Enjoy these oven baked paprika coconut chicken skewers with all the family as a fun dinner idea! With a creamy spiced marinade and some colorful veggies too, they're easy to make for summer or winter meals and delicious served with salads and rice.
Do check out my paprika chicken in the air fryer for another flavorful dinner idea!
Much like my turkey kabobs, these coconut chicken skewers have a simple but delicious marinade with lots of herbs and spice. We use coconut cream to give them a deliciously creamy taste and texture, and then bake in the oven for a quick dinner.
If your family loves a chicken dinner, then you may also like to see my ginger chicken pilaf traybake and rosemary chicken fillets. Both so flavorful yet easy to make!
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⭐ Why this recipe is so good
- Full of flavor - the combination of spices, herbs and coconut cream for the chicken marinade is a lovely balance of flavors. Mild but so fragrant and tasty!
- Easy to make all year round! The chicken marinade takes very little time and then the oven does the work for you (no worries if you don't have an outdoor grill or it's too cold out!).
- Kid-friendly - I think they'll love the skewers and maybe eat the veggies too!
🐓 Ingredients
All the ingredients and their quantities are set out in the recipe card below.
Some notes on a few of them:
- Chicken - you want to use boneless skinless chicken breast for the kabobs, and dice into pieces about an inch thick.
- Coconut cream - the thick top of a can of coconut milk, or you can purchase coconut cream in a can itself.
- Paprika - I suggest that my low histamine readers will want to use sweet paprika (scores 0 on SIGHI), rather than hot or smoked paprika.
- Oregano - we use dried herbs for this recipe.
- Bell peppers and zucchini - you can use yellow or green peppers, or other suitable veggies such as white onion or corn.
📖 Swaps and variations
Swap sweet paprika for hot paprika. You can use more pungent hot paprika or smoked paprika, but those here for low histamine recipes will likely want to stick to the sweet variety.
🔪 Step by step instructions
These paprika coconut chicken skewers are so quick and easy to make in the oven, with just a few steps:
All the instructions are set out in the recipe card below, but these step by step photos should help guide you.
Step 1: Prep the chicken
Dice your boneless skinless chicken breasts into chunks about an inch thick and place in a container (image 1).
Step 2: Marinate the chicken
Add your chicken to a container and pour in the coconut cream. Sprinkle in the sweet paprika, oregano, ginger, garlic powder, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar (optional) and salt (image 2). Stir well to coat the chicken, then optionally marinate in the fridge.
My low histamine readers may wish to skip the step of marinating the chicken if they are sensitive to histamine formation. The SIGHI recommends to consume meat 'immediately after preparation or freeze it'. Simply coat the chicken in the cream, herbs and spices, thread onto your skewers and bake right away.
Step 3: Thread and bake the chicken skewers
After allowing any excess coconut cream to drip from the chicken, thread onto your skewers alternating with the red bell pepper and zucchini.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminium foil to help prevent sticking and for easier clean-up, then place the skewers so they aren't touching. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the chicken is lightly browned and cooked through with white meat throughout at the center.
💭 Recipe tips and notes
- Dice the chicken breast into small pieces of a roughly similar size for an even cook time.
- Marinating time is individual, so adjust to personal preference and requirements. My low histamine readers may wish to cook straight away, and skip the marinating time.
- Let any excess coconut cream drip from the chicken before threading onto your skewers and use a rimmed baking sheet as some of the fat from the cream will drip when baked in the oven.
- Always cook your chicken skewers so they reach an internal temperature of 165F at their deepest point using a meat thermometer.
📋 Frequently asked questions
Of course! Depending on those that work for you, yellow and green bell peppers, white onion or corn all work well.
Ideally you would marinate the chicken skewers for at least 30 minutes. However, my low histamine readers may wish to skip this step and cook the chicken kabobs straight away if they are sensitive to histamine formation.
Yes, you can easily grill them too!
If you are using metal skewers as I do, there's no prep required. If using wooden or bamboo skewers you need to soak them in cold water for at 30 minutes before use.
