Spiced Chicken Skewers with Avocado Chile Coconut Sauce Recipe + Summer Entertaining

Spiced Chicken Skewers with Avocado Chile Coconut Sauce Recipe + Summer Entertaining

Summer entertaining was never easier than with this make-ahead menu, including healthy and tasty Spiced Chicken Skewers with an Avocado Chile Coconut Sauce. Thank you to California Avocados for helping me to share these ideas with you.

Every summer we eat as many meals “al fresco” as we possibly can. We’re lucky that our back patio is shaded in the afternoon and evening so that we can enjoy dinner in relative coolness while gazing at the Wasatch Mountains.

When entertaining, I prefer to serve everything family-style so that our guests can help themselves and go back for seconds and thirds whenever they like. And honestly, it’s a heck of a lot easier than serving everything from the kitchen, plate by plate.

With the help of California Avocados, we whipped up an avocado-focused meal. Really, I don’t need any encouragement to cook with avocados. What’s not to love about the creamy, healthy fruit?! That being said, I have to admit that the avocado-colored napkins, avocado table runner and the awesome California Avocado-branded Weber grill definitely got me in the mood.

By the way, if you are looking for a reasonably-priced grill that can collapse (so cool!) for camping or tail-gating, definitely take a look at this cool Weber grill and portable cart (you can see a picture of it near the end of the post). It worked as well as our bigger Weber grill, and we can’t wait to take it on our next camping trip!

It’s been pretty hot here, so we wanted to keep the meal really light, with dishes that could mostly be made ahead of time. I’ve learned over the years that the less that I have to cook when my guests arrive, the less stressed I am…that means that EVERYONE has more fun.

This was the menu:

What could be made ahead? Virtually everything!

Make-ahead guide:

Quesadillas: Assemble ahead of time; cook just before serving

Flavored waters: Cut the fruit and place in carafes ahead of time; pour in water and ice before serving

Spiced chicken skewers with avocado sauce: Place the chicken on skewers and make avocado sauce ahead of time; cook chicken before serving

Ultimate summer salad: Make everything ahead of time; dress the salad before serving

Pasta salad: Make the entire thing ahead of time; chill until ready to serve

Grilled corn: Remove silks ahead of time; cook before serving

Popsicles or Blueberry Ice Cream Pie: Make ahead of time

So, let’s talk about these skewers and the sauce (oh, the sauce!). I actually stole the idea for the sauce from my own Chilled California Avocado Soup with Coconut Milk recipe. “Lite” coconut milk is such a great way to add extra creaminess to a sauce or soup without going overboard on the fat content (and there are plenty of “good” fats in California avocados…did you know they’re cholesterol-free?) I happened to have a can of diced green chiles in my pantry and thought they might be happy to be blended all together with some avocado and seasonings. They were!

For the chicken skewers, I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs because they always stay juicy and tender when grilled. Cut into pieces, toss with olive oil and spices and thread on skewers until it’s time to cook. Easy peasy!

If you have any tried-and-true summer entertaining tips, I would love to hear them in the comments below!

Spiced Chicken Skewers with Avocado Chile Coconut Sauce Recipe

Calories 132.0 / Total Fat 7.2g / Saturated Fat 1.7g / Cholesterol 57.3mg / Sodium 389.6mg / Total Carbohydrates 2.5g / Fiber 1.3g / Sugars 0g / Protein 13.6g / WW (Old Points) 3 / WW (Points+) 3

Ingredients

The sauce:

• 1 California avocado, peeled, pitted & chopped
• 2 oz. diced green chiles (canned)
• 1/3 cup lite coconut milk
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp fresh lime juice
• ¼ tsp salt
• The chicken:
• 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed & cut into 1 ½-inch pieces
• 2 tsp olive oil
• ¾ tsp ground cumin
• ¾ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground pepper

Instructions

Place 8 wooden skewers in a large baking dish filled with hot water. Soak for at least 30 minutes.

The sauce:

In a blender, combine the avocado, chiles, coconut milk, water, garlic, lime juice and salt. Puree until smooth.

The chicken:

Preheat the grill to medium-high heat.

Place the chicken into a large bowl and toss with the olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper.

Thread the chicken pieces onto the skewers.

Place on the grill and cook until the chicken is just cooked through, about 4 minutes per side.

Serve the chicken skewers with the avocado sauce.

Notes

From the kitchen of Cookin' Canuck | cookincanuck.com

2.5

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by California Avocados, plus they provided me with an entertaining pack and some gorgeous avocados. This post contains links to my Amazon affiliate page. Any revenue made from sales through these links helps to support this blog. Thank you!

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