This recipe is taken from Delish D’Lites, the site run by Jannese Torres Rodriguez, who describes herself as a Puerto Rican woman sharing her family’s recipes and food traditions — specifically her Puerto Rican Pinchos De Pollo (Chicken Kabobs) recipe. Pinchos are Puerto Rico’s grilled meat skewers, sold everywhere from beach kiosks to roadside stands across the island.
What Pinchos Are
Torres Rodriguez explains that “Pinchos, Spanish for ‘spikes,’ are a Puerto Rican ‘fast food’ staple” — thin skewers of marinated, grilled meat sold by street vendors island-wide. Chicken and pork are the most common choices, and the dish is built to be eaten on the move: a skewer handed over with a piece of crusty bread or fried plantain slid on as a handle and a bit of extra filling.
Ingredients
- 4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon Adobo seasoning
- 4 teaspoons Sazón with annatto
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/3 cup barbecue sauce, for brushing
- Metal skewers, or bamboo skewers soaked in water for at least 1 hour
Method
- Combine the Adobo, Sazón, oregano and olive oil in a bowl to make the marinade.
- Place the cubed chicken thighs in a zip-top bag with the marinade, seal, and turn to coat every piece.
- Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, though Torres Rodriguez recommends overnight for the best flavor.
- Thread the marinated chicken onto skewers, packing the pieces snugly but not tightly.
- Heat the grill to medium heat and grill the skewers for 10-15 minutes, turning as needed, until golden and cooked through.
- Brush with barbecue sauce in the final minutes, letting it caramelize into a glossy coating before pulling the skewers off the grill.
How to Serve Them
On the island, pinchos are handed over street-side with a piece of crusty bread on the end of the skewer, or served alongside tostones — twice-fried green plantain slices — for scooping up any extra sauce. Either way, the bread or tostones are doing double duty as a utensil and a side dish, which is part of what makes pinchos work as fast food you can eat standing up.
Getting the Temperature Right
Because this recipe uses boneless chicken thighs, USDA guidance for poultry applies: a minimum internal temperature of 165°F (73.9°C), checked with a food thermometer in the thickest piece on the skewer. Delish D’Lites’ own instructions call for grilling until the chicken is “golden and thoroughly cooked” rather than citing a thermometer reading, so it’s worth checking a few pieces with a probe thermometer before pulling the skewers, especially since cube size can vary from piece to piece.
A Note on the Marinade
Adobo and Sazón are both pantry staples in Puerto Rican cooking rather than a from-scratch blend — Adobo brings garlic-and-oregano-forward salt, while Sazón (with annatto) adds the orange-red color and earthy background that’s typical of pinchos and many other island dishes. Together with a short olive oil base, they do the job of a marinade in a fraction of the ingredient list a wet marinade with fresh aromatics would need, which is part of why pinchos work so well as a quick, everyday grill.
Why the Overnight Marinade Helps
Adobo and Sazón are dry, salt-forward seasonings rather than a wet paste, so they need real time in the fridge to actually reach the center of each cube rather than sitting on the surface. A one-hour marinade will still season the outside of the chicken, but the overnight option Torres Rodriguez recommends gives the salt and annatto time to work all the way through a 1-inch cube, which matters more here than it would with a thinner cut like a chicken breast fillet. Cutting the chicken into evenly sized 1-inch pieces before marinating also keeps the skewers cooking at roughly the same rate, so you’re not pulling some pieces off underdone while others dry out.
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