Grilled Greek Souvlaki Chicken Skewers

mediterraneanpoultrymeat & seafooddinner

May 27

Written By Anadi Misra

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Immerse yourself in a Greek paradise with this homemade souvlaki chicken skewer recipe! This **Grilled Greek Souvlaki Chicken Skewer** recipe will show you how to make the marinade and how to cook the chicken skewers. Serve with lemon rice, homemade tzatziki, and lemon potatoes for a Greek feast right from home!

Souvlaki is a popular Greek street food, and I’m absolutely in love with it!

I haven't shared a Greek recipe in the longest time and I'm so excited to share these awesome skewers! These Mediterranean skewers are inspired by one of my favourite food court meals, which is at Jimmy the Greek. If you’re in a slump in the kitchen, then I go into more detail in my free motivational guide to explore your potential in the kitchen, Make Cooking Fun!, how going out to eat at your favourite restaurants (or even fast food or coffee shops!) can spark your creativity. Whenever I make these Souvlaki Chicken Skewers, I love to replicate the entire order I just serve the skewers with any other sides I may have already had on hand to make custom meals - check out serving suggestions later on in this post!

My favourite way to whip out my grill pan when it’s summer time (or any time of the year but especially the summer!) is to make a variety of skewers. From Tandoori Shrimp Skewers, Juicy Chicken Seekh Kebabs, and Brazilian Churrasco, making and eating skewers always mark a special occasion!

These Greek-inspired souvlaki chicken skewers are definitely one of the most special to me. The marinade for the chicken is so flavourful and so simple to prepare! Get out your grill pan, or even better, an outdoor grill and cook them to perfection! The lemon rice is an amazing side that complements the skewers perfectly and you’ll love those flavourful baked potatoes! Of course, don't forget a generous dollop of homemade tzatziki sauce! If Greece is a destination that you haven’t seen before, then these Souvlaki Chicken Skewers will allow you to take that trip in your kitchen as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! You can participate for free by signing up to my email newsletter, plus all of my new recipes on the blog will be delivered right to your inbox!

Follow along as I show how to prepare the Greek Souvlaki Chicken Skewers marinade and grilling the skewers! I’d appreciate it if you would subscribe to my YouTube channel if you’re not already, and don’t forget to press the bell button to be notified when all of my new video recipes go live! Let’s get grilling!

What is Souvlaki Chicken?

Similar to kebabs, “souvlaki” means “skewered meat.” However, I just learned that souvlaki actually refers to the entire Greek meal, consisting of pita bread, marinated grilled meat, and finished with a generous serving of tzatziki sauce.

Gyros vs. Shawarma vs. Souvlaki?

Ah yes, I’ve been confused too! Obviously I’m not from a Mediterranean background, and I wasn’t really familiar with any of these until I came to Canada, where all of these great dishes are served around! By the way, it seems that a bit after I left India in 2013 that shawarmas started to be sold! So not fair!

Anyway, all three of these are popular Mediterranean meat dishes that are typically served with pita bread. However, the difference is that gyros are made with ground meat, whereas souvlaki is made with chunks of meat. Shawarmas are Middle Eastern, and the lamb, goat, turkey, chicken or beef is shaved and wrapped in pita bread.

I hope this clears things up!

Ingredients for Juicy Souvlaki Chicken Skewers

Here’s what you’ll need to make this wholesome Greek meal! The FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD at the bottom of this post has the full list of ingredients with their quantities, along with allowing you to save the recipe for later. You can also scale the recipe based on how many skewers you want to make! By default, the recipe will make 4 skewers.

Chicken: I’m using a combination of both chicken breast and chicken thighs. They’ll be cut into one inch cubes so that we have nice chunks for our skewers! You could use all breast or all thigh meat, but I really enjoyed the combination to get different textures in each bite!
Souvlaki chicken marinade: The marinade consists of juice of half a lemon, minced garlic, oregano, chili flakes, salt and pepper, olive oil, Italian Seasoning, and a few drops of vinegar. This is the marinade I use for my Italian Herb Grilled Chicken Breast. This combination really helps to flavour the chicken and make it extremely juicy when it’s grilled!
Fresh dill: Optional for garnish.

That’s it! It’s simpler than you think to whip up restaurant-quality chicken skewers!

How to Make Grilled Greek Souvlaki Chicken Skewers

Prepare the marinade by adding the cubed chicken into a bowl. Add in the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, chili flakes, Italian seasoning, oregano, salt and pepper.

Mix well to coat marinade evenly, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Thread the marinated chicken cubes onto wooden or stainless steel skewers.

Preheat a grill pan on medium heat, brush the pan with olive oil. Add the skewers on the hot grill, the chicken should sizzle if the pan is hot enough.

