Skewers : Key West Grilled Chicken (29) and Garlic Mustard Chicken (30)

At our house, we grill all year.  We invested in a Le Creuset grill pan 2 years ago, which has made grilling in the winter much easier.  But thankfully right now we aren’t thinking about snow and we are enjoying sunshine and temps in the 90’s.

I love skewers.  I like the look, the bite sized morsels and the feelings of summer that they evoke.  I always soak wooden skewers in water for at least 10 minutes before adding the meat or vegetables that need to be grilled.  Currey has requested that we purchase metal skewers just so we don’t have any issues with skewers burning.

I think that chicken is an easy go to dinner option but because it’s so easy, we burn out on it quickly.  I again was inspired by pinterest.  There are hundreds of different marinades and it’s a quick and easy way to spice up grilled chicken.  If you don’t feel ready to create a marinade of your own, you can find dozens of bottles of marinades at your local grocery store.  Even using your favorite Italian dressing as a marinade is a great choice.  We prefer to marinate overnight so that the meat really takes on the flavors.

The Key West Grilled Chicken (pictures at the top of this post) was incredibly fantastic.  Just check out the picture!  I made 6 or 7 skewers and only 1 made it to the table for pictures.  We were gobbling them up in the kitchen hot off the grill.  They really were that good!  This recipe would be a great recipe for a summer cookout or family party.

I made the Garlic Mustard Skewers (pictures at the top of this post) for a celebration dinner with friends.  They are the first couple that we met when we moved to the suburbs from Chicago and they have been precious friends for the 4 years we’ve lived here.  Our sweet friends decided to pursue dreams that God has given them in another state and it was a sweet time reminiscing about how much life has changed since we first met.

When we met they had 1 daughter.  We’ve added 3 more kids to the mix!

The name says it all!  This marinade is very spicy but not in a heat sense.  I only allowed the chicken to marinate for a couple of hours due to time constraints.  I think the flavor would have been different with more time to marinate.  I paired this chicken with easy dinner rolls (recipe coming soon!) and grilled corn on the cob.  In the summer, grilled corn on the cob is a go to side.  We keep it in the husk and grill for about 20 minutes. Delicious!

What’s your favorite summer side dish?