Marinated Kidney Friendly Chicken Kebabs

Grilled kebabs are a stunning dish to serve (and eat!) during the summer.  While time-consuming to put together, they are fun to eat and more than kidney friendly (Who doesn’t want dinner on a stick??).  These kebabs are perfect for the renal diet.  Kebabs are one of our recommended “Less Meat Meals” for patients with early stage kidney disease as you can always bulk up a kebab with lots of veggies and keep the meat minimal.  However,  if you’re on dialysis and aiming for MORE protein, you can always make meat-exclusive kebabs to go along with the veggie ones.

This kebab recipe was a snap to put together.  We used red and yellow peppers, both of which are low in potassium.  We also used marinated chicken breasts and basted the kebabs in the marinade before grilling to perfection.  Alternatively, you could also use pork.  If you want to go totally plant-based, marinated tofu or tempeh would make a great stand-in for the chicken.  We like to freeze our tofu before thawing and cooking as the texture becomes chewy after freezing.

What vegetables can I use for the renal diet?

Patients on hemodialysis or those in later stage 4 kidney disease often need to follow a lower potassium diet. If peppers and onions aren’t your thing, you can change it up with other low potassium vegetables.

For some peritoneal dialysis patients and those patients with earlier stage kidney disease (stage 1-3) without a potassium restriction you can add some high potassium vegetables without any issue.  Potassium is primarily an issue at later stages of kidney disease when the kidneys stop being able to filter it out; but early on, a higher potassium diet can actually be helpful with blood pressure. For some patients on peritoneal, home, or nocturnal dialysis, limiting potassium also is not a high priority as they get plenty of filtration from their dialysis. This, of course, is very individual to the patient so if you have questions about potassium restriction you should talk to your dietitian or physician.

KidneyGrub Verdict:

These were a really nice dish for the renal diet.  The marinade was simple and they looked stunning! We used Bragg’s Liquid Aminos instead of low sodium soy sauce to cut back the sodium content a bit.  I loved that they could be made ahead and put in a giant plastic bag to just sit and marinate, and then be popped on the grill.

Kidney Friendly Honey-Garlic Kebab Marinade

A simple sweet and savory kebab marinade perfect for the renal diet.

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Course: Main, Side Dish

Cuisine: American, Asian

Keyword: Low Calorie, Low Carb, Low Phosphorus, Low Potassium, Low Sodium

Diet Type: CKD, Dialysis

Servings: 15 people

Calories: 141kcal

Ingredients

• 1/4 c olive oil
• 1/3 c honey
• 1/4 c Bragg's Liquid Aminos
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves crushed
• 4 medium chicken breasts
• 4 small onions
• 3 medium bell peppers

Instructions

• Mix all ingredients together in a plastic bag.
• Add meat or prepared kebabs to marinate for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight.
• Use marinade to baste kebabs for first 5 minutes of cooking.

Notes

Nutrition information is highly variable based on kebab composition (more chicken versus more vegetable, type of vegetable etc...) and how much of actual marinade ends up being consumed. True sodium content is likely lower as all of marinade is generally not used in the recipe. Nutrition facts is based on 15 kebabs made with 4 medium chicken breasts, 4 small onions, and 3 peppers.

Nutrition

Serving: 2kebabs | Calories: 141kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 39mg | Sodium: 324mg | Potassium: 307mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 764IU | Vitamin C: 33mg | Calcium: 11mg | Iron: 1mg

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