Everyday Cooking Adventures' Luau Party & Kabob Recipes

Aloha! For our friend’s birthday this past weekend we surprised him with a Hawaiian luau themed dinner party. I’ve already shared the crowing achievement of the evening, my Pineapple Upside Down Birthday Cake (click for recipe), but here I share the decorations and the three different kabob recipes I made for the event. Later this week, I will share the awesome appetizers I made for the party as well.

Flowers, Ferns and Seashells ©2014 www.EverydayCookingAdventures.com

We stops at Michael’s Craft Store and Target, I loaded up the cart with leis, fake ferns and tropical flowers, ocean scented candles with seashells painted on the outside, party napkins, coconut bra for the birthday boy, a bag of seashells, tropical flower painted mason jars, striped paper straws, and party poppers. I also put together a centerpiece of little sand molds and a large plate of sculpting sand which stick in place much like wet sand when molded, so people could make their own shapes.

For the main course, I kept things simple and in the hands of the guys by prepping ahead of time three kinds of shish-kabob platters. I kept them all refrigerated on individual baking sheets so they could be grilled as soon as needed. First, there were Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs which were chicken breast sliced into 1″ chunks and paired with large slices of red onion. The chicken was marinaded for 1 hour in the fridge in a bowl of Lawry’s Hawaiian Marinade with Tropical Fruit Juices. We put these kabobs on the grill first because they needed the most time, about 8 minutes, turning once or twice.

Second, I made a real Hawaiian-inspired kabob using ham steak chopped into 1″ cubes and a whole pineapple sliced into large cubes as well. This needed no seasoning because the ham steak was already salty and the pineapple brought its own sweetness. To save time you can also you canned pineapple chunks instead. These kabobs went on second as they needed about 5 minutes, turning once. If you have a smaller grill, simple preheat your oven to 200ºF and keep the chicken kabobs warm on a platter until all kabobs are ready.

Finally, the third kabob type was a bell pepper and shrimp one. I used medium-sized, peeled, uncooked shrimp (I chopped the tails off myself but maybe your market will have them already removed). Make sure they are UNCOOKED otherwise they will be dried out bits of food by the time they are done grilling. The shrimp were then tossed in a bowl with Chipotle Chile Powder and a little seasoning salt and kept in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour before strung on the kabob sticks. I used orange and yellow bell pepper sliced into large chunks and strung the kabob sticks through each shrimp twice to ensure they stayed on while being grilled. These kabobs only needed about 4 minutes turning once.

Luau Party ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2014

A few other little touches besides the two appetizer recipes that will come later this week, were a sand or seashell collecting bucket used to hold chips and then a couple bowls of Mauna Loa chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. Yum! The night was very fun and festive and the food was gobbled down. Success!