We Tested Skewers for Grilling—Here Are Our Favorites

Best Overall

Timeless Steel Stainless Steel Lula Kebab Skewers, 10 Pieces

4.8

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Our Ratings

• Material
  5/5
• Design
  5/5
• Strength
  5/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  4/5
• Overall Value
  5/5

What do buyers say? 40+ Etsy reviewers rated this product 5 stars.

These skewers are handcrafted from stainless steel to stand up to rigorous use on a BBQ grill, and their versatility and performance during testing earned them the top spot on this list. They are rust-resistant and will stand up to washing and air-drying. The convenient metal nonslip ring provides a good hold for turning and controlling the skewers and for hanging them when not in use.

The skewers are flat and wide. Using the width of the skewer, our tester was able to make ground meat Adana kebabs. The meat stayed on throughout the cooking process and did not break or fall. Our tester skewered chunks of meat and vegetables and the skewers held on to them through the cooking process and even while turning the skewers.

At 26 inches, they are slightly long to be used on smaller outdoor BBQ grills and are too long for indoor use in the oven. One thing our tester noted was that the pointy and angled tips were not all made equal. Some of the skewers had really sharp tips while some struggled with food like mushrooms.

Overall, our tester was able to load up a good amount of food on these skewers and they held on strong without bending. The best part was that food stayed on—no matter how the skewers were turned.

Washing these was a bit of a maneuver (because of their length) but was easy enough, and they did not stain even when they weren't completely dried off after use.

Price at time of publish: $89

Material: Stainless steel | Length: 26 inches | Number of Pieces: 10 | Dishwasher Safe: No

Best Budget

Norpro Stainless Steel 14-Inch Skewers

4.8

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Our Ratings

• Material
  5/5
• Design
  5/5
• Strength
  4/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  5/5
• Overall Value
  5/5

If you have ever used small, thin, and rounded steel skewers, you know and understand the frustration of food spinning on the skewers. The food loses moisture, protein contracts with heat and starts to move away from the skewer, and when you want to turn the food over, it spins. The Norpro Stainless Steel Skewers are flat and wide and prevent that frustration—at a great price.

Our tester found that these skewers have really sharp tips that went through vegetables like corn and sweet potato without much trouble. Threading in small or large chunks of meat was also fuss-free, and while cooking, she found that the skewers did a great job of keeping the food from spinning around. The heat distribution was consistent, and the food cooked evenly. These skewers are an economical choice if you make a lot of kebabs for a crowd and need reusable skewers.

Our tester noticed that these skewers bent a little when loaded with heavier or chunkier ingredients and they were not as good at controlling the spinning of food when used with larger cuts. They produced the best results when used with smaller cuts.

You can put these in the top rack of your dishwasher to clean so they are easy as far as maintenance goes.

Price at time of publish: $9

Material: Stainless steel | Length: 14 inches | Number of Pieces: 6 | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best for Vegetables

Williams Sonoma Stainless Steel Skewers

4.8

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Our Ratings

• Material
  5/5
• Design
  4.5/5
• Strength
  5/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  4.5/5
• Overall Value
  5/5

The pointed and slanted tips on these skewers make it really easy to skewer hearty vegetables. The prong is flat and square, which prevents the food from spinning around. Our tester found the tapered round handles were comfortable to hold and added to the overall balance of the skewers. Once the food cooked, the included sliding disk came in handy to push food onto the plate for serving. In addition to vegetables, our tester also used these skewers for cubes of meat and chicken. The tips are sharp and go through the meat without any snags.

These skewers are just the right length where you can use them indoors or outdoors, which means your kebab-making prowess doesn’t have to be weather dependent—you can make them when you want. The overall length of the skewers is 17.75 inches, of which 10 inches can be used to skewer food on; the rest of it is the handles and the space you would want to leave at the top. They come as a set of four so you may need to buy an extra set for a larger cookout.

The skewers are made of stainless steel and can be washed in the dishwasher for easy cleanup. There were no stains on them, and they washed clean in our testing.

Price at time of publish: $50

Material: Stainless steel | Length: 17.75 inches | Number of Pieces: 4 | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best for Meat

+ Hom Kabob 1-Inch Wide Heavy-Duty Stainless Steel Skewers

4.5

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Our Ratings

• Material
  5/5
• Design
  3.5/5
• Strength
  5/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  5/5
• Overall Value
  4/5

The design of the + Hom skewers is well-suited for meat. Our tester liked the fact that they have no handles. They are flat all through and that helped with the overall balance of the skewers when shaping ground meat on them. Plus, the skewers are thick, which ensures a uniform spread of heat.

Our tester was able to shape ground meat seekh kebabs and kabab koobideh on the skewers with ease. The meat stayed on the skewers right from the start. She also cooked some kebabs on a skewer rack (like this one) to see if the skewers would stay afloat and cook meat from all sides. The skewers stayed on the rack, and she was able to turn the meat to cook on all sides.

