Easy Stew Meat Shish Kabobs Recipe vs. Steak Kabob

This Stew Meat Kabobs recipe features stew meat and vegetables skewered together and grilled to perfection. By making kabobs with Stew Beef (not sirloin steak), you get an easy budget-friendly recipe that is full of flavor and everyone will love.

We were talking with friends about how grocery store prices are on the rise, so we decided it was a good idea to try something new — make stew meat kabobs on our outdoor grill. Since stew meat is much more affordable than typical kabob meat (i.e. sirloin steak), we thought our experiment would potentially give families a budget-friendly, summer-time recipe. Honestly, we didn’t have very high expectations for this recipe, but we were wrong! The stew meat shish kabobs were great, and were a perfect summer meal!

As background, we’ve always recommended using beef stew meat to make certain dishes more economical — like chili, slow cooker pepper steak, and beef stroganoff. But, this is the first time we’ve recommended using it on the grill.  (Just as a side note — yes, we know there are numerous places on our blog where we say to only use stew meat when it can cook low-and-slow. However, this recipe really worked and it surprised us. So, we’re going to go back and re-test some recipes and update them if appropriate.) 

If you’re looking for a more traditional kabob recipe, try our Beef Kabobs with Fig-Balsamic Glaze

Cut of Meat: Stew Meat vs. Sirloin Steak vs. Kabob Meat

Before we share this easy recipe, we think it’s important to know why we thought these beef kebabs would not work with stew meat. It all comes down to the cut of meat and tenderness.

Stew Meat is typically the trimmings of the chuck and round primal beef cut.  The chuck and round primal beef cuts are known to be tougher cuts because they’re from well-worked muscles on the animal that have lots of connective tissue. These cuts generally require cooking methods with long cook times so that the muscle fibers have time to relax and become tender beef. Usually, if you try and cook this cut of beef with a fast-cooking method, like the grill, you get chewy meat. However, with this recipe, the stew beef kabobs were still tender even when cooked on the grill. We believe it’s because we marinated the stew meat kabob beef in a simple marinade for about 8-hours, and because the chunks of beef were in small, bite-size pieces.  

Sirloin Steak: Sirloin is the large primal section of beef in the hip section of the animal, just ahead of the rump. A Sirloin Steak is a lean cut of beef that makes it an all-around favorite.

Kabob Meat: You may have noticed that stew meat and kabob meat often look very similar in their packaging. The reason for this is because they’re both trimmings. Stew meat comes from trimmings from the roast and chuck section. Kabob meat is trimming from primal cuts like sirloin. If you do a side-by-side comparison of the two, you’ll see that kabob meat is usually larger chunks of meat.

Ingredients for Stew Meat Kabobs

• Pre-packaged stew beef
• Vegetable(s) of choice such as bell peppers (green, red, orange, yellow), mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, cherry tomatoes, and onions (red onion or yellow onion). 
• Soy sauce, low sodium
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Garlic clove, minced
• Prepared mustard
• Worcestershire sauce 
• Salt and pepper

Kabob Vegetables

Let’s talk veggies. There are lots of different vegetables you can use for kabobs, so we recommend choosing your favorite. Some of our go-to’s are bell peppers (green, red, orange, yellow), mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash, and onion. Thread the steak and chopped vegetables alternately onto the wooden skewers, keeping a little space between each.

It’s also important to point out that one of the trickiest parts of making kabobs is that meat and veggies don’t cook at the same rate. Typically, it takes veggies longer to cook than meat. If you want to guarantee they’re both cooked to perfection, put them on separate skewers. 

Great Kabob Marinade

One of the secrets to great shish kabob recipe is a delicious marinade.  The marinade ingredients for this recipe are common pantry ingredients. Then, marinate the beef for 8-hours.

If you’re looking for a recipe shortcut, we also recommend Andria’s Steak Sauce. It’s a St. Louis classic sauce and can be found in most Midwest grocery stores or on Amazon. Simply baste the stew meat kabob with the store-bought marinade, instead of making the homemade marinade sauce.

