The Secret to Juicy, Smoky Chicken Kebabs: Bacon Paste

Without any fatty skin protecting them from the blazing heat of the grill, skinless chicken thighs and breasts don’t stand a chance of staying moist. Even the fattiest thigh meat can dry out and toughen. Not even the tastiest barbecue sauce can save it.

We came up with two safeguards against dry meat: salting the chicken pieces, and coating them with a bacon paste before threading them onto skewers.

The bacon idea came from Middle Eastern kebab cookery. Turkish chefs skewer slices of pure lamb fat between lamb chunks before grilling. The fat melts during cooking, continually basting the lean meat. We were working with chicken here, so lamb didn’t quite fit. But we could think of another fatty, more complementary meat: bacon.

As far as how to incorporate bacon into the kebab, we tried threading 1-inch pieces between the chunks of chicken and wrapping strips of bacon around the kebabs in a spiral-like helix, but they both fell short texturally or overwhelmed the chicken’s delicate taste. (After all, these were chicken kebabs, not bacon kebabs.) We also tried basting the kebabs with bacon fat, but the fat dripped into the grill and caused flare-ups, torching the meat.

Our breakthrough came when we pulsed a couple strips of bacon in a food processor, creating a spreadable paste. We combined the bacon paste, other spices, and a bit of sugar in a bowl, then tossed the salted chicken pieces in it. Once grilled, the chicken was juicy, tender, and full-flavored, with a smoky depth that complemented the barbecue sauce.

View the full recipe for all the details (we have a gas-grill version and a charcoal-grill version), but here’s a rundown of the key steps for adding bacon the next time you make barbecue chicken kebabs.