Cook for about 5 minutes and then flip the skewer, lower the heat and cook other side. After 5 more minutes, or once the other side has become browned as well, lower the heat and cover the skewers with a bowl or lid to capture the steam and cook the chicken completely. It should take about 12-18 minutes.

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If you’ve prepared the lemon potatoes, baste those juices onto the skewers. Alternatively, you can baste any leftover marinade onto the skewers.

Serve immediately with a hot spoonful of lemon rice, lemon potatoes, souvlaki skewers and a dollop of tzatziki. Sprinkle some sprigs of fresh dill if desired.

Enjoy!

How Do I Know the Chicken is Cooked?

My go to method to check if the chicken is cooked is to lightly poke it with my index finger. The chicken should have a slight spring back once poked. This is very similar to the spring back if you poke the tip of your nose. Alternatively, you can slice one of the pieces of chicken in half to check if it is white and juicy inside.

TIps TO Have Super Juicy Souvlaki Chicken SKewers

If you’re using a combination of dark and white meat, take special care to make sure that each piece is roughly the same size. This will allow you to cook the chicken evenly and at around the same time.
Play around with the heat on the stone if pan-grilling to achieve a nice char and control the heat if the chicken is browning too quickly. Keep in mind to lower the heat once both sides are brown and cook the chicken covered until it is completely white inside.
Alternatively, you can easily make these skewers under a broiler in the oven. For oven broiling, it’s much easier to use metal skewers than worrying about soaking bamboo or wooden skewers.

What to Serve with Souvlaki Chicken

With this Souvlaki Chicken recipe, I’ll be serving a quick version of lemon rice pilaf, lemon-herb potatoes, and homemade tzatziki sauce! Check out each recipe for more details:

Lemon rice: Here I’m using basmati rice, olive oil, and juice of one lemon. This rice will be so flavourful and tangy, making it a perfect side for your skewers!
Tzatziki sauce: I personally must have tzatziki sauce to complete my Greek feast! In my homemade tzatziki sauce, I use Greek yogurt, grated cucumber, minced garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and some fresh dill if you have some on hand!
Lemon potatoes: Baked potatoes with chicken broth, oregano, lemon juice, and olive oil, these potato wedges are so flavourful and addictive! I really can’t stop snacking on them and they’re so simple to prepare!

Other Incredible Mediterranean Recipes

Watch How to Make Grilled Greek Souvlaki Chicken Skewers Here:

Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cookingwithanadi. Thank you!

chicken skewers, chicken skewers recipe, greek chicken skewers, grilled chicken skewers, souvlaki chicken skewers, souvlaki chicken skewers recipe, souvlaki chicken skewers with lemon rice,

Mediterranean, Greek, Souvlaki, poultry, skewers

Greek, Mediterranean

Yield: 4

Author: Anadi

Grilled Greek Souvlaki Chicken Skewershttps://youtu.be/ezTlUj7YNxQThese grilled Greek souvlaki chicken skewers are perfect for a summer Greek feast! This souvlaki chicken skewer recipe will show how to prepare the best authentic Greek marinade for chicken breast and thighs and how to grill the skewers. Serve with lemon rice, lemon potatoes, and homemade tzatziki. Comment if you want to see those recipes!2023-05-27

Greek Grilled Souvlaki Chicken Skewers

Immerse yourself in a Greek paradise with this homemade souvlaki chicken skewer recipe! This Grilled Greek Souvlaki Chicken Skewer recipe will show you how to make the marinade and how to cook the chicken skewers. Serve with lemon rice, homemade tzatziki, and lemon potatoes for a Greek feast right from home!

Prep time: 35 MinCook time: 18 MinTotal time: 53 Min

Ingredients

For the souvlaki chicken

1 lb chicken breast and thighs, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 lemon, juiced (about 1/4 Cup)
1 Tbsp olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili flakes
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp Greatest Homemade Italian Seasoning
1/2 tsp white vinegar
salt to taste
fresh dill, for garnish

Instructions

Prepare the marinade by adding the cubed chicken into a bowl. Add in the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, chili flakes, Italian seasoning, oregano, vinegar salt and pepper.
Mix well to coat marinade evenly, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Thread the marinated chicken cubes onto wooden or stainless steel skewers. Preheat a grill pan on medium heat, brush the pan with olive oil. Add the skewers on the hot grill, the chicken should sizzle if the pan is hot enough.
Cook for about 5 minutes and then flip the skewer, lower the heat and cook other side. After 5 more minutes, or once the other side has become browned as well, lower the heat and cover the skewers with a bowl or lid to capture the steam and cook the chicken completely. It should take about 12-18 minutes.
If you’ve prepared the lemon potatoes, baste those juices onto the skewers. Alternatively, you can baste any leftover marinade onto the skewers.
Serve immediately with a hot spoonful of lemon rice, lemon potatoes, souvlaki skewers and a dollop of tzatziki. Sprinkle some sprigs of fresh dill if desired.