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Irradiating a flame via microwave radiation is a plasma-assisted combustion (PAC) technology that can be used to modify the combustion chemical kinetics in order to improve flame stability and to delay lean blow-out. One practical implication is that combustion engines may be able to operate with leaner fuel mixtures and have an improved fuel flexibility capability including biofuels. Furthermore, this technology may assist in reducing thermoacoustic instabilities, which is a phenomenon that may severely damage the engine and increase NOX production. To further understand microwave-assisted combustion, a skeletal kinetic reaction mechanism for methane–air combustion is developed and presented. The mechanism is detailed enough to take into account relevant features, but sufficiently small to be implemented in large eddy simulations (LES) of turbulent combustion. The mechanism consists of a proposed skeletal methane–air reaction mechanism accompanied by subsets for ozone, singlet oxygen, chemionization, and...