These chipotle chicken skewers with creamy dipping sauce are a perfect light, healthy dinner for the warm months ahead!

If you only make one thing from my blog, please make this. Please? I’m begging and pleading and groveling and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Because these chicken skewers are amazing. Like, knock-it-out-of-the-park amazing.

White platter with grilled chicken skewers.

I was a little worried about the spice level because I’ve used chipotle chiles in the past and while I love the flavor, the heat is a bit much for the kids (and sometimes me, to be honest).

But in this recipe? It works. Really, really, really works.

The grilled chicken skewers pack a bit of spice (which you can dumb down even more by scraping the seeds first) but dipped in the cool, creamy sauce and it is like an instant cooling pool party on your palate.

A perfect light, healthy dinner for the warm months ahead, I am not exaggerating when I say I could eat this every night for a week and still be craving it come the next Monday.

A grilled chicken skewer being dipped in a creamy sauce.

The tender chicken is a perfect marriage of sweet and heat and is so refreshing and tasty with the dipping sauce that it nearly left me speechless. Except my one real talent on this earth is that I’m never speechless. Close call only.

To say this was well-received amongst the family is an understatement. I had to cut my two oldest boys off after four skewers apiece. I mean, a mom needs her protein too, right?

Oh, and by the way, I served these with the golden skillet potatoes of yesterweek which made the already fabulous meal absolutely exceptional.

White platter with grilled chicken skewers with a bowl of dipping sauce behind it.

One Year Ago: Blueberry Coconut Cake with Lemon Sauce
Two Years Ago: Mexican Rice
Three Years Ago: Giant Cookie!

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Chipotle Chicken Skewers with Creamy Dipping Sauce

4.77 stars (30 ratings)

Ingredients

Chicken Skewers:

  • 2 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts (4-5 medium chicken breasts)
  • ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced
  • 1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, minced (scrape out the seeds before mincing to reduce spiciness)
  • 2 teaspoons adobo sauce
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • ½ teaspoon chili powder
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 12 bamboo or metal skewers

Creamy Dipping Sauce:

  • ¾ cup lowfat sour cream
  • ¼ cup lowfat mayonnaise or Greek yogurt
  • ¼ cup lime juice, from 2-3 limes
  • teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, minced
  • 2 green onions, finely chopped
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions 

  • Slice the chicken breasts into long, thin strips, about 1/2-inch thick. You should have right around 30 strips. In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cilantro, chipotle chile, adobo sauce, salt, chili powder, garlic powder, and pepper. Toss the chicken with the brown sugar mixture coating all the pieces evenly. Cover the chicken (or place in a ziploc bag) and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.
  • For the dipping sauce, in a bowl, stir all the ingredients together. Cover the mixture and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes until the flavors combine. Alternately, you can make the dipping sauce in advance and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Be sure to season the dipping sauce with additional lime juice, salt and pepper to taste before serving.
  • 30 minutes before grilling, cover the bamboo skewers with water and soak. Skip this step if using metal skewers.
  • Preheat an oven broiler or gas/charcoal grill. Weave two strips of chicken onto each skewer. Broil or grill the chicken for 5-8 minutes until cooked through, using nonstick cooking spray on a foil-lined pan if you are broiling. Serve immediately (if you broil, you may need to cook in batches) with the dipping sauce.

Notes

Reduced Fat Ingredients: you could definitely use full-fat sour cream or mayo/yogurt, but I’ll attest that the sauce was divinely yummy made with reduced fat ingredients.
Spiciness: chipotle chiles in adobo sauce can be quite spicy so if you want to knock the spice down a bit, scrape the seeds out of the chile and discard before mincing the chile for the marinade/dry rub.
Serving: 1 Serving, Calories: 324kcal, Carbohydrates: 14g, Protein: 41g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 133mg, Sodium: 1408mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 10g

Recipe Source: adapted slightly from America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Cookbook sent to me by Rebecca L (thanks, Rebecca!)