The first bite of this greek inspired chicken souvlaki on homemade pita is the best bite of food I’ve had in 2024 so far. Head to https://drinkag1.com/brianlagerstrom to get a free year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 and 5 free AG1 Travel Packs!
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INGREDIENTS:
*For the Chicken Souvlaki:*
▪2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
▪125g (1/2c) olive oil
▪15g (1T) salt
▪30g (5-6 cloves) minced garlic
▪5g (3 tsp) dried oregano
▪5g (1 3/4t) black pepper
▪100g (1/3c) Dijon mustard (preferably Maille or Grey Poupon)
▪Zest of 2 lemons
▪Juice of 1 lemon (approx. 30g or 2T)
▪Skewers (for grilling)
*For the Pita Bread:*
▪350g (3c) all-purpose flour
▪7g (2t) instant yeast
▪5g (1t) salt
▪8g (2t) sugar
▪15g (1T) olive oil
▪210g (3/4 cup) flavorful yeasty beer, warmed to 86-90°F (30C)
*For the Tzatziki Sauce:*
▪160g (1 large) english cucumber, grated
▪200g (3/4c) plain Greek yogurt
▪75g (1/3c) mayonnaise
▪1 clove garlic, minced
▪5g (1t) salt
▪5g (2T) chopped fresh dill
▪15-20g lemon juice (approx ½ Lemon)
*For the Tomato-Onion Relish:*
▪120g (2 medium) tomatoes, diced
▪60g (½) red onion, finely diced
▪20g (1/3 cup) chopped parsley
INSTRUCTIONS
1. If using wood skewers, soak for a few hours before grilling.
2. Cut the chicken thighs into roughly 1-inch pieces.
3. To the chicken, add olive oil, salt, garlic, oregano, black pepper, Dijon, lemon zest and juice. Mix well & refrigerate to marinate for at least 30 minutes, up to 24 hours.
4. Make the Pita Dough while chicken marinates. In a food processor, combine flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and olive oil. Pulse 5 times to mix. With the processor running, slowly add the warmed beer until the dough forms. It will be shaggy.
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 2 minutes, until it becomes slightly elastic.
6. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces (about 150g each). Shape each into a ball, cover with a damp paper towel, and let rest at room temp for 15 minutes.
7. To prepare the Tzatziki Sauce, grate the cucumber and squeeze out excess water. In a mixing bowl, combine the grated cucumber, yogurt, mayo, garlic, salt, dill, and lemon juice. Stir until well mixed.
8. Roll Out the Pita Dough: Lightly flour a surface and roll out each ball of dough to about 8”/20cm in diameter.
9 Grill the Pita and Chicken: Preheat the grill to 550°F/285C. Skewer the marinated chicken and grill alongside the pita bread. Grill pitas for about 2 minutes per side. Grill chicken skewers for about 12-15 minutes, turning occasionally until well charred on all sides.
10. Assemble the Souvlaki Wrap: Remove chicken from skewers and chop into smaller pieces. Place chicken in a pita, top with tzatziki sauce, tomato-onion relish, and pepperoncini.
CHAPTERS:
0:00: Marinating the chicken
1:13 Mixing the pita dough
4:23 Tzatsiki sauce & Tomato-onion relish
5:05 Rollin out the pitas
5:39 Keeping my energy up
6:37 Grilling the chicken and pita
8:59 Making the wrap
🎧MUSIC:
EPIDEMIC SOUND https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/ccpjb3
#chickensouvlaki #greeksouvlaki #chickenpita
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I'd like a quarter for every time Bri says "boneless, skinless chicken thighs…."
I made this today and it was great! I added dill to the pita bread dough so it became "dill dough." The extra touch of dill made it go a little further. My wife and I loved the dill dough!
you forgot the soy sauce to be really authentic 😝
Pathetic! Have you ever been to Greece?
Chicken is marinated in a mixture of oregano, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic. Grill the chicken skewers. Put sliced tomatoes, circle broken and spread across the pita (no dicing). Red onions, quartered, sliced to produce segments. Tzadziki w/o dill (in my 12 years in Greece I never once had dill in my tzadziki!!). Sprinkle with paprika (required). Layer with fries if you feel adventurous. Or you could just eat the skewers naked (after cooked) with a side of fries, tzadziki, and a bottle of Amstel or Heineken.
Next thing you'll be saying is that you put bell peppers in a Greek (peasant) Salad (salata khoriatiki). Pepperoncini only, if at all.
Holy moly. This recipe was 11/10. Soooooooooooo delicious!
made it tonight. one of the best things ive ate.
True souvlaki is lamb not chicken
Late to the party but my pro-tip for spraying your grilling surface: get it up to temp, cut the flame, spray without flame-ups, then fire the grill back on.
Little bit of song and dance, but it works really well
Love all the advice from the peanut gallery, made this pretty much the same way. Second time I've made it and in fact it's a fantastic recipe! My guest loved it.. I skipped the pita making, as I can source it local.
Never, ever add mayo to tzatziki sauce. NEVER.
Hey Bri, I’ve made these before and they are a big hit. Today, I had a headache and so didn’t feel like cooking, but the chicken had been marinating overnight so there you are. I totally spaced out the beer measurement and no surprise, I had a soupy mess in my processor. So…I added flour, gradually until I got to the shaggy stage, turned it out, floured it up a bit, rolled it up into four balks and guess what? Tossed them on the grill and no one can tell I fucked up the beer part. Also, I’m a total spaz with skewers, so I tossed the chicken into a very hot carbon steel pan and 😮got the crispy browning I wanted. My squeeze is woofing them down with tzatziki and pickled red onions. He won’t eat tomatoes.
Thank you for your recipes and the brilliant way you help us home cooks develop.
Yummy love
When I work outside in the heat, I like to make cucumbers puree by adding water in a blender. Then I save the juice in a thermal container with ice, add pear juice and maybe a little salt. It's better than Gatorade when it gets hot outside!
Then I use the leftovers from making my juice to marinade chicken while I'm working 😅
I quit watching and have marked this channel as Don't recommend because if you aren't going to put the measures on screen or in the comments then I'm not going to be bothered rewinding
Hilarious
Dummy
How many times did you need to adjust the portion you weighed before you could announce "Oooh, 150, nailed it"?
Thank you so much for this recipe, I’ve made it half a dozen times now and my family is OBSESSED! I always get so many compliments and it is my all time favorite meal right now.
We’ve made this recipe at least six times. The last two times I scoured the chicken thighs to do two things. It increases the surface area for the marinade. It also makes the use for skewers unnecessary. The pitas are wonderful but we are on a flour free diet, so it leaves the whole BBQ grill available for chicken.
Hey Brian I tried this in the oven on a pizza stone on the bottom rack at 550 degrees and I had to do 1 minute per side or it gets too rigid to wrap in a pita. Any suggestions? It got the browning I wanted. But Im not sure about the timing.
Thank you. I made these Souvlaki wraps for my parents and I last night and they LOVED it. Many thanks!
Thank you for the high quality content you've been providing. Yes, I have been a fan since the Weeds and Sardines days. I served my wife the Souvlaki for lunch today, she thought it was amazing! I prepped everything last night, pulled it out before lunch, warmed up the grille, rolled out the pita, skewered the chicken. it all cooked up in about 15 minutes. The combination of flavors tasted amazing, closely resembled something we use to eat in the middle east. I have cooked many of the items you've shown, never have I been let down. Please keep the content coming.
Mayo??? That shouldn’t go in that
Great recipe but the marinade is far too salty. Needs to be cut by about half