Greek Chicken Souvlaki With Cold Tzatziki and Warm Pita
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It is 7:15 on a Friday, you have been on your feet since breakfast, and the plan is dinner on a stick. This greek chicken souvlaki is 17 minutes on the clock: five of prep, twelve under the heat, a bowl of tzatziki and warm pita on the side. Meat on skewers is the original no-strings dinner, and it still gets a second date.
Lemon, garlic and oregano do the flirting; the grill just closes the deal.
The chicken goes into a bowl with olive oil, the juice of two lemons, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper, and the skewers go on while you make the tzatziki. Grated cucumber and Greek yogurt with dill and one more clove of garlic, and a squeeze of lemon, makes the cool half of the plate. Warm pita and diced tomato finish it, and that is the whole greek chicken souvlaki plate.
What you need
- 1½ lb chicken breasts, cubed
- 1 cup greek yogurt
- 1 cucumber, grated
- 4 pita bread
- 2 lemons
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
How to make it
- Cut 1.5 lbs chicken breasts into 1 inch cubes, then toss with 3 tbsp olive oil, the juice of 2 lemons, 4 cloves minced garlic, 1 tbsp dried oregano, salt, and black pepper.
- Thread the marinated chicken onto skewers and let it sit while you prepare the rest.
- Grate 1 cucumber and mix it with 1 cup Greek yogurt, 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill, 1 clove minced garlic, and a squeeze of lemon juice to make tzatziki, then season with salt and black pepper.
- Grill or broil the chicken skewers for 10 to 12 minutes, turning occasionally, until cooked through and lightly charred.
- Warm 4 pita breads on the grill for 30 seconds per side.
- Dice 2 tomatoes and serve the skewers with the warm pita, tzatziki, and tomato pieces on the side.
Notes
Cooked leftovers keep three to four days refrigerated, per USDA FSIS. Leftover greek chicken souvlaki is easiest to handle if you pull the chicken off the skewers before storing, and keep the tzatziki in its own container. The pita is best fresh, so only warm what you plan to eat.
The chicken reheats gently in a skillet or in the microwave at lower power, and it works cold in a pita the next day. Skip freezing the tzatziki, since a yogurt sauce with cucumber can turn watery once thawed. The cooked chicken can go in the freezer if you plan to.
The method says to let the skewers sit while you prepare the rest, and the whole recipe is timed around that. Make the tzatziki, dice the tomatoes, and then light the grill. If you start the grill first, you will be standing over it with nothing to do.
If you are using wooden skewers, soak them in water while you cut the chicken so the ends do not scorch. It is a small step that saves you from a burned handle.
The garlic is split on purpose: four cloves in the marinade and one in the tzatziki. If you are feeling reckless, the extra clove is optional, but your date will notice either way.
Swaps that actually work
The lemon and oregano marinade is the point of greek chicken souvlaki, so leave it as written. It is what makes the chicken taste like souvlaki rather than plain grilled chicken, and the juice of two lemons is a lot of lemon on purpose.
Thighs work in place of breasts. They are more forgiving if the skewers sit on the grill a minute too long.
If you do not have a grill, the method says broil, and a hot broiler does the job. Put the skewers on a rack over a tray and turn them as the tops brown. You will not get the same smoke, but the char still shows up.
Dried oregano is what the recipe uses, and fresh will not do the same job in the marinade. Use the dried, and save fresh herbs for the tzatziki, where the dill already brings the green.
Skip the cucumber in the tzatziki and you end up with a thick dip, not a sauce. If your yogurt is very thick, squeeze the grated cucumber in a towel first, or leave it unsqueezed if the yogurt is loose. The swap that costs you the dish is nonfat sour cream in place of Greek yogurt, because you lose the tang.
If it goes wrong
The chicken is dry. It went past cooked through. Cut the cubes evenly at one inch, turn the skewers as they cook, and pull them when the pieces are no longer pink and read 165°F inside. If they are already dry, tuck them into pita with a heavy spoonful of tzatziki.
The skewers burned on the outside and are raw inside. The heat was too high or the cubes were too big. Move the skewers to a cooler part of the grill, or lower the broiler rack, and give them a few more minutes turning often.
The tzatziki is thin. The cucumber released water. Grate it, squeeze it in a clean towel, and stir it into the yogurt just before serving. If it has already loosened, stir in another spoonful of yogurt.
It tastes flat. If it tastes flat, it is probably salt or lemon. Salt the tzatziki until it tastes bright, and squeeze a little lemon over the grilled chicken.
What to serve with it
The default for greek chicken souvlaki is warm pita, tzatziki and diced tomato, which is exactly what the recipe gives you. Put the skewers in the middle of the table and let people build their own.
The better version of the default is stuffing the pita: chicken, tomato and a spoonful of tzatziki folded into the warm bread. Eat it over the plate, since the sauce will find your sleeves.
The thing in the fridge that lifts it is a few olives, some red onion slices or a little extra feta if you have it. Any of them adds a sharper bite next to the soft pita.
If you are not sure about the grill, remember that a broiler works just as well and the clock does not change. Cold leftovers make a sturdy lunch. Slide the chicken into a pita with whatever tzatziki is left, and you have a meal that does not need a microwave.
Why this one earns its place
It is the kind of dinner you can make while someone watches you do it, which is a nice quality in a recipe. The steps are visible, the smells are loud, and there is nothing to hide. That makes greek chicken souvlaki a good pick for a night when you are cooking with company, or cooking for it.
When you swipe it into your week, the agent shops the chicken, the yogurt, the lemons and the pita, so you only have to show up with the skewers. If you are deciding what else to cook around it, weekly meal planning shows how a week fits together. For another Mediterranean dinner on a stick, see beef kofta, and for a different plate from the same neighborhood, try chicken fatteh.
More like this: all Greek recipes in Crave Corner.