Grilled Chicken Souvlaki Skewers
Tangy Greek flavors of lemon, garlic and oregano will make these chicken skewers your new favorite summer dish! Eat as a main course, hot off the grill with some falafel and tzatziki, or eat it cold the next day. This chicken is juicy and tender. Perfect for salads too. Just 6 ingredients plus salt and pepper.
When I came up with these amazing Falafel patties, I knew I wanted to make them for my next retreat menu. But what else would I serve the falafel with? I went looking for an animal protein to go along with it and found “souvlaki”, a classic Greek preparation with lemon, olive oil garlic and Mediterranean herbs.
This recipe wowed me and everyone else at the retreat and quickly became a regular meal for all my retreats after that. It’s perfectly paired with a quinoa salad, some falafel and a dairy free tzatziki (links to these recipes all below.) The best part of these skewers is how good they are days later. The cold leftovers make a great sandwich or chicken salad, if you can manage to make enough for leftovers.
Why You’ll Love These Greek Souvlaki Skewers
Easy to marinate and assemble ahead of time, getting the messy work over before you grill or company arrives for your backyard party
Marinating with lemon and garlic gives this chicken a wonderful flavor and stays moist
Make extra and have delicious, tangy chicken all week for snacks and salads
What you will need to make these skewers
Lemon juice
Red wine vinegar
Olive oil
Fresh oregano
Garlic
Salt, pepper
Boneless chicken, breasts or thighs
Skewers and a Grill!
I have cooked this chicken on the stove and then popped it into the oven to finish cooking. So if you don’t have a grill, you can use this recipe as a marinade and just pan fry your chicken to get it browned, and then bake for about 20 minutes, until the centers are 165 degrees.
Tips for Marinating Chicken
Whenever you marinate chicken in acidic ingredients like citrus or vinegar, you only need to let it sit for 1 to 2 hours. Any longer and the chicken will start to “cook” or degrade a little. There is no improvement in flavor or texture past 2 hours.
How to Make Chicken Souvlaki
Marinate
In a medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, oregano, garlic, salt and black pepper. Add the chicken cubes and toss to coat. Set bowl in the refrigerator for 1½ hours.
Skewer
Place your chicken pieces onto skewers leaving room at the bottom so you have a place to hold them. Rest assembled skewers on a small baking sheet until ready to grill. You can now store the sheet pan in the fridge if you aren’t grilling them right away.
**Let your chicken sit out on the counter for about 30 minutes to come to room temperature before you grill.
Grill
Heat your grill, and once hot place chicken skewers on grill leaving room in between. Let sit undisturbed for 4 minutes in order to get nice brown grill marks. Turn skewers and brown the remaining sides. About 10 minutes total cooking time depending on how big your pieces are. Check temperature with an instant read thermometer for 165 degrees. Move chicken to a serving platter.
Enjoy!
Serve with some of the side dish ideas below!
What to Serve with Grilled Chicken Souvlaki
Mediterranean Quinoa Salad - a beautiful side dish to pair with this chicken
Dairy Free Tzatziki - lots of flavor and no dairy required
Falafel - this recipe is made with canned chickpeas
Tomato, Olive, Cucumber Salad
Roasted Red Onion and Zucchini
Hummus
You can also do a search for Greek salad, or “Greek side dishes”
Printer-Friendly Recipe
Grilled Chicken Souvlaki Skewers
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
- 3 large garlic clove, minced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Couple turns fresh ground pepper
- 2 pounds boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, oregano, garlic, salt and black pepper. Add the chicken cubes and toss to coat. Set bowl in the refrigerator for 1½ hours.
- Place your chicken pieces onto skewers leaving room at the bottom so you have a place to hold them. Rest assembled skewers on a small baking sheet until ready to grill. You can now store the sheet pan in the fridge if you aren’t grilling them right away.
- Heat your grill, and once hot place chicken skewers on grill leaving room in between. Let sit undisturbed for 4 minutes in order to get nice brown grill marks. Turn skewers and brown the remaining sides. About 10 minutes total cooking time depending on how big your pieces are. Check temperature with an instant read thermometer for 165 degrees. Move chicken to a serving platter.
Notes
Whenever you marinate chicken in acidic ingredients like citrus or vinegar, you only need to let it sit for 1 to 2 hours. Any longer and the chicken will start to “cook” or degrade a little. There is no improvement in flavor or texture past 2 hours.
**Let your chicken sit out on the counter for about 30 minutes to come to room temperature before you grill.
Recipes to pair with chicken souvlaki:
Dairy Free Tzatziki
The creamy, refreshing dip to pair with your skewers
Falafel
The perfect vegetarian patty that is also gluten free
Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
A well balanced side dish or main course!
*Please note, some of the links on this site are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I can earn from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you. All of the products on my site are actually used by me. I do not recommend anything that is not in my own kitchen and used in these recipes.