Today we celebrated Memorial Day with my grandparents. I’m so grateful for the men and women whose sacrifices made our celebration of the holiday possible. All gave some, some gave all.

To commemorate the holiday we did what everyone does at every celebration here in the south: We ate. And ate and ate. And ate and ate and ate. We had some typical summer treats like corn casserole, pasta salad, peach cobbler, and homemade ice cream. The real star of the show — well, aside from the ice cream, because nothing beats that — was the dill pickle chicken kabobs.

If you’re not putting dill pickles on your kabobs, you aren’t really living.

It may sound like a gross exaggeration, but the pickles make these kabobs. In fact, I wouldn’t mind ditching the onions and peppers on this recipe. Chicken and pickle is simply meant to be.

Here’s the Recipe:

Tools:

charcoal grill

wooden skewers, soaked for 20+ minutes

tongs

Ingredients:

4-6 chicken thighs

1-2 red bell peppers

1 medium yellow onion

dill pickle slices

Marinade:

Use any marinade you prefer, but I used the beer and ranch marinade from Frugal Foodie Mama. It’s delish.

1/2 cup beer

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tblspn olive oil

1 tblspn ranch seasoning

Instructions:

Cut chicken thighs into 1″ cubes. You can sub out chicken breasts if you like, but I prefer the deeper flavor and higher fat content of thighs, especially for grilling. Mix together all marinade ingredients (or use whatever marinade you like) and reserve 1/4. Pour remaining marinade over chicken in a gallon plastic bag or a bowl. Marinate for several hours or overnight.

De-seed bell pepper and cut into into 1″ squares. Peel onion and cut in half. Take each half and cut in half again, and then cut each half in half again in the opposite direction to make sections of roughly 1″.

Skewer the chicken, pepper, onion, and pickle. I alternated as follows, but you can do it however you prefer: onion, chicken, pepper, chicken, pickle, chicken, pickle, chicken, pepper, chicken, onion.

Grill on a pre-heated charcoal grill. Baste skewers with reserved marinade as they cook. Turn approximately every four minutes (this will vary based on how hot your grill is) until chicken is cooked through.

Makes 4-5 servings.

Cheers