Our chicken souvlaki recipe makes classic Greek grilled skewers marinated in dried oregano, thyme and mint, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and lemon juice. The Greek kebabs are cooked in a grill pan on the stovetop, but you could slide them under an oven-grill (broiler) or do them on a barbecue. Serve them on pita, with tzatziki, the Greek yoghurt cucumber sauce, and a Greek salad.
This chicken souvlaki recipe makes traditional Greek grilled skewers, and it’s one of our best Greek recipes and one of our best skewers recipes. You could cook the smoky souvlaki on an outdoor grill if you’re having a backyard barbecue, but there’s no need to fire up the barbie just for the skewers. I cook these succulent Greek style kebabs on a grill pan or griddle pan on the stovetop. You could also slide a tray of skewers under an oven-grill (broiler).
Greek souvlaki is a street food as well as being made in the home. When I’m making these chicken souvlaki for two of us, I’ll slather some tzatziki on warm pita bread, pile on some Greek feta salad or this Greek lettuce salad, or even a simple salad of tomatoes and onions, slide the chicken off the skewers, and use tongs to arrange the grilled chicken pieces on top, so the lot can easily be rolled up in the pita.
Feeding a crowd? Prepare big bowls of salad, dishes of tzatziki, and stacks of pita warmed on the grill (or in the oven) on plates on the table, and serve a tray of chicken souvlaki hot off the grill. Encourage guests to assemble their own chicken souvlaki – while they’re still hot! You could serve mezedes such as this Greek eggplant dip, taramosalata, artichoke dip, this pan fried feta cheese, and these Greek meatballs for guests to nibble on while waiting for the souvlaki.
If you’re a fan of grilled skewers, try our recipes for Middle Eastern beef kofta kebabs and shish tawook garlicky chicken skewers, Thai chicken satay skewers, Cambodian lemongrass beef skewers, and these Cambodian beef and pork belly skewers from Battambang.
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Greek Chicken Souvlaki Recipe for Smoky Char-Grilled Marinated Skewers
Grilling small pieces of meat on skewers is one of those great barbecue traditions of grilling found right around the world – everywhere from street food stalls in Southeast Asia, where skewers served with dipping sauces are eaten on plastic plates from tiny stools, to the Middle East, where a familiar sight for us was seeing picnicking families in parks turn kebabs over portable grills during winter in Dubai.
When we called the UAE home and regularly tucked into takeaway Lebanese food for dinner, we usually ordered a mixed grill, which featured some kind of skewers. The garlicky chicken skewers called shish taouk and beef kofta kebabs were two of our favourite Middle Eastern dishes, always eaten with soft warm pita bread, hummus and baba ganoush, and salads such as tabbouleh and fattoush.
In Thailand, pork or chicken satay skewers with peanut sauce rules, and was one of our favourite street food dinners when we lived in Bangkok some years ago. Here in Cambodia we’ve long loved these lemongrass beef skewers that are popular in Siem Reap, and these juicy beef and pork belly skewers from Battambang, two of our best Cambodian barbecue recipes.
Growing up in Australia, my Russian-Ukrainian grandparents made shashliks – ancient shish kebabs, popularised in the 18th and 19th centuries – which they’d prepare at home and lay out on oven trays covered with foil. We’d pack them in the boot of papa’s Falcon with bowls of salads, loaves of black rye bread, and bottles of vodka and soft drinks.
Although my grandparents’ shashliks were huge, my baboushka sliding chunky pieces of meat, onions and capsicums onto long metal skewers, which my papa would grill over charcoal in public barbecues in parks. It was a tradition my parents continued, serving them alongside steaks and sausages when we had weekend barbecues throughout Sydney’s long hot summers.
Despite the ubiquity of grilled meat skewers in culinary cultures around the globe, the ancient Greeks may well have been the first to grill meat on skewers and this Greek chicken souvlaki recipe might make one of the oldest street foods.
The Greek word ‘souvlaki’ literally means ‘little skewer’, from the Greek word ‘souvla’ for skewer – a skewer threaded with small pieces of meat, such as chicken, pork, lamb, beef, and meatballs, or even vegetables and haloumi, that’s traditionally grilled over charcoal.
