This shish kabob recipe features tender marinated beef, peppers and onions, all skewered together and grilled to perfection. Shish kabobs are a quick and easy meal option that can also be cooked in the oven during cooler weather months.
My kids love food on a stick, so I often serve meat and veggies on skewers including shrimp kabobs, Hawaiian chicken kabobs, and these flavorful steak shish kabobs.
You just can’t go wrong with classic shish kabobs – they’re fun to eat, simple to make, and can easily be customized to suit your family’s tastes. Add some side dishes like black eyed pea salad, mushroom rice, crock pot baked potatoes and roasted cherry tomatoes, then you’ll have a restaurant quality meal that’s sure to earn you rave reviews from family and friends. You can even add some tzatziki sauce for dipping!
Table of Contents
Shish Kabob Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, Italian seasoning, black pepper, salt, onion powder, steak, red onion, red and green bell peppers and fresh parsley.
How Do You Make Shish Kabobs?
A great shish kabob is flavored with a fabulous marinade. First make a marinade with soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil and seasonings. Place cubes of steak in the marinade and let them soak up all the flavors for at least an hour. Skewer the marinated steak with peppers and onions and the kabobs are ready to go on the grill. Grill the kabobs until the steak is cooked through and the veggies are slightly tender. Add a sprinkle of parsley, then serve and enjoy.
Tips For Shish Kabobs
- You can use wooden skewers (bamboo) or metal skewers. I like to use metal skewers because they don’t bend or break. If you use bamboo skewers, make sure to soak the skewers for 30 minutes in cold water so that they don’t burn on the grill.
- You want your veggie chunks to be about the same size as your meat so that everything touches the grill.
- I like to use two different colors of bell peppers because it looks nicer, but you can use a single type of bell pepper if you prefer.
- These skewers can be grilled indoors on a grill pan, or outside on a gas or charcoal grill. If you don’t have a grill, you can use your broiler instead.
Quick Tip
The longer you marinate the meat, the more flavorful the end product will be. You can leave the steak in the marinade for up to 24 hours.
Recipe FAQs
For steak shish kabobs, you want a naturally tender cut of meat with some marbling in it. I like to use top sirloin, but other great choices include beef tenderloin, New York strip, or ribeye. Don’t use beef stew meat or chuck, as they require a much longer cooking time.
If you want to prepare kabobs the night before, the best way to do it is to leave the meat in a marinade overnight. Cut up veggies should be stored in dry airtight containers. You will want to store onions separate from other veggies. You can also skewer everything the night before; however, the veggies may dry out a little. Make sure to use an airtight container.
While this particular shish kabob recipe uses peppers and onions, you can use other types of vegetables too such as zucchini or mushrooms.
FOLLOW ME
Shish Kabob Flavor Variations
One reason shish kabobs are so much fun is that you can put practically anything on the skewers. Here are some fun variations you can try.
- Meat: Try bite sized pieces of chicken breasts or chicken thighs, pork tenderloin cubes or medium sized shrimp instead of the beef.
- Vegetarian: For a vegetarian option, you can use cubes of extra firm tofu.
- Veggies: Feel free to add different vegetables to your skewers such as mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash or cherry tomatoes. You can even add fruit like pineapple for a tropical twist!
- Spicy: For spicy kabobs, add crushed red pepper flakes or hot sauce to the marinade.
These shish kabobs will please your family and friends with their bright colors and fresh flavors. They are easily customized and always fun to eat! Need some more summer entertaining inspiration? Don’t miss my collections of 30 summer dessert recipes, 38 summer dinner recipes and 45 summer salad recipes!
More Great Grilling Recipes
Grilled Pork Chops
1 hr 30 mins
Grilled Pork Tenderloin
30 mins
Grilled Chicken Breast
1 hr 30 mins
Grilled Mushrooms
20 mins
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Shish Kabob Recipe
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
For the kabobs
- 2 pounds lean steak such as sirloin or New York strip, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 large red onion cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 red bell pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 green bell pepper cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Instructions
- Place all the marinade ingredients in a bowl or in a resealable gallon sized freezer bag. Mix to combine.
