One of the annoyances of cooking with round skewers is the food succumbing to gravity and freely rotating as you try to flip or move them.

Wide skewers make it easier to fit large pieces of meat or vegetables onto them, which minimizes prep time from cutting them into small pieces. A wide skewer is also easier to wrap ground or minced meat around. A sharp tip is important when threading proteins or hard vegetables onto your skewer.

With those considerations out of the way, your skewers should be easy to handle, feel good in your hand, store in a drawer without causing chaos, and take minimal effort to clean.

Skewers with little tabs at the handle end to help slide food off are handy, but they provide hiding places for food residue and are hard to clean thoroughly.

A wooden skewer is single-use — throw it away or toss it into the fire when finished with it. This question really comes down to a question of your intent. You should soak wooden skewers for 30 minutes, minimum. Not soaking will mean flaming skewer ends the wrong type of burnt ends and bits of carbon in your food.

Wooden skewers, no. Oiling metal skewers makes the threading and removal of food easier and is a natural heat conductor.

Grilling on skewers is a fast cooking method, so you want to avoid cuts with large amounts of connective tissue that require slow cooking to break down. We actually use filet mignon, which has barely any marbleization, but the quality and the technique take center stage for a cut like this.

Ribeye is another great alternative. Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. For this article, he interviewed Shamim Popal, executive chef and co-owner of Lapis in Washington, D.

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Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content. List of Partners vendors. What to Buy. By Greg Baker. In This Article Expand. Our top picks.

Factors to Consider. Our Expertise. Our Top Picks. Best Overall:. Runner Up, Best Overall:. Best Value:. Best Splurge:. Best Wooden:. Best Overall. GRILLART Kabob Skewers with Slider. Runner Up, Best Overall. OXO Stainless Steel Grilling Skewers.

Best Value. Norpro Stainless Steel Skewers. Best Splurge. Best Wooden. Garsum BBQ Sticks Bamboo Skewers. Design Popal, who serves an extensive selection of kebabs in her restaurant, has strong skewer opinions. Our tester liked the fact that they have no handles.

They are flat all through and that helped with the overall balance of the skewers when shaping ground meat on them. Plus, the skewers are thick, which ensures a uniform spread of heat. Our tester was able to shape ground meat seekh kebabs and kabab koobideh on the skewers with ease.

The meat stayed on the skewers right from the start. She also cooked some kebabs on a skewer rack like this one to see if the skewers would stay afloat and cook meat from all sides. The skewers stayed on the rack, and she was able to turn the meat to cook on all sides.

The angled tip helped load up the skewers with larger chunks of meat, whole tomatoes, whole peppers, and big chunks of fruits.

The amount of time it took for the end of the skewers to cool down was faster than the other skewers we tested. Our tester noted that using smaller mittens and tongs to turn these was more efficient than using tongs alone. Even though they aren't dishwasher safe, cleaning the skewers is easy and a quick scrub with soap and water is all they need.

The only downside to these skewers is that they are 1 inch wide. This made them too wide to be used on any smaller cuts of meats or vegetables. Our tester also said there is a bit of a learning curve. Releasing ground meat kebabs from the skewers took some practice and had to be done immediately after cooking finished.

These skewers come in two fun motifs—fish and steer—and are a fun conversation starter, in addition to being perfect for shrimp. The skewers are constructed as small pointy branches jutting out from the length of the spine. During testing, our reviewer found that grilling shrimp on these skewers was so easy.

The prongs held onto the shrimp, and they stayed put throughout the grilling. You have to be careful when turning any seafood on skewers as it tends to fall off or spin—but not with these skewers.

The shrimp, whether coated in a thick marinade or simply tossed into some seasonings, stayed on the skewer during testing. Turning these skewers needed slight maneuvering and learning as the skewer itself is small, and once loaded, the weight concentrates. In the absence of handles, our tester found that using a sturdy pair of tongs did the job nicely.

She also found it convenient to make a skewer with meat on one side and veggies on the other so that anything that cooked faster could be removed and then the skewer put back on the grill to complete cooking.

One thing to note is that it is somewhat difficult to load up food on these because you are going with a sideways force.

Our tester found it easier to load the skewers from the top, and if using two kinds of ingredients, fared better with threading lighter items on first.

They are dishwasher safe and get completely cleaned in a regular dishwashing cycle. Material: Stainless steel Length: 12 inches Number of Pieces: 4 Dishwasher Safe: Yes. These bamboo skewers are meant for fun food on sticks and food that you want to make portable.

These sturdy 4-millimeter-thick skewers can be used to make candied apples, fruit kebabs, or a Caprese salad. If there is a food you want on a skewer, these skewers will make that happen. The tips of these skewers are pointed and sharpened to a degree angle, and our tester found that she could easily thread meat and vegetables on them.

The skewers and the ends are polished and smooth. Our tester was able to thread on cubes of meat and vegetables for grilling with no problems. With things like beef tenderloin kebabs, the skewers performed well as the time required to cook these was less than when the skewers were used to make a chicken kebab.

For anything that required time, the skewers charred a lot and larger pieces of food also started to spin. In our testing, these performed the best when used with meats that needed less time to cook and meats and vegetables cut into smaller sizes.

They are available in a variety of sizes, and while disposable, the price is inexpensive enough to make them a good value.

