My copy of Char and Smoke fell open to the Bang Bang Chicken Skewers page so many times last summer that the binding finally gave up on me in August. The page is stained. There’s a streak of sriracha across the headnote and I’m pretty sure that smear in the upper corner is mayonnaise.
I bought the book on a whim because I liked the cover and the title felt honest. I did not expect to become this person about chicken skewers.
The cookbook that started it
Char and Smoke is a small, square cookbook by a writer named Tessa Owen, who spent a year living with various host families across Southeast Asia and the American South and wrote down whatever they cooked her. It is not famous. I found it on a remainder shelf at a used bookstore in Silver Lake for nine dollars.
The recipe sits on page 87. Her headnote says she first ate a version of it at a homestay outside Bangkok, where the host scribbled the sauce ratio on a paper napkin and pushed it across the table without a word.
Tessa kept the napkin and taped a photo of it into the headnote. The recipe in the book is her attempt to honor it, and I have spent months tinkering with my own attempt to honor hers.
I’d say that is a slightly absurd amount of effort to put into a recipe that takes twelve minutes to cook. I’d also say, in my defense, that the version I make now is genuinely worth it.
Where Bang Bang Chicken Skewers actually come from
I should say up front that this is not a traditional Chinese dish, no matter what the name suggests. The name borrows from Sichuan’s bàng bàng jī, which is a cold, poached, shredded chicken salad dressed in sesame and chili oil.
The bàng (棒) is the wooden stick vendors used to pound the chicken into tender shreds, which is where the doubled-up name comes from. It has nothing to do with gunfire or with the Nancy Sinatra song.
What we call bang bang sauce in American kitchens, that creamy mayo-sweet-chili-sriracha situation, actually started at Bonefish Grill in Florida in 2001 on a shrimp appetizer. The skewer version is newer still, a TikTok creation that took off in 2023 and 2024. So when I serve these, I try to credit both lineages and not pretend they are something they are not.
What I used
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes
- Olive oil for coating
- Smoked paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Full-fat mayonnaise (do not use light, it splits on the grill)
- Thai sweet chili sauce
- Sriracha, adjusted to whatever your tolerance is that day
- Fresh lime juice, about half a lime
- A teaspoon of honey to round out the heat
- Sliced scallions and toasted sesame seeds for the top
- A whole lime, cut into wedges for serving
- Eight bamboo skewers, soaked, or metal if you have them
Where Bang Bang Chicken Skewers punish impatience
The first ten times I made these, they were fine. Not great.
The chicken was cooked through but a little dry and the sauce slid off in slow defeated streaks. I went back to Tessa’s headnote and realized I had been rushing two specific steps.
The first is the rest. After you toss the chicken with the spice mix, it needs to sit at room temperature for a full fifteen minutes.
Not five. Not “while I get the grill going.” A real fifteen, timer set.
The salt has to pull moisture out of the meat and then back in, and if you skip that step you can taste the difference. The chicken stays squeaky instead of giving up and going tender.
The second is the basting window. The sauce wants to go on in the last minute of cooking, not earlier.
Mayonnaise on a hot grate too soon just turns into a sad puddle that runs into the coals and chars on the bars. Wait until the chicken is nearly done, brush it generously, let it caramelize for sixty seconds, and pull it off the heat.
That sixty seconds is the entire point. If you get both the rest and the basting window right, the difference is genuinely embarrassing.
I have made these for friends who watched me do it last summer and again last week, and only the second batch made anyone go quiet at the table.
The little twists I’ve ended up keeping
Over thirty-something batches, a few changes have stuck. I add a quarter teaspoon more salt than the original calls for, because my kosher salt is Diamond Crystal and Tessa’s was clearly Morton.
I also add a full teaspoon of honey to the sauce even though her recipe says optional, because it gives the glaze something to grab onto when it hits the heat.
I’ve also made them in the air fryer at 400 F for eleven minutes, flipping once, and they are honestly almost as good. If you do not have a grill, or it’s raining, or you live in an apartment where outdoor cooking is a hostile fantasy, the air fryer version is a real option.
Just do not skip the basting moment at the end. The sauce still needs that final kiss of heat to behave like a glaze instead of a salad dressing.
One more thing. Reserve half the sauce before you ever touch the chicken with a brush. The basting half is for cooking, the other half is for dipping, and if you cross-contaminate you will be sad at dinner.
Why I keep coming back to it
Here is the thing about being obsessed with one recipe in one cookbook for nearly a year. You stop trying to make it better and you start making it more like itself.
I am not adding miso. I am not swapping in gochujang. I am just making the skewers the way Tessa wrote them down after a stranger handed her a napkin.
They are not fancy. They feed four people for under fifteen dollars. The page in my cookbook is unreadable in places now and I have no intention of replacing it.
Bang Bang Chicken Skewers
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Pat the chicken cubes dry with paper towels and place them in a mixing bowl. Add the olive oil, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt, and black pepper. Toss until every piece is evenly coated, then let the chicken sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
- While the chicken rests, whisk together the mayonnaise, Thai sweet chili sauce, sriracha, lime juice, and honey in a small bowl until smooth and glossy. Transfer half of the sauce to a separate serving bowl and reserve the other half for basting.
- Thread the seasoned chicken tightly onto 8 soaked bamboo or metal skewers, pressing the cubes close together so they stay juicy. Aim for 5 to 6 pieces per skewer.
- Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat, about 400 F. Lightly oil the grates to prevent sticking.
- Lay the skewers on the hot grill and cook undisturbed for 4 minutes, until deep grill marks form on the bottom.
- Flip the skewers and grill for another 4 to 5 minutes, until the chicken is charred at the edges and the internal temperature reaches 165 F on an instant-read thermometer.
- Brush the skewers generously with the basting portion of the bang bang sauce during the final minute of cooking, letting it caramelize slightly on the chicken.
- Transfer the skewers to a platter and let them rest for 3 minutes.
- Drizzle with a little of the reserved sauce, then scatter the sliced scallions and toasted sesame seeds over the top.
- Serve immediately with lime wedges and the remaining bang bang sauce on the side for dipping.