1 lb shrimp

1 lb chicken breast, cubed

1/2 large white onion, cut into skewerable sections (optional)

1 each red, yellow, and orange pepper, also cut into skewerable sections (optional)

 

Soy-Lime Marinade

2 Tsp. olive oil

1/2 C. lime juice

6 Tsp. soy sauce

1 Tsp. garlic powder

1 Tsp. fresh ground pepper

1 Tsp. basil

2 tsp. kosher salt

 

De-shell, de-vein, and otherwise clean the shrimp. Fire up your charcoal grill, and get it ready. If you’re using a gas grill, you can skip this step, but charcoal enthusiasts will need some time to get things prepped for phenomenal grilling. Place your clean, happy shrimp into a large shallow bowl with the cubed chicken breasts. Pour the olive oil, lime juice, soy sauce, and all of the spices over the shrimp and chicken, and stir it all around to make sure that everything is well-mixed. Take a big whiff, because it smells quite good, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the grill is ready to go. Or for a minimum of 30 minutes. If you wish to make a veggie skewer or two, cut up your peppers and onion while the meat marinates. I also recommend making a small pot of rice, for a delicious side of fried rice that you can make while everything’s grilling. When the grill is ready to go (or when you’ve decided that the chicken and shrimp have been marinating long enough), slide everything onto skewers, and throw them on the barbie! If your chicken cubes are small enough (I usually try to go for 1″ cubes), it doesn’t matter whether the shrimp and chicken are on separate skewers — the cook times will be fairly close. Put the veggies (if you’re making them) on their own skewer, though. Because grilling is such a mysterious art (or maybe I’m just saying this because it completely confuses me sometimes), your cook times may be different from mine. On a humid, moderately warm evening in St. Louis, it took about 15 minutes to grill 2 lb. of meat and two skewers of veggies. Moral of the story: cook the meat until it is done (shrimp should be a bit pink, chicken should not be pink at all…that’s not confusing!) but not charred. Unless you like charred, of course.