🥗 Suggestions for sides
These paprika coconut chicken skewers (or kabobs as they are also called!) make for a tasty family dinner and are perfect served with lots of fun sides:
- Tasty slaws are always a good idea with kabobs, so have a peek at my broccolini slaw and mango slaw.
- Potato salad is such a crowd-pleaser, and my herbed roasted potato salad and cucumber potato salad are both a little different for a change!
- Light salads pair well with meats and chicken, so check out my easy to make apple radish salad and mango cucumber salad for light and refreshing options.
And don't forget a fun drink such as my cucumber mint mocktail or blueberry mocktail to go with your meal!
🍽 More tasty chicken recipes
Enjoy many tasty chicken recipes, from my pesto chicken risotto to my turmeric chicken soup and so many more. Some recent recipes to try out:
I’m always in the kitchen, so come join me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest to be the first to hear of new recipes! And I love to hear from you - so please do leave a star rating ⭐⭐⭐ and comment if you've tried the recipe!
📖 Recipe
Paprika Coconut Chicken Skewers (Oven Baked)
Equipment
- Skewers wooden or metal
Ingredients
For the chicken skewers
- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts diced into one inch pieces
- 1 zucchini sliced
- 1 red bell pepper diced into one inch pieces
For the coconut marinade
- ½ cup coconut cream
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika more to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar optional
- ½ teaspoon ginger minced or finely diced
- pinch salt more to taste
Instructions
- If using wooden or bamboo skewers, place in a bowl of water for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 390F / 200C and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminium foil.
- Dice the chicken breasts into small pieces about an inch thick.
- Add the chicken to a dish along with the coconut cream, paprika, oregano, brown sugar, minced ginger, garlic powder, apple cider vinegar (if using) and salt. Combine well so that the chicken is fully coated. If marinating the chicken, cover and set aside in the fridge to the time of your preference.
- Let any excess marinade run off the chicken, then thread your skewers with the chicken pieces, red bell pepper and zucchini. Place on the lined baking sheet.
- Bake the chicken skewers for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked. The internal temperature should be 165F and the chicken white throughout.
Notes
- Dice the chicken breasts into small pieces of roughly similar size for an even cook time.
- As the coconut cream will drip slightly as it heats, let any excess marinade drip off before threading the chicken onto the skewers and use a rimmed baking sheet.
- Marinate to the time that suits you.
- For those that prefer a more intense flavour, increase the amount of sweet paprika to your marinade.
- Nutritional information is auto-generated and should be understood to be an estimate.
Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance
All ingredients score 0 on the SIGHI list, with the exception of:- garlic, apple cider vinegar and ginger, which score 1.
- note that sweet paprika scores 0, but other forms such as smoked paprika score higher. I suggest you may wish to use sweet paprika if you are low histamine.
Marena says
Question: How is this low histamine if it contains ACV?
Claire says
Apple cider vinegar scores 1 on the SIGHI list, so many people tolerate it. However, it's often individual with any form of vinegar it seems. Some cannot tolerate any, others tell me they add more ACV than I suggest. The SIGHI scores are all at the bottom of the recipe card. You can leave out the vinegar if you prefer.
Sheryl says
This is mouth watering. Love all your recipes Claire! Coconut and chicken always goes so well together 🙂
throughthefibrofog says
thanks Sheryl! Skewers are always fun too I think!
Carrie says
I can't believe I live in Asia and never knew you should soak the skewers. Tells you how much I cook! Ha! It's my turn this weekend, so I'm going to give it a go.
I love coriander, btw, especially fresh coriander. It's in everything here and I'm used to it, so I'm always surprised when visitors say no way.
throughthefibrofog says
Well I'm glad you having had any small fires so far without soaking them! Really hope you like the skewers, and I am a big coriander fan too. I tried growing it last year, and it was lovely to have it fresh and ready to eat.
Shruti Chopra says
I've already had my dinner today and it was really yum, but reading through this recipe - I'm now hungry again!! 😀
I think I need to order some skewers tomorrow.
What happens is, it's so easy to get stuck with our everyday styles of eating and the concept of skewers just makes it fun for everyone at home too. 🙂
throughthefibrofog says
haha! well there's always tomorrow night for chicken skewers!
They are fun aren't they, which is always nice 🙂