Beef Filet and Pineapple Skewers With Pepper and Onion Stir Fry

[FTC Standard Disclaimer] We are proud to be sponsored by Certified Angus Beef and this is a sponsored post.

Grilling food on a skewer is popular around the world and you can find examples of it in almost every culture.  Whether it is Middle Eastern shish kebabs, Japanese yakitori, Greek souvlaki, Brazilian rodizio, or African sosatie, grilling on skewers is fast, convenient, and tasty.

There are grills specifically made for skewer cooking but it is easy to build your own by using fire bricks to make a trough 10"w x 12"h x however long out of fire bricks.  For me, skewers are easy enough to do on any gas or charcoal grill, I don't think you need any special equipment other than a bag of bamboo skewers.

5 Tips for For Easier Skewer Grilling

1. If using bamboo skewers, soak them for 30 minutes before using them to keep them from burning.
2. If using metal skewers, buy the flat blade style instead of round.  It will hold the meat in place better.
3. When using round skewers, use 2 skewers parallel to each other through each kebab to keep the food from spinning.
4. Put your meat and veggies on different skewers so they can cook the appropriate length of time.  When you cook meat and veggies together, you'll often end up with under cooked veggies if the meat is cooked correctly or overcooked meat when the veggies are cooked right.
5. If using wooden skewers and a lot of excess skewer is sticking out, either wrap foil around the exposed wood or just trim it off closer to the food. 

Regardless of which flavor profile I choose or which grill I plan to use, I always start with quality beef, preferrably, Certified Angus Beef from my local Food City.  I think their quality control standards and grading make their beef consistently better than the other selections available to us.  

Here is a recipe that we made this week using the "scraps" from a whole beef tenderloin that I was trimming in to a center cut roasts.  At your butcher, they might sell these as "tenderloin tips".  

Beef Filet and Pineapple Skewers with Pepper and Onion Stir Fry featuring Certified Angus Beef.

The sweet, slightly earthy, and spicy glaze brings out the best in the pineapple and the beef.  Using tenderloin for kebabs is a little expensive but I promise you that these are some of the most tender kebabs you'll ever eat.

Beef Filet and Pineapple Skewers With Pepper and Onion Stir Fry

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds beef tenderloin tips
• 2 pineapples, peeled, cored and cut into 1" chunks
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into 1" squares
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1" squares
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into 1" squares
• 3 cups cooked sweet Jasmine rice

For the beef seasoning

• 1.5 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1.5 teaspoons black pepper, 16 mesh
• 1 teaspoon turbinado sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon dried lemon peel (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon coriander 
• 1/4 teaspoon Chinese five spice

For the Sauce/Glaze

• 1/2 cup Albukirky's Red Pepper Jelly
• 1/4 cup Mr. Yoshida's Original Gourmet Sauce (or other thick teriyaki sauce)
• 2 tablespoons cashew butter
• 2 tablespoons sriracha sauce
• 2 tablespoons beef stock
• 1 tablespoons pineapple juice
• 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped cilantro (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat grill to 450°f.
2. Make the Sauce/Glaze.  Place the pepper jelly, Yoshida's, cashew butter, sriracha sauce, beef stock, and pineapple juice in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally, until blended and slightly thickened, about 5-10 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro if desired.
3. Mix the seasoning ingredients together in a small bowl.
4. Prepare the skewers. Season the pineapple and beef chunks with the seasoning mix.  Thread the chunks, alternating pineapple and beef, onto skewers. 
5. Make the stir fry.  Preheat a wok for 5 minutes and then add high temp cooking oil.  Add the veggies, toss to coat and cook for 5 minutes, tossing them frequently.  Add 1/4 cup of the sauce and cook another 3 minutes. Remove and keep warm.
6. Grill the skewers 2 - 2 1/2 minutes on one side and then flip.  Brush the sauce onto the top half and cook another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately brush the other side with more glaze and let rest 3 minutes.
7. Serve the skewers - Serve with jasmine rice topped with the pepper and onion stir fry with leftover sauce on the side.

Notes/Substitutions

• Turbinado sugar - This is a less refined version of sugar that isn't as likely to burn.  It is often sold by the brand name "Sugar in the Raw" in grocery stores.
• Albukirky's Red Chile Jelly - This is my personal favorite.  It's made by a fellow kamado grilling enthusiast so I could be biased but this has quickly become my favorite.  Braswell's Red Pepper Jelly is available in stores and it's good too.
• Yoshida's Gourmet Sauce - If you can't find this at your grocery store in the Asian section, you can substitute a thick teriyaki sauce.
• Cashew Butter - It's generally available in grocery stores now but is a bit pricey.  You can use peanut butter instead.

Whole beef tenderloin from Certified Angus Beef.  If you're going this route instead of buying the chunks from the butcher, you'll need a very sharp boning knife.

The seasoning rub minus the turbinado sugar.  Once all this was mixed together I decided that it needed some sweet to offset the earthy, salty, and spicy flavors.

Peel the outer layer of fatty tissue back.  It should come off easily toward the side meat (aka the chain).

As you do that and work your way up, pull the side chain off as well.  

When you get to the butt end, work both sides and remove the small roast portion on the other side from the chain.  You'll have to use your knife to get it to release the last inch or so.  

Remove the silverskin by working your knife under it and then slicing forward and then to the back.

I was wanting a roast, so I cut off everything else to use for filet or beef chunks, including the chain.

We got a large center cut beef tenderloin roast, 2 filets (one was used immediately), and 1.5 pounds of nice, tender beef chunks for this recipe.

This sauce can be used as a "brown sauce" for stir frying or a glaze for grilled meats.

I used flexible skewers because it is so much easier to flip just 2 of these versus trying to flip 12 small skewers, one by one.  When I'm done cooking, I'll remove them and put them together on the cocktail skewers.

Ready to "wok and roll".

I stir fried the veggies in a wok right over the grill.

The flexible skewers also make it easy to fit whatever grill you are using and let's you put them exactly where you want them.  

I never glaze the side facing the fire, because the sugar in the sauce will burn easily.

The kebabs will be super hot as they come off the grill.  Quickly glaze them so that the heat will set the sauce onto the food.

I prefer the smaller 6" skewers over the longer ones because they are more appropriate for portion sizes with less waste.  I wouldn't eat a full 10" skewer full of this so one is plenty for me.  Trevor, on the other hand, is in football training and he ate four of these.