The angled tip helped load up the skewers with larger chunks of meat, whole tomatoes, whole peppers, and big chunks of fruits. The amount of time it took for the end of the skewers to cool down was faster than the other skewers we tested. Our tester noted that using smaller mittens and tongs to turn these was more efficient than using tongs alone.

Even though they aren't dishwasher safe, cleaning the skewers is easy and a quick scrub with soap and water is all they need. The only downside to these skewers is that they are 1 inch wide. This made them too wide to be used on any smaller cuts of meats or vegetables. Our tester also said there is a bit of a learning curve. Releasing ground meat kebabs from the skewers took some practice and had to be done immediately after cooking finished. 

Price at time of publish: $40 for 6 pieces

Material: Stainless steel | Length: 23.25 inches | Number of Pieces: 6 | Dishwasher Safe: No

Best for Shrimp

Proud Grill Slide & Serve BBQ Skewers

4.4

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Our Ratings

• Material
  5/5
• Design
  4/5
• Strength
  4/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  5/5
• Overall Value
  4/5

These skewers come in two fun motifs—fish and steer—and are a fun conversation starter, in addition to being perfect for shrimp. The skewers are constructed as small pointy branches jutting out from the length of the spine. During testing, our reviewer found that grilling shrimp on these skewers was so easy. The prongs held onto the shrimp, and they stayed put throughout the grilling.

You have to be careful when turning any seafood on skewers as it tends to fall off or spin—but not with these skewers. The shrimp, whether coated in a thick marinade or simply tossed into some seasonings, stayed on the skewer during testing.

Turning these skewers needed slight maneuvering and learning as the skewer itself is small, and once loaded, the weight concentrates. In the absence of handles, our tester found that using a sturdy pair of tongs did the job nicely. She also found it convenient to make a skewer with meat on one side and veggies on the other so that anything that cooked faster could be removed and then the skewer put back on the grill to complete cooking.  

One thing to note is that it is somewhat difficult to load up food on these because you are going with a sideways force. Our tester found it easier to load the skewers from the top, and if using two kinds of ingredients, fared better with threading lighter items on first.

They are dishwasher safe and get completely cleaned in a regular dishwashing cycle.

Price at time of publish: $30

Material: Stainless steel | Length: 12 inches | Number of Pieces: 4 | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Wooden

HOPELF Natural Bamboo Skewers

4.4

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Our Ratings

• Material
  4.5/5
• Design
  4/5
• Strength
  3.5/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  5/5
• Overall Value
  5/5

These bamboo skewers are meant for fun food on sticks and food that you want to make portable. These sturdy 4-millimeter-thick skewers can be used to make candied apples, fruit kebabs, or a Caprese salad. If there is a food you want on a skewer, these skewers will make that happen.

The tips of these skewers are pointed and sharpened to a 45-degree angle, and our tester found that she could easily thread meat and vegetables on them. The skewers and the ends are polished and smooth. Our tester was able to thread on cubes of meat and vegetables for grilling with no problems.

With things like beef tenderloin kebabs, the skewers performed well as the time required to cook these was less than when the skewers were used to make a chicken kebab. For anything that required time, the skewers charred a lot and larger pieces of food also started to spin. In our testing, these performed the best when used with meats that needed less time to cook and meats and vegetables cut into smaller sizes.

They are available in a variety of sizes, and while disposable, the price is inexpensive enough to make them a good value.

Price at time of publish: $9 for 12 inch in bamboo

Material: Bamboo| Length: 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 inches | Number of Pieces: 100 | Dishwasher Safe: No

Best Metal

Grapevine Forge Metal Shish Kabob Skewer Set

4.8

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Our Ratings

• Material
  5/5
• Design
  5/5
• Strength
  5/5
• Ease of Cleaning
  4/5
• Overall Value
  5/5

Metal skewers spread heat evenly for uniform cooking. When in doubt, always use a flat square-shaped metal skewer for kebabs, like these, which performed well in testing. Plus, these elegant skewers are designed to be shown off. They received top marks by our tester for being so presentable. Simply lift them off the grill and take them straight to a platter to present the food.

The elegantly designed handles helped with gripping the skewer to lift or turn. While the metal used in the skewer is thinner to make it versatile for both vegetables and meats, our tester found that it is strong enough to hold on to thick cuts of steak without collapsing. The square shape of the prong in these skewers helped keep food on the skewer without moving around.

Our tester hand-washed them, and they need to be dried immediately. Otherwise, they rust and stain, as our tester found out the hard way when she just left them in the sink.

Price at time of publish: $35 for 4 skewers

Material: Carbon steel | Length: 15 inches | Number of Pieces: 4 or 6 | Dishwasher Safe: No