Alton Brown's Clever Hack To Grill Kabobs Without The Hassle

Grilled kabobs are a real easy crowd-pleaser, whether you're making them for a large backyard party or a small family gathering. However, they do involve some prep work, including cutting the meat and veggies, marinating them, and skewering them. It's also easy to overlook the important step of soaking bamboo or wooden skewers for at least 30 minutes and up to four hours, depending on how long the skewered meat or veggies need to cook on the grill. Why all the hassle? The skewers need to be soaked in water before going on the grill or else you risk setting them on fire or having the meat or veggies cook unevenly.

TV personality and author Alton Brown knows what he's talking about when it comes to grilling kabobs. Brown dedicated an entire episode to this ancient cooking technique in season 9 of his Food Network show "Good Eats" called "Dis-Kabob-Ulated." In the episode, Brown came up with a simple, time saving answer to the bamboo skewer problem. You can store the skewers in a clean, recycled water bottle filled to the top with water. "Just give the bottle a little squeeze and they'll pop right up," Brown said on Instagram.

Alton Brown has made a career out of figuring out the best and easiest way to achieve the optimal end result in the kitchen, whether that's his foolproof technique to get a perfect steak crust (he puts his cast iron pan in a 500 degree Fahrenheit oven first) or the simple but effective use of air filters and a box fan to dry herbs. So, we definitely defer to him on the subject of time-saving food hacks. While he doesn't say how long you can keep the skewers in the water bottle, you could probably get away with storing them for a few days in the refrigerator during grilling season.

Now that you've got your pre-soaked skewers at the ready, you can try your hand at perfectly prepared shrimp skewers. Bonus kabob hack: Use two skewers to stake the shrimp for easy turning and to prevent them from sliding around on the grill. With Brown's handy, water bottle-packed skewers waiting in the wings, you can make this shrimp dish or any other kabob, satay, or yakitori recipe in a flash.