Greek chicken has to be one of my all-time favorite grilled dishes for hot summer days. It’s light yet packed with flavor, and while it’s called Greek chicken, you can pair it up with a number of different side dishes that have nothing to do with Greece.
The dish itself is based on the popular Greek dish called souvlaki, which traditionally consists of marinated meats that are skewered, and cooked on a grill. However, my family’s rendition of the dish keeps the marinade and replaces the chunks of skewered meats with a chicken cutlet. The main flavors of the Greek chicken marinade are sour and salty. The sourness comes from the combination of both lemon juice and red wine vinegar, while the saltiness comes from, well, salt of course. So give it a try the next time you are looking for something new to grill.
Tips, Tricks & Suggestions
- Personally, I recommend that you use chicken cutlets for this recipe, but as always feel free to do whatever you like. If you want to use whole chicken breast, chicken thighs, or even keep it traditional and do chicken chunks on a skewer, then go for it, because the key to the recipe isn’t the type of chicken you use, but rather the marinade. If you do decide to take my recommendation, yet don’t know how to make cutlets out of a chicken breast then you can follow my simple instructions here.
- Another option for this recipe, which I also recommend, is the addition of some crushed red pepper. The inclusion of half or a whole teaspoon of crushed red pepper will add just the tiniest of kicks to the chicken, so even if you don’t like spicy food you should be able to handle it. However, if you like really spicy food, then 1 teaspoon ain’t going to cut it, but I would recommend not going overboard with the pepper, as the dish isn’t really meant to be spicy.
- I like to serve this chicken with something light like our saffron rice, and a salad tossed in our greek vinaigrette.
Greek Chicken Recipe
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 15 to 20 minutes
Servings: 4
Ingredients
2 Chicken breast cut into cutlets (This makes four individual pieces)
Juice of 4 lemons which should be about ¾ of a cup
⅛ Cup extra virgin olive oil
⅛ Cup red wine vinegar
1 Teaspoon of salt
½ Teaspoon.of garlic powder
2 Tablespoons of dried oregano
Optional:
½ to 1 Teaspoon of crushed red pepper
Instructions
- Marinade the chicken: Get out a large plastic bag, or a large bowl, and add to it the lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, salt, garlic powder, oregano, and crushed red peppers (if using). Mix these all together and you have your marinade. Then add the 4 chicken cutlets, and mix so that all 4 pieces are thoroughly coated with the marinade. Let the chicken marinate for 20 to 30 minutes, but no longer.
- Heat up your grill: Preheat your grill to medium heat.
- Grill the chicken: Take the chicken cutlets out of the marinade and cook them on your grill for 15 to 20 minutes. I tend to cook my chicken cutlets for 16 minutes, letting them cook on one side for eight minutes, then flipping and letting them cook on the other side for eight minutes. However, the grilling time can vary because everyone’s grill is different and performs at different heats. So if this is your first time grilling chicken cutlets, then I would suggest that you keep a close eye on them on your first attempt, but after a while, you will get the hang of it, trust me.
- Serve & Enjoy
Greek Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Chicken breast cut into cutlets This makes four individual pieces
- Juice of 4 lemons which should be about ¾ of a cup
- ⅛ Cup extra virgin olive oil
- ⅛ Cup red wine vinegar
- 1 Teaspoon of salt
- ½ Teaspoon.of garlic powder
- 2 Tablespoons of dried oregano
Optional:
- ½ to 1 Teaspoon of crushed red pepper
Instructions
- Marinade the chicken: Get out a large plastic bag, or a large bowl, and add to it the lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, salt, garlic powder, oregano, and crushed red peppers (if using). Mix these all together and you have your marinade. Then add the 4 chicken cutlets, and mix so that all 4 pieces are thoroughly coated with the marinade. Let the chicken marinate for 20 to 30 minutes, but no longer.
- Heat up your grill: Preheat your grill to medium heat.
- Grill the chicken: Take the chicken cutlets out of the marinade and cook them on your grill for 15 to 20 minutes. I tend to cook my chicken cutlets for 16 minutes, letting them cook on one side for eight minutes, then flipping and letting them cook on the other side for eight minutes. However, the grilling time can vary because everyone’s grill is different and performs at different heats. So if this is your first time grilling chicken cutlets, then I would suggest that you keep a close eye on them on your first attempt, but after a while you will get the hang of it, trust me.
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