Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Chicken Souvlaki
Skewers of lemon-and-oregano marinated chicken grilled and wrapped in warm pita with tzatziki, Greece's favorite fast lunch.
Greek · easy · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 15 min
~333 cal · 45g protein · 10g carbs · 11g fat · 3g fiber · 5g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Souvlaki, little skewers, is the everyday street food of Greece, sold from tavernas and psistaries on every high street. Whether eaten off the stick or wrapped in a pita as a portable meal, it is the taste of a Greek lunch on the go.
The marinade is pure Greece: olive oil, lemon, garlic, and dried oregano, which perfumes the chicken as it chars over the coals. Tucked into a warm, oiled pita with tzatziki, tomato, and onion, and sometimes a few chips, it becomes the souvlaki wrap.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 1/2 lb chicken thighs, cubed
4 pita breads
1 cup tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber, garlic)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp sweet paprika
to taste salt and black pepper
2 cups tomato and red onion, sliced
Instructions
1
Marinate the chicken in the oil, lemon, garlic, oregano, paprika, salt, and pepper for at least 30 minutes.
2
Thread onto skewers and grill over high heat, turning, until charred and cooked through.
✎ Chef’s note
Get the grill properly hot so the outside chars before the inside dries. A little char is where souvlaki gets its flavour.
3
Warm the pitas briefly on the grill.
4
Wrap the chicken in the pita with tzatziki, tomato, and onion.
Greek taverna tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Attica (Athens). The taverna table is organised by sharing rather than by courses. Small plates arrive as they are ready, bread and oil stay put throughout, and the meal stretches because nobody gets an individual portion of anything. Horta, wild greens boiled and dressed with oil and lemon, turns up beside almost everything.
🗺️
Greece. Foraged wild greens, horta, are a genuine part of the diet rather than a garnish: blanched, then dressed with olive oil and lemon, or folded into a pie. They matter most during nistia, the long Orthodox fasting stretches when meat, dairy and often fish are set aside and the everyday cooking becomes, in effect, vegan.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Greece
Gemista (Stuffed Summer Vegetables)Tomatoes and peppers baked slowly around an herbed rice filling, with potatoes roasting in the juices.
MoussakaLayers of eggplant and cinnamon-scented lamb under a deep duvet of béchamel, baked bronze.
SpanakopitaSpinach, herbs, and feta folded into shatteringly crisp phyllo, northern Greece’s classic greens pie.
Browse all Greece recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Grill or barbecue.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Chicken Souvlaki?
Skewers of lemon-and-oregano marinated chicken grilled and wrapped in warm pita with tzatziki, Greece's favorite fast lunch.
Where does Chicken Souvlaki come from?
Chicken Souvlaki is a Greek dish from Attica (Athens), Greece.
Can Chicken Souvlaki be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Chicken Souvlaki recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Chicken Souvlaki safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Chicken Souvlaki take to make?
About 45 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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