How to Bake Kabobs

Start to Finish: 45 minutes, plus 2 hours marinating time Servings: 4 to 6 Difficulty: Easy

Kabobs are all about variety -- beef, chicken or pork, peppers, mushrooms and onions, just about anything works. During baking, the oven produces intense caramelization by enveloping the kabobs in dry heat, and a marinade increases the flavor on all fronts. Try a simple vinaigrette for a zesty finish to vegetable kabobs or one of these robust marinades for pork, chicken or beef.

• 2 cups button mushrooms
• 1 large onion
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds of sirloin, skinless chicken breasts or pork tenderloin
• 1 cup marinade

Pop the stems off the button mushrooms. In a bowl, cover the mushroom caps with cold water. Dice the onions and bell peppers into 1-inch pieces and set them aside.

Jostle the mushrooms in the water to dislodge the grit. Drain the mushrooms and cover them again with cold water. Rinse the mushrooms and blot them with a paper towel. Set the mushrooms out to air-dry.

Trim the meat of excess fat. Dice the meat into 1-inch cubes.

Thread the meat and vegetables onto skewers alternating between the meat and vegetables. Each kabob should have, in the following order, meat, mushroom, onion, pepper, repeating until the skewer is filled with ingredients.

Place the skewers in a shallow dish and pour the marinade over them. Turn the kabobs over a few times so they're fully covered and cover the dish with plastic wrap. Marinate the kabobs in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Heat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take the kabobs out of the refrigerator and transfer them to a rimmed baking sheet. Line the baking sheet with foil or parchment paper to make cleanup easier.

Bake the kabobs for 5 minutes and lower the heat to 350 F. Turn the kabobs over and bake them for 10 more minutes.

Take the kabobs out of the oven. Hold the tips of the skewers and slide off the meat and vegetables onto a bed of rice using a fork.

Slightly modify this preparation for seafood kabobs. One-inch pieces of fish. or shrimp and scallops provide good choices. Skewer the ingredients separately -- one set of kabobs with seafood and another with vegetables. Set the oven to 350 F and bake the seafood kabobs for 7 minutes and the vegetable kabobs for 10 minutes.

• **Substitute any vegetable for the ones used in the recipe**, but veer toward those that cook in about 15 minutes. Veggies like squash, tomatoes and eggplant work well. You can use long-cooking foods, such as potatoes and carrots, but skewer them separately from the meat and start cooking them about 15 minutes earlier.

• Check the internal temperature of a few random pieces of meat using an instant-read thermometer if you have any reservations about doneness. Pork and beef are 145 F when fully cooked, and chicken is 165 F.

• If you don't want to use a marinade, instead coat the meat and vegetables in olive oil and season them with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.