Archaeologists found evidence that ancient Greeks cooked meat on skewers way back in the 17th century BC in the form of a stone cooking tool discovered on the island of Santorini that doesn’t like too far removed from a modern-day home grill, while there are said to be references in ancient Greek texts by Homer and Aristotle to cooking spit-roasted meats, which sounded a lot like souvlaki. Just a few tips to making this chicken souvlaki recipe.
Tips to Making this Greek Chicken Souvlaki Recipe
I only have a few tips to making this chicken souvlaki recipe. Firstly, while I’ve made these Greek skewers with chicken, souvlaki can be made with pork, beef, lamb or even vegetables. Some cooks will thread vegetables, such as shallots and pieces of peppers (capsicums) between the meat.
I’ve used chicken thigh meat, as we think it’s more delicious, plus it’s always juicy and tender. Unlike chicken breast, which is easy to over-cook. The longer you marinate the chicken, the better – anything from one hour (not enough) to overnight (don’t go longer than this as it changes the texture of the chicken).
Don’t forget to soak your wooden skewers so they don’t burn. If you’re using a griddle pan you may need to cut the wooden skewers to the width of the pan.
When it comes to the size of the chicken pieces, I think 2cm pieces are perfect as they cook quickly, and while they might not look as pretty, leaving little gaps between the chicken pieces ensure they cook evenly.
You really need to grill the chicken souvlaki over high heat. While you can throw these chicken souvlaki onto a barbecue or outdoor grill (heat doesn’t get much hotter than that), you can easily cook these chicken kebabs on your kitchen stove-top on a griddle pan or grill plate with griddle side if you’d like nice char marks.
In those parks in Dubai, we spotted families cooking their skewers in a BBQ grilling basket over a small portable grill. In Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, local cooks grill outside on a traditional clay brazier using charcoal, which Terence used to do before we moved and weren’t allowed to cook on our balcony. These days, Terence grills indoors using a stovetop Korean BBQ grill pan.
Still served as a street food in Greece, souvlaki intended for eating on the go are typically wrapped up in pita with tzatziki and perhaps other sauces (these days, a hot sauce is popular), while plates of souvlaki often come with salad and fried potatoes or potato fries.
I like to slather the pita with tzatziki, the Greek yoghurt cucumber sauce, sprinkle some herbs such as fresh dill and flat-leaf parsley on top, slide the chicken pieces off the skewers, and pile the chicken on top of, along with some salad, drizzle on a little more good quality extra virgin olive oil, and wrap it all up. Enjoy!
Greek Chicken Souvlaki Recipe
Ingredients
- 600 g chicken thighs - skinless, boneless, cut into 2 cm pieces
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 1 tbsp dried mint
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 4 garlic cloves - peeled, minced
- 80 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon - juice only
Instructions
- Soak 8 short wooden skewers in a tray of water so they don’t burn.
- In a small bowl, stir the dried oregano, dried thyme, dried mint, and salt and pepper together.
- To a mixing bowl, add the 2cm chicken thigh pieces, dried herb mix, minced garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and lemon juice, and use a large spoon, spatula or clean hands to combine, making sure the chicken pieces are completely coated in the marinade.
- Transfer the chicken pieces to a container with lid and refrigerate to marinate for a minimum of one hour up to a maximum of overnight.
- When you’re ready to eat, loosely thread the chicken pieces onto the wooden skewers so they cook evenly; around 6 chicken pieces per skewer if you’re making 8 skewers.
- Brush just enough olive oil onto the grill pan to lightly coat it, heat a grill pan over high heat until hot, lay the skewers out on the pan, leaving some space between them, and grill the skewers. Turn each skewer in the order you laid them down, 2 minutes a side for about 8 minutes.
- Serve immediately on warm pita bread slathered with tzatziki, topped with fresh herbs, lemon wedges for squeezing onto the souvlaki, and a Greek salad.
Notes
Nutrition
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