal skewers could scratch the nonstick surface of the grill if you aren’t careful. We followed the recommendation to soak the skewers beforehand, however – it probably isn’t necessary when you are not cooking over an open flame.
Ok, now that we have what we need, let’s get skewering!
Sriracha Apricot Shrimp Skewers
Sweet, spicy, AND healthy. We found this delicious recipe from food blogger, Blackberry Babe, for sriracha peach shrimp skewers on the grill and wanted to see how it would turn out using our products. We modified it a bit and used Apricot jam instead of Peach jam and added some veggies to the mix to make this more of a complete meal.
The best part about this shrimp recipe (besides how delicious it turned out) – it calls for less than 5 ingredients for the marinade and seasoning and cooks in less than 10 minutes. What?! This recipe is delicious and requires minimal effort to recreate.
Ingredients
Shrimp
- 1 pound shrimp, shell-on, deveined
- ¼ cup sriracha
- ¾ cup apricot jam
- 2 tsp garlic powder
Veggies
- 1 Zucchini
- 1 Yellow squash
- 4-5 large mushrooms
- Salt & pepper
- Cumin
Directions
- Make sure shrimp are completely de-thawed and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Add shrimp to a large Ziploc bag. Add sriracha, apricot jam, and garlic powder. Close the bag and shake gently to mix and massage the marinade into the shrimp.
- Store in the refrigerator for an hour for best results.
- While shrimp is marinating, slice your vegetables and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and cumin.
- After about 30 minutes to an hour, remove the marinated shrimp from the refrigerator.
On the Smokeless Electric Grill
- Thread shrimp and veggies onto skewers (2 works best to keep the shrimp in place). Alternate between shrimp and veggies.
- Turn on your Smokeless Electric Grill (link it) and set to level 5 and allow a couple of minutes for it to heat up.
- Place skewers on the grill surface and turn on the grill fan.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, and voila! Enjoy with salad, rice, in a pita – you name it.
With the Air Fryer + Kebab Accessory Rack
- Thread shrimp and veggies onto Air Fryer Accessory Kit skewers, alternating between shrimp and veggies.
- Place the skewer rack inside your air fryer basket and place the skewers on the rack.
- Close your air fryer and cook at 350°F for 8 minutes.
Watch the Video to see how it turned out in each!
You can make this delicious recipe in either of these 2 options. If you have both products – we recommend using the smokeless grill if you need to cook for more people. You can fit 6-8 skewers comfortably on the grilling surface all at once.
Using the Air fryer with the Skewer Rack Accessory is great for one or two people because you can only cook 3 skewers at a time. The nice thing about the air fryer method is you can set your cook time and temp and walk away, and all sides of the kebabs will cook evenly.
We didn’t test these skewers in our air fryer oven today, but that is another nice option! Check out our How-To Use the Skewer Rack video on YouTube.
We appreciate every one of our customers and hope you found this post helpful! Don’t forget to share your experiences and creations with our products using the #GoWISEUSA on all of our social channels or join our GoWISE Creations community on Facebook.
A big thank you to the authors of the recipe we tested out and the info about the benefits of using skewers.
Sriracha Peach Shrimp Skewers http://blackberrybabe.com/2016/03/14/sriracha-peach-shrimp-skewers/
5 Reasons Grilled Skewers Promote a Healthy Lifestyle https://www.foxnews.com/health/5-reasons-grilled-skewers-promote-a-healthy-lifestyle
The Best Skewers for Grilling https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/06/best-metal-bamboo-skewers-grilling-equipment.html