- Add steak pieces to the marinade. Marinate for at least 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.
- Season the onions and peppers with salt and pepper to taste.
- Thread the beef, peppers and onions onto skewers.
- Heat a grill or indoor grill pan to medium high heat.
- Place the kabobs onto the grill and cook for 4-5 minutes per side. Sprinkle with parsley, then serve.
- Broiler directions: Prepare the skewers as directed and place on a sheet pan coated with cooking spray. Broil for 4-5 minutes per side. Continue with the recipe as directed.
Notes
- You can use wood (bamboo) or metal skewers. I like to use metal skewers because they don’t bend or break. If you use bamboo skewers, make sure to soak the skewers for 30 minutes in cold water so that they don’t burn on the grill.
- You want your veggies to be about the same size as your meat so that everything touches the grill.
- The longer you marinate the meat, the more flavorful the end product will be. You can leave the steak in the marinade for up to 24 hours.
Love the marinade for these kabobs!! It was so flavorful and tasted amazing! The kabobs cooked up perfectly too!
I’m made this wonderful recipe. I added mushroom, zucchini and squash to the recipe and I used thick cut strip steaks. It was fabulous and I’m for saving this recipe the marinade is so tasty however, I didn’t have a lemon so I used a lime. Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe!
Awesome! 4 skewers of tri tip, 4 of chicken and 4 of pork, all came out fantastic!
This is a great recipe, my go to from now on. Thanks!
Off he hook delicious! Had a BOGO of sirloin steak, chopped it up, marinated for 2 hours. Cooked to sight, rested for 10 minutes, delicious and tender. Thank you for sharing thus recipe.
Never had a problem with metal skewers
Could the meat and marinate be frozen for future use?
That should be fine!
Love this! The steak flavor is delicious!
Looks amazing! Going to make tonite with venison Backstrap. Yum!
I absolutely loved this recipe. Made kabobs using Rib Eye since that is what was on sale. (Geez, prices of meat!!!) I tasted the marinade and decided to add a little more Worcestershire sauce since I love the taste. I also had mango so I grilled that with a drizzle of honey as a side. Definitely will make again with beef and add mushrooms to the marinade. Tomorrow I am going to try this marinade with chicken breast. I’m sure I will love that as well.
Sounds great, I’m making the marinade now, I bought steak tips they are costly lol, (I never buy tips) I’ll probably marinade over night. I have red onion, red pepper and yellow pepper. I’ll definitely let you now how they came out tomorrow!!! #excited
Thank-you
I will make this tonight
It looks yummy!!!
How do you prevent the kbobs from sticking on the grill… they kept sticking and burning?
You can brush the grill grates with a little oil to prevent sticking!
im sorry recipe is great but metal skewers conduct heat and cook from inside too wood is the only way
Really really yummy! This is one of the first times cooking for my family, and they absolutely LOVED it! And i only marinated for half an hour! I would totally recommend this recipe.
I marinated my beef for 24 hours and made shish kabobs for the first time ever tonight. All I can say is wow wow wow! They were really delicious and a huge hit. However my kabobs were store-bought and ready made so the beef was somewhat tough. Next time I will take your advice and purchase my own beef and veggies and create my own kabobs. Thank you very much I loved the recipe.
The marinade on this recipe is wonderful! Mine came out so good and meat was tender. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you very much for a fantastic recipe marinated the meat for 2 hours turned out fantastic
I made these Saturday night for the whole family, I did both steak & chicken kabobs, they turned out fantastic! Wish I could leave a pic of our ending creation:) great recipe
Quite good – used sirloin and marinated 2 hours. 1 inch cubes, 7-8 minutes on the grill flipping halfway. 2 kids and 2 adults all big fans. Thanks!
The marinade was a big hit!
You can also add some shrimp. Remove the tails or they will burn. Mushrooms are great also. Cut in half and marinate.