Think fast! Imagine all yourfavorite summer foods. Ever wonder why they’re all seemingly served on a stick? Popsicles and corn dogs are cool and all, but grilled skewers and kebabs steal our heart (and plate space) every year. Next time you’re at the store picking up BBQ supplies, pick up an extra pack of grill skewers. They’re a cookout MUST for a few reasons: They turn average ingredients into something spectacular, make grilling extra easy (especially for those of us who aren’t a grill master), and cleanup is a breeze when dinner is served on a stick. Check out our list of 50 easy grill skewer recipes to see what we mean—it’s kebab time!

You may think that skewering your food is a total no-brainer activity, and while you’d mostly be right, we DO have a couple tips to make sure your kebab experience goes off completely without a hitch. Most importantly, you gotta pick the best grill skewers. Right off the bat, we can tell you that the secret to stopping your ingredients from just spinning around and falling off your stick is using a pointy flat or two-pronged skewer—sorry round toothpicks and blunt dowels, you’re out! For smaller, appetizer-type options, like our Greek salad skewers or our melon prosciutto skewers, use a smaller flat wooden option. For bigger, heavier ingredients, like in our bánh mì kebabs or our grilled chicken kebabs, we prefer to use a metal option, two-pronged if you can manage it. If you do go with something wooden, don’t forget to soak your skewers in water for at least 30 minutes before putting them on your grill—otherwise, they might catch on fire, and you don’t need that. Here’s our best order of operations: Cut your meat and veggies into uniform pieces (bigger than your grill grates); marinate or season everything (for at least a half an hour is best); pat your ingredients dry as much as possible (it will help create that charred crust you want); and lastly, skewer!

Want more summer recipe ideas for your next outdoor celebration? Check out our top 100 best grilling recipes, our favorite summer cocktail ideas, and our best weeknight dinners you can make on the grill too.

delish!