Material: Bamboo Length: 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 inches Number of Pieces: Dishwasher Safe: No. For cooking things like chicken that require more cooking time, the skewer ends charred, but for most things, the skewers stayed intact.

Metal skewers spread heat evenly for uniform cooking. When in doubt, always use a flat square-shaped metal skewer for kebabs, like these, which performed well in testing.

Plus, these elegant skewers are designed to be shown off. They received top marks by our tester for being so presentable. Simply lift them off the grill and take them straight to a platter to present the food.

The elegantly designed handles helped with gripping the skewer to lift or turn. While the metal used in the skewer is thinner to make it versatile for both vegetables and meats, our tester found that it is strong enough to hold on to thick cuts of steak without collapsing.

The square shape of the prong in these skewers helped keep food on the skewer without moving around. Our tester hand-washed them, and they need to be dried immediately.

Otherwise, they rust and stain, as our tester found out the hard way when she just left them in the sink. Material: Carbon steel Length: 15 inches Number of Pieces: 4 or 6 Dishwasher Safe: No.

The square shape helps keep food from spinning around. Sitting around a campfire or a backyard fire pit and telling stories under starry skies while roasting marshmallows is what summer nights are all about. To keep these nights fun and safe, long-pronged skewers like the Aoocan Marshmallow Roasting Sticks come in quite handy.

These skewers extend to 45 inches, which allows a safe distance from the firepit. Our reviewer appreciated the telescopic extension because some of the children that were invited for testing were comfortable only from the longest distance while other children chose smaller lengths.

This gave all the children an opportunity to join in safely. The children also loved that they could pick the colors they liked and choose whether to toast one marshmallow or two at the same time. The grip on the heat-resistant handles was comfortable for children and adults alike.

The skewers feature a double-pronged design to hold on to marshmallows as they puff up while roasting, and the tips can be covered with two mini safety caps when the skewers are not in use. While roasting marshmallows, the marshmallows stayed on the skewer even after getting toasty and melty.

No marshmallows were lost to the firepit during testing. These also worked well with hot dogs. The skewers are cleaned easily with some water. Our tester ran them through the dishwasher multiple times and the colors on the handles did not show any signs of wear. The Timeless Steel Lula Kebab Skewers are our top pick.

These stainless steel skewers are sturdy, rust-resistant, and performed well in testing no matter what foods were grilled.

If you're looking for an everyday option that won't break the bank, the Norpro Stainless Steel Inch Skewers are a solid choice. We scoured the market and rounded up top-rated skewers in a variety of materials and designs and at a variety of price points and sent them to our home tester to be evaluated side by side.

The skewers were used to grill meat, veggies, and seafood—and one set we tested with marshmallows. Each set of skewers was rated on its material, design, strength, ease of cleaning, and overall value.

Our tester gave additional insights into the skewers' strengths and weaknesses and what they are best suited for at your next backyard BBQ. What you like to cook will somewhat determine how you shop for these grilling essentials.

If you like to grill mostly vegetables or make kebabs infrequently, you might find that a set of bamboo skewers is sufficient for your use. However, if you grill a lot of meats, you might find that a set of metal skewers would better suit your needs and be better able to handle the weight of the food.

Finally, if you're going to serve foods as an appetizer, you'll want ones that are shorter, so they fit more easily on a plate. Do you need the skewers to be dishwasher safe?

Are you okay with them being disposable, or doing a little hand-washing if need be? Keep in mind, too, that metal skewers do much better over very high heat, and flat metal skewers can handle heavier pieces of meat more easily.

You want a skewer that will support the weight of the food without rolling around on the grill and that won't lose any food once you turn it. Does it feel balanced once you put meat and other ingredients on it?

Is it long enough and sturdy enough to maintain a balance without ingredients falling off onto the grill? If you do a lot of grilling, it's definitely worth the small investment to get a set of skewers that are designed for the grill.

It makes the process a lot easier to manage and helps to ensure even cooking and easy retrieval of your food from the grill. Wooden skewers need to be soaked for 20 to 30 minutes before using them so that when you put them on the grill, loaded with food, they don't catch on fire.

If they're waterlogged, they won't become a fire hazard. It's a great idea to use a little bit of cooking oil not extra-virgin olive oil or a nonstick cooking spray on your skewers before loading them up. This way, ingredients won't stick to them when it's time to remove them. Renu Dhar is a culinary instructor, personal chef, food writer, and product tester.

She has tested dozens of products for The Spruce Eats, including several grills, and she personally tested every item on this list.

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Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content. List of Partners vendors. We Tested Skewers for Grilling—Here Are Our Favorites These options are sharp, durable, and reusable.

By Renu Dhar. Renu Dhar. Renu is a personal chef, culinary instructor, and a food blogger who covers food for The Spruce Eats. Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process. Our Top Picks.

Best Overall:. Best Budget:.

These heavy duty grill skewers are corrosion resistant and can last long. The edges of the barbecue skewers are well polished, and the metal skewers are safe to Buy Cheap BBQ Skewers At Wholesale Prices At Kole Imports GoodCook ProFreshionals pc Bamboo Skewer Set for BBQ and Kebab, 2 sizes 10" and 12" Really good quality at an inexpensive price. Just soak for couple of

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