How to Make Stew Meat Kabobs

1. Prepare beef: Cut beef into 1-inch pieces.  This may already be done for you since stew meat is pre-cut and packaged.
2. Prepare Vegetables: Cut desired veggies into 1″ chunks.
3. Make the marinade: Whisk soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and black pepper together in a bowl; pour into a resealable plastic bag. Add beef cubes and squeeze out excess air; seal the bag. Marinate in the refrigerator 8 hours or overnight.
4. Prepare the skewers: About 30 minutes before you’re ready to cook the kabobs, soak four 10-inch bamboo skewers in water 20-30 minutes so that they don’t burn on the grill. We prefer wooden skewers over metal skewers because metal skewers will cause the beef to start cooking from the inside, which isn’t ideal.
5. Prepare grill: Preheat grill on medium-high heat and oil. 
6. Prepare basting sauce: Remove beef from the marinade. Pour the marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes; set aside for basting.
7. Thread beef on skewers: Thread beef on skewers with desired vegetables
8. Grill and Baste: Grill kabobs over medium-high heat. Turn and baste with sauce every 2 minutes for even grilling. Grill for 8-10 minutes maximum, according to the desired meat temperature. Allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
9. Serve: Serve & enjoy!

How to Make Stew Meat Kabobs in Oven

For best results, we prefer these kabobs on the grill. But, it is possible to make them in the oven. Follow the steps above to create the beef kabobs. When it’s time to cook, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. On the middle oven rack, broil kabobs on high for approximately 15 minutes (to desired doneness), turning once. Remove from oven when kabobs reach desired temperature.

How to know when Beef Shish Kabobs are done?

An instant read thermometer is the only way to tell if meat is done, not the cooking time, color, or the “feel” of the steak. If you don’t own an instant read thermometer, please get one right now! You will quickly make back any money you spent by never overcooking another piece of expensive meat again. Here’s our favorite and we use it every day. Yes, we really use it Every. Day.

Once you have an instant read thermometer, be sure you’re using it correctly to take the internal temperature of the beef. Insert the thermometer most of the way through one of the pieces of meat, and draw it out slowly. As you do, you’ll see the temperature change as you move the probe through the meat’s temperature gradients. The lowest number you see is the best indication of the internal doneness. Be sure to the shish kebabs off the grill about 5°F BEFORE it reaches the desired temperature. This allows for carryover cooking.

Temperature Guide

Remember, you can always put the meat back on the grill if it’s too rare. You can’t undo cooking if you overdo it. Here are the temperatures to look for when using an instant read thermometer.

• Rare: 120-129°F  A rare steak is usually very red in the center and can still be cool to the touch. It’s just past raw in the center.
• Medium-Rare: 130-134°F  A medium rare steak has a warm red center.  It’s many people’s preferred doneness.
• Medium: 135-144°F  A medium-cooked steak is very warm and usually pink, not red. The steak will have a slightly drier and chewier.
• Medium-Well: 145-154 °F  A medium well steak is usually just slightly pink in the center and has lost much of its juices.
• Well Done: 155°F+  A well done steak has no pink. It’s much tougher since all the juices have been cooked out of the beef.

Kitchen products we love:

• Meat Thermometer

One more thing!

Do you want to learn more about beef? Join our weekly e-newsletter where we share farm happenings, recipes and beef availability. Sign-up and get a cheat sheet with 9-must-ask questions before buying beef directly from a farmer. Or, we have an entire ebook about beef that goes through purchasing and preparing beef from a cattle farmers perspective.

Here are a few other links you may like:

• What everybody ought to know about beef cuts
• Buying a Cow. How Much Beef Is It?
• 7 Steps to Grilling a Steak to Perfection
• How We Raise Our Grass Fed Beef
• Bonfire Burger
• Prime Rib Roast with Garlic Herb Butter

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